Hi,
I hope you’re having a relaxing Sunday. I won’t take much time. You can read the email in less than 3 minutes (okay, 5 minutes). Thank you for being a subscriber and encouraging me to write.
Presales Consultant Role
One of the joys of working in a customer-facing role is exposure to many enterprising entrepreneurs and their sprawling businesses. Based on where they are in their journeys, you get to interact with the founders or leaders of functions. While doing presales at Chargebee, I came across a few wild businesses I had not expected to exist. One such example was a weekly subscription product in Australia that delivered grass patches for dogs to poop!
A Presales consultant (PC), sales engineer, or solution engineer is a technical person who helps the sales team win deals. They need to be experts on the product but also be able to understand the business of the customers they are selling to. Customers expect the sales reps to overpromise, and they take pride in being able to cut through the BS and generally like being chased for the deal.
Amidst this buyer-seller dynamic, you have the presales role, which needs to balance the technical aspect of the solution and solving for the business workflows. There’s a tendency among presales consultants to over-index on their product’s solutions and not zoom out and solve customers’ pressing underlying issues. The job is not only to fit the product’s solution to the customer’s problem but to solve the customer's problems strategically. Customers appreciate it when you understand their pain points deeply and can provide insights that help them see the promised land.
PCs are incentivised to help sales win deals but are not compensated like sales reps. The sales team is usually on a 50-50 (fixed-variable), and PCs tend to be on 80-20 or 70-30. In some companies, they also have a revenue target per quarter.
If you love being in front of a customer, have a good understanding of how businesses work and are technically capable of talking to an engineering/CTO persona, this is a significant role, especially at Startups. I say startups because the software buying process becomes laborious and process-heavy as you go upmarket. The skill you need to win larger enterprises differs greatly from that required for SMBs and Mid-market.
The Presales role is also an excellent opportunity to scout for business ideas! It might be difficult to replicate the dog poop product in India (why not?), but many other ideas might inspire you to take the plunge and set up your shop.
Shark Tank India
I binge-watched the Shark Tank India Season 3 yesterday. I love the show. I do not understand why the people working in tech in India look down upon that show. Yes, they are making it dramatic for entertainment, but how could you not be impressed by the sheer ingenuity of the founders starting their business from across the country?
Here are a few observations that I thought were interesting:
The betting on the founder and not only on the product/market is a more significant phenomenon this season.
Entrepreneurs from a business family have a significant advantage in setting up businesses. This will sound obvious, and people will assume these folks have it easier. However, you still need to execute and win the market. The extra money, raw materials and factories can only help you go so far.
D2C brands with niche products have been the flavour of the last few seasons. The brands that can weave a story around the core product’s USP using content can win the market.
Most entrepreneurs are now better prepared for the pitches and can confidently answer Shark’s questions. I love the unit economics question, and it's impressive to see founders churn out numbers at such a rapid pace.
Clarity of thought is what differentiates good pitches from the average.
The Marwari community and the people from Gujarat are excellent at business. The environment they grow up in helps them build a business muscle that others can only wish to emulate.
If you have not seen the show and are remotely interested in the world of startups, I strongly encourage you to give the show a shot. If nothing else, you can be inspired by the ingenuity and vitality of the new-age Indian founders building for India.
Every time I finish watching an episode, I ask myself, “Kya hi kar rahe hai hum log” (What are we even doing, man!).
Jürgen Klopp to step down as Liverpool manager
Don’t worry; you don’t need to know anything about football to appreciate this story. Klopp is the manager of the esteemed football club “Liverpool”. He decided to step down two weeks ago after a successful stint of 8+ years. He is widely regarded as one of the most successful football managers in the world and is hugely respected by rival clubs and the football community across the globe.
I recommend watching the short video below. Klopp says he is “running out of energy”, and he has known this for a while and that he cannot do the job again, again, again and again. This message is remarkably honest and endearing to see.
It is possible to love your job and be successful at it but also get to the point where you do not want to do it anymore. It is important to acknowledge and be honest with yourself.
Tasty Morsels from Groovy Hubs
(This was my last newsletter’s title, and now it has been re-entered as a section of this newsletter. The idea is to share media that’s fun and insightful.)
Impossible Dream by Casey - I saw many people I follow on Twitter share the video. I had never seen any content from Casey, so I went in with an open mind. This is a great story shared by a master storyteller.
Fix your Finance YouTube channel - I’ve learned much about personal finance from Anshuman Sharma. He is an extremely good content creator.
Anatomy of a Folly - Amit Varma’s perspective here is nuanced and worth reading.
Product - Digital BMI Weighing Scale - A close friend shared this with me, and it just works. I checked my body stats earlier today, and it was a rude shock.
A tweet worth reading is Brian Chesky’s comment on who the best people in life are.
PS: I moved to Substack from Beehive for the newsletter. Beehive had a steep subscription fee, and the design was too flashy for my liking. It should not matter to you, but I thought I should share it as a full disclosure.
See you next week! Please let me know if you find anything interesting, share it with a friend, and help the newsletter grow.