ICT presales engineer

ICT presales engineers actively drive and manage the ICT evaluation stage of the sales process, working in conjunction with the sales team. They provide technical guidance to pre-sales personnel and plan and modify product ICT configurations to meet client requirements. They pursue additional business development opportunities. They also assist with technical questions or concerns during the sales process.

In some cases, ICT presales engineers may also work after a sale is complete. In that case, they help customers to install systems, provide training, and technical support as needed.

An ICT presales engineer typically has the following tasks:

• Work deals assigned to the sales team supported, prioritizing effort based on maximizing total impact on team productivity and profit, or as directed by the sales manager.
• Proactively scope the technical solution required to address customer requirements, assesse customers’ met and unmet needs, and recommend solutions that optimize value for both the customer and the firm.
• Secure input from all necessary solution stakeholders within the customer firm. Adapt solutions, as necessary, to ensure appropriate support.
• Coordinate closely with internal sales, sales support, and service resources to align solution design with customers’ business requirements.
• Secure from customer technical staff commitments needed to ensure a deal’s “technical close.”
• Meet assigned targets for profitable sales growth in assigned product lines, market areas, channel, or teams supported.
• Provide coaching and professional development to other ICT presales engineers in order to enhance their product knowledge, technical acumen, and technical sales skills.
• Opportunistically pursue additional business development opportunities within customer firms. Collaborate with sales to ensure these opportunities are effectively covered and advanced.
• Monitor customer support for technical solutions proposed throughout the sales process, and alert the sales and account teams to potential risks of deal closure.

ICT presales engineers work full time, exclusively indoors. They often work under stressful conditions because their income and job security depend on commission from successfully completing sales. Some ICT presales engineers may work additional and irregular hours to meet sales goals and client needs.

ICT presales engineers are often on business trips, especially to visit their clients.

The following job titles also refer to ICT presales engineer:

ICT presale support
IT presales technician
ICT presales engineers
IT presales engineer
ICT presales technician

A bachelor’s degree in computer science, network engineering, or other related field is generally required to work as ICT presales engineer. A combination of education and experience in engineering or information technology and business administration can be accepted too. Having a master’s degree can boost the career advancement.

Although very rare, it is also possible to become an ICT presales engineer with a high school diploma.

ICT presales engineer is not an entry-level role. Many of them have a previous work experience in roles such as system engineer, network engineer, or consultant.

ISCO skill level is defined as a function of the complexity and range of tasks and duties to be performed in an occupation. It is measured on a scale from 1 to 4, with 1 the lowest level and 4 the highest, by considering:

• the nature of the work performed in an occupation in relation to the characteristic tasks and duties
• the level of formal education required for competent performance of the tasks and duties involved and
• the amount of informal on-the-job training and/or previous experience in a related occupation required for competent performance of these tasks and duties.

ICT presales engineer is a Skill level 4 occupation.

These occupations, although different, require a lot of knowledge and skills similar to ICT presales engineer.

green ICT consultant
ICT operations manager
ICT account manager
gambling, betting, and lottery quality assurance engineer
ICT system integration consultant

This knowledge should be acquired through learning to fulfill the role of ICT presales engineer.

• Customer segmentation: The process whereby a target market is divided into specific sets of consumers for further market analysis.
• Business intelligence: The tools used to transform large amounts of raw data into relevant and helpful business information.
• ICT sales methodologies: The practices used in the ICT sector to promote and sell products, services or applications such as SPIN Selling, Conceptual Selling and SNAP Selling.
• Product comprehension: The offered products, their functionalities, properties and legal and regulatory requirements.

These skills are necessary for the role of ICT presales engineer.

