Presales in Testing practice

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Welcome
Presales in Testing practice
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IntroductionPresales before selling the
technology/product activities involved

• A Pre-Sales Consultant is responsible for
• Interpretation of functional and technical
  specifications
• Problem solving
• Resolution of Request for Proposals (RFP) and
  tenders.
• Client interaction
• Ability to sell
• Commercial approach
• Negotiation skills
• Ability to influence customers

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Known fact

• Interesting aspect of a career in IT is that most
  techies work for consulting or software services
  companies and only a small percentage work for
  end clients.
• For those working at software consulting
  companies, there is an element of un-billed
  (bench) time that comes with the job.
• However, bench is not the topic of this column
• The real topic is an activity that consulting
  companies are increasingly asking benched
  consultants to work on pre-sales support,
  preparing project proposals, and responding to
  RFPs (Request for Proposals).

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Presales activities

• Making the cold calls
• Generating the leads
• Follow ups
• RFP
• Response to RFP
• RFI
• Response to RFI
• RFQ
• Response to RFQ
• Research related activities
• Collaterals
• Case studies
• White papers
• Presentation
• Bid and win that
• Generate the accounts for the company

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Advantages

• At a time PreSales support is a repetitive work
• Lack of instant gratification Pre-sales cycles
  are generally long, and it takes weeks (or
  months) before the results of a proposal can be
  known
• Techies, on the other hand, come from a
  background where they can see the results of
  their code or work almost instantly.
• But
• Can lead to you into managerial role
• Be a relevant expert knowledge of solutions,
  industry, market directions
• Organizations are increasingly becoming aware of
  the importance of such pre-sales work, especially
  in a market that is getting squeezed. Consulting
  companies are requiring off-assignment technical
  consultants, and in some cases even those on
  assignment with clients to be involved in
  pre-sales technical support.

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Win project good proposal

• Presales executive should have to know what is
  good proposal.
• How he/she should response to the RFP in proper
  template with very
• good written English. Else it would be a
  disaster.
• RFP mainly consists of
• Executive Summary
• Introduction to the organization submitting
  proposal
• Features/benefits
• Key qualifications
• Sow (scope of the work) out of scope
• Architecture
• Configurations
• Specifications
• Deployment
• Integration
• Risk
• QA
• Management plan-Roles and responsibilities-plan-Mi
  lestones and deliverables
• References/testimonials

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Presales in Testing practice

• Engagement model- onsite and offshore
• Resource allocation
• Outsourcing
• Ability to identify opportunities
• Test consultancy engagements
• Budgeting, Forecasting
• Client Interaction
• Interact with the testing sales and group heads

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continue

• Ensure expectations are met with respect to
  proposal quality and related presentations
• Preparing high end technical proposals for
  Development Testing
• Understanding technical requirements build
  Software Hardware test solutions
• Assist Solution Architects in creating/managing
  various strategic proposals
• Product training
• Testing metrics , effort estimation etc

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Technical and non Technical skill sets
Technical Manual and automated testing
Testing Framework End to End process

• Non Technical
• Presentation skills
• Communication skills
• Ability to demonstrate applications
• Broad industry knowledge
• Flexibility to travel
• Client interaction skills
• Ability to sell
• Commercial approach
• Negotiation skills
• Ability to influence customers

Domain
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Flow
Unit
Unit

• Presales

Cold calls Follow ups Lead generation Proposal
writing Collaterals Bid
Testing Practice

• Bodyshop
• Application testing
• Product testing
• etc

Sales
Marketing Sales activities
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Summary

• Prepare initial Testing solution presentations
  and demonstrations
• Provide clear estimation of feasibility, cost and
  risks
• Act as liaison between clients and Offshore
  Testing Team to assist in defining objectives and
  requirements
• Develop test plans participate in the testing
  process to ensure high quality project
  deliverables
• Interact with other company associates and vendor
  support groups to ensure quality solution
• Communicate with the Development Offshore team to
  track and debug testing issues, resolve them, and
  perform related testing.
• Approve system changes for transfer to
  production, through testing, which results in
  turnover to functional business units and/or
  customers

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