...the Do Nothing Alternative, all because the prospect didn’t see enough value in the solution. No one ever blames presales for a loss, but the lack thereof, is often the real problem.

Presales has become the bottleneck to growth (plus, it increases your CAC and makes forecasting extremely hard). Prospects, especially technical ones, are demanding more of it. Your presales people and your salespeople have become as much of a differentiator as your product.

At InfluEar we believe that presales is the secret weapon to enterprise sales. But sales engineers don’t need more training. They’re smart, maybe even too smart. That’s why at InfluEar we don’t train, we un-train. We role-play. We interact.

Nowadays, lead gen and sales process isn’t enough. Don’t let marketers dupe you into thinking that it’s the only path to growth. If you want to close more of what you already have in the pipe, and turn your presales machine into a sales machine, book a call with InfluEar. It’s time to Close More, Sell Faster.

Workshops that

Sales Training for Pre-Sales Engineers

Most sales engineers are experts in technology, not experts in psychology. Get Alpha Presales training and help them become experts in both.

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Close More Deals

Do Less POCs

Be More Efficient

Most sales engineers are geniuses that...

They over-explain things because they're smart
They do more POCs because they're good at them
They talk more because they're excited
They get more into-the-weeds, because they're analytical

Talk a lot because they know a lot

Don't ask enough questions

Don't tell enough stories

Give information (slow) rather than help clients make decisions (fast)

These things lead to more demos and POCs which slow down deals.

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Alpha Presales Training

Unlike demo training that teaches engineers to be better talkers, Alpha Presales training helps engineers be better leaders.

The workshops below help engineers close deals faster and reach their full potential by teaching them skills that they haven't already been taught.

Behavioral Science

Help engineers go from spending most of their time talking, to spending most of their time listening and digging for pain.

Storytelling

Help engineers go from saying "it depends" all the time, to telling short compelling stories.

Executive Messaging

Help engineers go from over-explaining everything and boring the customer, to being clear and concise.

Leadership

Help engineers go from being doers that do what they're told, to leaders that help the customer make decisions faster.

Coaching

Presales training just never hits the mark. Technical training makes SEs competent engineers, but not competent salespeople. Then sales training is designed for AEs and the SEs tune out. Finally, presentation training only works when SEs are giving scripted demos. What about the 80% of their job that isn't scripted? InfluEar Coaching combines Improv, Technology, and Sales to help sales engineers remain confident and advance the sale.

Note: Every InfluEar Coaching engagement starts with an assessment to identify where your people are strongest and weakest. Then we come up with an individualized plan and we only train the weaknesses so that you get the most value in the least amount of time. Coaching isn't generic, it meets your SEs at their current skill level, and then elevates them so that new hires get better and so do your seasoned vets.

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Sales Engineers are All-Stars that are smart, analytical, and helpful. But sometimes those skills hurt them...

• SMART - They overdemo and show everything because they know everything

• SMART - They overexplain and talk too much because they're good with words

• ANALYTICAL - They're unemotional and detail-oriented, but their prospect isn't

• HELPFUL - They solve the customer's problem instead of let them sit in pain

Sales Engineers don't need more training. They're already good at demos and POCs. They're just too smart for their buyers.

Book a call and teach them use their Big IQs to yield big W-2s.

• You lose deals because the competition is clearer

• You extend deals because presales takes too long

• Your CAC goes up which scares investors

• Your forecast blows up because presales is unpredictable

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We teach, smart, analytical and helpful people to use their Big IQs to yield Bigger W-2s

We use a repeatable system to teach sales engineers Discovery, Brevity, Clarity, and Behavioral Sales so that your whole sales team wins. We have numerous workshops, here are the most popular ones.

Intelligently Dumbified

Who is it for?
• New SEs and Tenured SEs
What is it for?
• Brevity and Discovery
Why does it matter?
• New SEs ramble. Tenured SEs talk too much. When SEs talk too much, you lose deals, that's why we teach them to talk less. This workshop uses math to teach SEs to talk half as much and get the prospect to talk twice as much. That advances deals.

