Selling products, services and solutions in SaaS and IT is getting more and more complex.

For that reason a lot of companies pair up their sales teams with a presales engineer who supports the sales process with technical expertise and product know-how.

But what exactly is a presales engineer and what do they do?

You have come to the right place to find the answers.

At Wahl+Case we have helped dozens of people land jobs as presales engineers. We actually have a team that is solely focused on client facing technical jobs in Japan and they helped me writing this article. Reach out to them if you want to work as a presales engineer or similar role.

And now, without further ado, here is everything you need to know about presales engineers in the tech industry.

What is a Presales Engineer?

As a presales engineer you work closely with the sales team before a deal is closed, usually in B2B technology sales. You will be the customer’s most trusted advisor because you have a deep understanding of your company’s value proposition and your customer’s pain points.

You will support the sales team all throughout the sales process and function as the technical resource for your team and the technical point of contact for your prospects.

While the sales representative is in charge of all commercial aspects of a potential transaction, as a presales engineer you will be in charge of all technical aspects.

Since this is not a strict sales role, you won’t be cold calling potential prospects and you won’t have sales KPIs like number of calls or number of demos scheduled. But once a sales rep schedules a meeting or demo with a new lead, you will join the initial meeting and describe your solution to the customer in technical terms.

A presales engineer is a client-facing engineer role. Check out our comprehensive guide to client facing engineer roles to learn more.

Now let’s look at the actual responsibilities.

What are a Presales Engineer’s Responsibilities?

As a presales engineer your main responsibility is to help your customer understand the value of your product or service. To achieve this you need a deep understanding of your own product and all its features, the underlying technology, your customers’ needs and market developments including competing products.

Typical duties of a presales engineer include:

Plan and deliver product demonstrations to potential customers to show how to solve their problems and meet their requirements
Manage and execute technical workshops and proof of concepts (POCs)
Work closely with the sales team to identify opportunities and provide them with technical support and advice
Communicate your customer’s needs to the product manager and development team
Stay up to date with your own product’s technologies and new features as well as competing tech that might affect your customers
Train sales teams on new features and competitors

What Opportunities does a Presales Engineer have?

Due to its hybrid nature of being technical as well as client facing the presales engineer role comes with a lot of opportunities. It’s a great step for engineers who want to up their career and move into higher salary territory or engineers who simply want to communicate more with fellow humans and not just machines.

Plus there is rapidly growing demand for presales engineers because it is hard to find talent that is versed in both soft skills & technical skills. And that demand is reflected by raising salaries for presales engineers all over the industry.

Becoming a presales engineer will be great for your career as it comes with unique opportunities such as:

Having a direct impact on the success of your business as well as your customer’s
Leveling up your soft skills by meeting a variety of internal and external parties to have sales meetings, pitch ideas, run workshops, and collaborate on projects
Developing your communication skills by talking to all levels of the business from the end-user to decision makers including C-level executives
Gaining client-facing experience that can lead to leadership positions such as CTO, Director, etc.
Building a vast network of experts and leaders in the software industry
Influencing the overall development and direction of your product by responding to the market’s needs and requirements

What are the Requirements to be a Presales Engineer?

As you might be aware by now, a presales engineer is a client facing engineer role, so you need a mix of hard technical skills and soft communication skills. You have to know all the ins and outs of your product’s tech and must be able to communicate this internally as well as externally.

Requirements will vary from company to company but typically include:

University degree in Computer Science, Industrial Engineering, Information Systems or a related field
Experience in data-related solutions and integration of other systems via API’s
Excellent communication and presentation skills with an ability to present technical solutions concisely and to interact with users and decision-makers
Passion for diving into technical issues and solving customer problems
Ability to learn new concepts, technologies, and solve problems
Knowledge of programming languages (language depends on the company)
Ability to work on multiple opportunities & POCs concurrently

FAQ

What is the difference between a Presales Engineer and a Sales Engineer?

The terms presales engineer and sales engineer are often used interchangeably but strictly speaking there is a difference in the scope of work. Simply put the sales engineer is more on the sales side while the presales engineer is more on the technical side.

This means that a sales engineer’s knowledge of technology is usually limited to the basics whereas a presales engineer has a much deeper understanding of their company’s technology as well as the relevant technology landscape.

The other main difference is that the sales engineer actually makes the sale whereas the presales engineer only demonstrates the product and its value to the customer.

That being said, in real life job titles often change from company to company, so make sure to thoroughly read the job description and ask plenty of questions during the interview process when you apply for a presales engineer or sales engineer position.

Does a Presales Engineer need to code?

This can vary across companies, but generally no.

Usually you don’t have to write code but you should be able to read it because you might need to get in the weeds to check the code, run queries, and communicate any issues effectively with your team.

This is also another valuable question to ask in the interview process.