The working discipline: the pipeline pre‑sales actually operates inside, the frameworks for judging whether a deal is real, and the skill sequence — discovery, solution, demo, proof, proposal, defence — that turns a qualified opportunity into a signed, deliverable deal. Every template referenced here is fully built out in the Template Library.
The Pipeline, End‑to‑End
Seven stages, one job at each of them for pre‑sales.
| Stage | Sales does | Pre‑sales does | Exit criteria |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Prospecting | Sources and qualifies leads | Usually uninvolved; occasionally supports technical thought‑leadership content | Lead accepted as an opportunity |
| 2. Qualifying | Confirms budget, authority, timeline | Sanity‑checks technical fit early — is this even buildable for us | Passes BANT / early MEDDPICC screen |
| 3. Discovery & nurture | Builds relationship, sets meetings | Owns this stage. Runs technical/business discovery (Mod 08), starts filling MEDDPICC | Pain, impact and decision process understood and documented |
| 4. Solution & proposal | Aligns commercial structure | Owns this stage. Builds the solution narrative, runs the demo, scopes a POC if needed (Mods 09–11) | Buying committee agrees the solution addresses their decision criteria |
| 5. Negotiation | Owns commercial terms | Defends scope, supports technical trade‑offs, may adjust solution design under pressure (Mod 14) | Terms agreed by both sides |
| 6. Close | Gets signature | Confirms nothing promised is undocumented; hands a clean solution record to delivery | Contract signed |
| 7. Post‑sale handover | Transitions relationship to CS/AM | Briefs delivery/CS on everything committed technically during the cycle — the most skipped step, and the biggest source of renewal risk | Delivery kicked off on the solution actually sold |
Forecast categories
Most CRMs bucket opportunities into forecast categories that pre‑sales input directly affects: Commit (will close this period, high confidence), Best Case (could close, real gaps remain), Pipeline (early, qualification incomplete), and Omitted/Closed‑Lost. A pre‑sales person who reports "the technical win is solid" moves a deal's category — which is why honest, evidence‑based status updates (not optimism) are one of the role's quiet but high‑leverage responsibilities.
CRM hygiene isn't admin, it's the record of truth
Every discovery finding, every MEDDPICC field, every stakeholder mapped belongs in the CRM (or a linked deal room), not in your head or a personal notebook. It's what a colleague covering for you reads before a call, what a deal review is judged against, and — practically — what protects you when a customer disputes what was promised.