Sales Love Languages

Who is it for?
• Anyone in sales, especially
left-brain thinkers
What is it for?
• Speeding up sales cycles
Why does it matter?
• Most engineers think logically and sequentially. But most buyers don't. Assuming your prospect is like you kills deals. That’s why we use behavioral science to teach SEs how to start thinking like their prospect, so they can close deals faster.

The Audible

Who is it for?
• Customer-facing SEs
What is it for?
• Confidence
Why does it matter?
• When SEs lose confidence, so do your AEs, and so do your prospects. Then prospects ask for POCs and follow-ups, and your ACV drops. We teach SEs how to remain confident in the moment, even when Enterprise Architects and CISOs are peppering them with questions.

Coaching

Ask about our training curriculum. These and other workshops can be delivered in sales off-sites, weekly knowledge shares, and kickoff events, either virtually or in-person.

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What Customers Say

I was in a meeting with Microsoft and halfway through my discussion the prospect gets up and says..."Oh My God, I feel so heard right now!"

Alex, Sales Engineer

Our SEs were extremely skilled, but they weren’t leading the sale. After Alpha Presales training, there was an obvious increase in their confidence and now the team leads the sale and they aren’t being “salesy.”

Lee, VP of Presales

Our POC was supposed to take 3 weeks, but my SC was a genius and he used his leadership skills to craft a plan where the client got all the value at the beginning of the POC. He gave a demo on Day 2 and the client liked it so much that he put the demo into his presentation to the economic buyer. The economic buyer loved it and decided to call off the POC because he wanted to move right away. I was in contracts on Day 3 (not week 3).

Andrew, Account Executive

I was always scared after meetings because we would be gone and then we had to count on the prospect to sell internally. Now I’m not worried when prospects play the telephone game because they sell on our behalf.

Rishav, Account Manager

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How It Works

1

Discovery
Schedule a call and see if we're a fit for your team's needs

2

Assessment
We'll shadow your team and learn your business

3

Design
You decide what skills you want us to work with your team on

4

Delivery
Go through training and then embed the learning

Our process is simple. We interview you and shadow you to determine what skills you want us to teach. For example, if your sales enablement team already teaches discovery and demos, then we won't. We teach only the things you want us to teach, like storytelling, behavioral selling, and leadership.
‍
Book a call and help your team get to the next level. Or don't and keep wondering how good they "could" have been.

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Presales Training That Works

Most presales training doesn't work because it was designed for novices. But most presales engineers aren't novices. They are rockstars that were hand-picked to join the sales team because they were top performers in their prior roles.

At Alpha Presales, we understand that you're asking us to help you train experts. Training experts is hard because they already know everything.

That's why we make discovery such a large part of our process. We will work with you to design a training program that meets your engineers where they are and takes them to where they need to be.

We work with software companies that have extremely technical presales processes involving much more than just demos and POCs. Our customers need their Sales Engineers to take full ownership of the technical sale, because most of their sales reps are not knowledgeable enough to do so. That's why we focus on building leadership and communication skills.

The Most Important Presales Formula Ever (i.e. How to Pitch Anything, including Kubernetes)

Have you ever asked a tech person to explain something to you, but you still had no idea what they were talking about?
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This formula will work on prospects, partners, coworkers, your grandmother and even your adolescent son with no attention span. Oh, and it’s math, so your engineers might actually like it.

Valuable Resources for Presales

Capacity/Headcount Planning

Are You Having Trouble Justifying Your PreSales Headcount?

PreSales teams are frequently understaffed because they rely on ratios that are wrong. Learn how to take control of your headcount using a data-driven approach.

Video

How To Tell Simple Stories

Tired of people complaining that you don't tell enough stories? It's never too late to start. Use this simple 3 step formula to get started without having to memorize pages of information.

Storytelling

3 Simple Steps To Telling Better Stories

A Simple 3-Step Formula to PreSales Storytelling. Learn how to tell better stories that prospects will relate to and that will help lower cycle times.

Sales Training for Pre-Sales Engineers

Most Presales Engineers Never Reach Their Full Potential

Most sales engineers are geniuses that...