BIG NEWS, MarketingMoves are now also recruiting Pre-Sales Engineers. We’ve been listening to feedback from clients on how difficult it can be to find and hire the top 10% of Pre-Sales professionals. We’ve also heard all about the important role Pre-Sales plays in informing marketing strategy and product messaging. Our Pre-Sales recruitment expert, David Loubser, will be your go-to for Pre-Sales hires, reachable at dloubser@marketingmoves.com
To give you a little more insight on Pre-Sales, MarketingMoves spoke to Richard Stokes, a senior Pre-Sales professional, with over 10 years of Pre-Sales leadership experience in Technology.
Over the last 3 weeks, we’ve discussed many of the key questions surrounding Pre-Sales, from the basics through to how to very best excel. Finally this week, we look at Pre-Sales from a hiring manager’s perspective – how hard is it to find Pre-Sales talent?
If you’d like to see all this content in handy PDF plus next week’s question ahead of time, download the full pdf version below.
Inside the Mind of a Pre-Sales Engineer
MarketingMoves interviews Richard Stokes
How hard is it to find strong Pre-sales talent?
It can be very difficult to find the right blend of deep knowledge and excellent communication skills. When hiring there are four basic areas I look for:
i) Context – It depends on the role but knowledge of the domain area is typical. For example it is useful for a Marketing Cloud Solution Pre-Sales Engineer to have experience or qualifications in marketing and be in the marketing function of a business. This contextual knowledge might also be of a particular industry, Financial Services for example.
ii) System technical knowledge – detailed technical knowledge of a solution from different possible perspectives, this is often from a training background or consulting background but sometimes as a user. This is ideally in the solution or technology that you sell but it could be in something similar or a direct competitor.
iii) Pre-Sales skills –the skills and experience which I described in the “How” part of What Makes a Great Pre-Sales Person?
I typically look for at least two out of three and then dive deep to assess the candidates’ potential and ability to learn in the other one. Strength in only one area makes it more difficult for a Pre-Sales Engineer to be successful in a short time. In any hire a clear idea of the likely time to value is very important. I strongly believe that a creative approach to hiring can yield some great results. If you can hire someone who is strong in two areas out of the three you may get the chance to bring someone in with a different background and a new perspective for your team. It may take a little longer in terms of time to value but a slightly longer term view can reap great benefits.
If you’re a talented pre-sales professional or looking to hire one, contact David Loubser on dloubser@marketingmoves.com or visit our Pre-Sales page.