• Keep up to date on product knowledge: Gather the latest information on developments related to the existing or supported products, methods or techniques.
• Apply conflict management: Take ownership of the handling of all complaints and disputes showing empathy and understanding to achieve resolution. Be fully aware of all Social Responsibility protocols and procedures, and be able to deal with a problematic gambling situation in a professional manner with maturity and empathy.
• Comply with legal regulations: Ensure you are properly informed of the legal regulations that govern a specific activity and adhere to its rules, policies and laws.
• Identify customer’s needs: Use appropriate questions and active listening in order to identify customer expectations, desires and requirements according to product and services.
• Prepare technical reports: Prepare reports that describe results and processes of scientific or technical research, or assess its progress. These reports help researchers to keep up to date with recent findings.
• Develop revenue generation strategies: Elaborate methodologies through which a company markets and sells a product or service to generate income.
• Define technical requirements: Specify technical properties of goods, materials, methods, processes, services, systems, software and functionalities by identifying and responding to the particular needs that are to be satisfied according to customer requirements.
• Perform market research: Gather, assess and represent data about target market and customers in order to facilitate strategic development and feasibility studies. Identify market trends.

This knowledge is sometimes, but not always, required for the role of ICT presales engineer. However, mastering this knowledge allows you to have more opportunities for career development.

• SAS language: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in SAS language.
• Emergent technologies: The recent trends, developments and innovations in modern technologies such as biotechnology, artificial intelligence and robotics.
• Digital marketing techniques: The marketing techniques used on the web to reach and engage with stakeholders, customers and clients.
• Software components libraries: The software packages, modules, web services and resources that cover a set of related functions and the databases where these reusable components can be found.
• Hardware components: The essential components that make up a hardware system, such as liquid-crystal displays (LCD), camera sensors, microprocessors, memories, modems, batteries and their interconnections.
• Statistical analysis system software: Specific software system (SAS) used for advanced analytics, business intelligence, data management, and predictive analytics.
• ICT system user requirements: The process intended to match user and organisation’s needs with system components and services, by taking into consideration the available technologies and the techniques required to elicit and specify requirements, interrogating users to establish symptoms of problem and analysing symptoms.
• Market pricing: Price volatility according to market and price elasticity, and the factors which influence pricing trends and changes in the market in the long and short term.
• ICT market: The processes, stakeholders and the dynamics of the chain of goods and services in the ICT market sector.
• Software components suppliers: The suppliers who can deliver the required software components.
• Hardware components suppliers: The suppliers who can deliver the required hardware components.

These skills and competences are sometimes, but not always, required for the role of ICT presales engineer. However, mastering these skills and competences allows you to have more opportunities for career development.

• Implement marketing strategies: Implement strategies which aim to promote a specific product or service, using the developed marketing strategies.
• Deliver a sales pitch: Implement strategies which aim to promote a specific product or service, using the developed marketing strategies.
• Apply statistical analysis techniques: Use models (descriptive or inferential statistics) and techniques (data mining or machine learning) for statistical analysis and ICT tools to analyse data, uncover correlations and forecast trends.
• Use different communication channels: Make use of various types of communication channels such as verbal, handwritten, digital and telephonic communication with the purpose of constructing and sharing ideas or information.
• Identify training needs: Analyse the training problems and identify the training requirements of an organisation or individuals, so as to provide them with instruction tailored to their prior mastery, profile, means and problem.
• Coordinate technological activities: Give instructions to colleagues and other cooperating parties in order to reach the desired outcome of a technological project or achieve set goals within an organisation dealing with technology.
• Produce sales reports: Maintain records of calls made and products sold over a given time frame, including data regarding sales volumes, number of new accounts contacted and the costs involved.
• Develop account strategy: Create the strategic goals and actions for future interaction with an account for the organisation.
• Set sales goals: Set sales goals and objectives to be reached by a sales team within a period of time such as the target amount of sales made and new customers found.
• Perform project management: Manage and plan various resources, such as human resources, budget, deadline, results, and quality necessary for a specific project, and monitor the project’s progress in order to achieve a specific goal within a set time and budget.
• Supervise sales activities: Monitor and oversee the activities related to the ongoing sales in the shop to ensure that sales goals are met, assess areas for improvement, and identify or solve problems that customers could encounter.

2434 – Information and communications technology sales professionals

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References

1. ESCO
2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
3. How to Become a Pre Sales Engineer in 2022: Step by Step Guide and Career Paths – Zippia
4. Pre-Sales Engineer Skills and Job Description – Robert Half
5. Featured image: Photo by LinkedIn Sales Navigator