TABLE OF CONTENTS I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.
Sir Winston Churchill
Understand the role of initial and ongoing training.
Explain demonstration and equipment support.
Learn about knowledge management and retention.
Explain engineering and technical support.
Understand general sales consultant processes.
Designing and then building the infrastructure to support a growing presales organization from the ground up is a daunting task. The development requirements of an SC organization are varied and complex, as represented by the technical sales hierarchy of needs shown in Figure 21.1. The typical ad hoc systems and processes that work with small 10-person organizations do not adequately scale to even 50 individuals. However, the foundation you lay in these early stages can impact your growth in later years. This chapter is intended for technical sales management people and we recommend skipping this chapter unless you have such a scope of responsibility.
From day one, whenever your organization is asked to create a new demonstration, presentation, or white paper, the next question to ask, after qualifying the request, is, "Can my staff reuse some of this work?" Just as you build a strong foundation for a house to withstand the elements of nature, so you need to build a strong foundation for the SE organization that can handle both growth and sudden shifts in direction.
During the life of a company, its technology infrastructure may change several times, but the process of capturing...
