Presales software is fairly nascent and only recently emerged as a category on G2 in April 2022, however, that is by no means an indicator of its importance or business impact. Presales software has increasingly gained traction in the market due to the essential role that presales professionals have in an organization. 

In this article, we’ll take a look at G2’s Summer 2022 Grid^Ⓡ Report for Presales Software, what G2 data says about this software category, and how the category has already started to evolve with the addition of attributes to allow buyers to further segment these solutions.   

G2’s Summer 2022 Grid^Ⓡ Report is here  

When the Presales category first launched in April 2022, there were roughly 20 products in the category. Since then the category has grown to have 31 products listed, with 9 of them being featured on the Summer 2022 Grid^Ⓡ Report. 

In order to be placed on the report, products must have at least 10 reviews attributed to the Presales category. Placement on the Grid^Ⓡ is based on a product’s Satisfaction score, which is determined by customer reviews, and its Market Presence score, a combination of 15 metrics. Based on customer reviews and market presence, the following vendors were ranked as Leaders in the first G2 Report on Presales Software for Summer 2022.

Many of the solutions considered Leaders are well established in this space, compared to the plethora of products that have emerged since 2019. For example, CloudShare was formed in 2007, Consensus was formed in 2013, and Demodesk and Vivun were both formed in 2017. 

Additionally, since G2 released the Summer 2022 reports, this category has seen continued growth and interest. The current Presales Software Grid^Ⓡ now features 12 products and will likely continue to grow. 

Although presales software is relatively new, compared to other sales tech like CRM, the impact that presales professionals have on a business is not. Presales professionals play an imperative role in demonstrating value to prospects, qualifying leads, aligning internal teams on business priorities, among others.

The visual below created by Kerry Sokalsky, president and founder of Presales Mastery, and Chris White, founder and CEO of Tech Sales Advisors—who co-authored the Presales Buyer’s Guide—showcases some of the operational tasks of presales organizations.

Source: Presales Buyer's Guide 

As depicted above, presales have considerable responsibilities and play an important role in supporting multiple internal teams such as sales, product, and customer success, and products in this category serve varying aspects of presales.

Given this and the nascent stage of this category, G2 wanted to better serve buyers and provide a way to segment these presales tools in order to identify the solution that best meets their needs. 

Introducing presales attributes

G2 has broken down the Presales category with three attributes to help delineate the core purposes of the software. 

Demo automation

Beginning with demo automation, which are solutions that allow prospects to use interactive demos and guide their journey and hone in on key aspects of the solution that are most critical to them. 

In addition to better servicing the prospects and tailoring demos to their needs, organizations can use demo automation solutions to learn about what features are most important to buyers based on usage analytics. These analytics are useful in identifying what successful demos typically comprise of, in terms of content based on various personas and use cases. 

Additionally, some products provide analytics into who viewed the demo, for how long, and how often, which can support sales by identifying who is interested and what they are interested in.

Presentation solutions

The next attribute is presentation solutions. These products are typically focused on tailoring live demos to prospects in order to showcase a product’s functionality across multiple personas with ease. It eliminates the need to have multiple browsers and aims to reduce buyers’ confusion or fear of complex software by providing a seamless demo experience and simplifying the value-add of solutions.

Presales management

The last attribute within presales software, is aimed more towards presales leaders and provides greater visibility into the plethora of presales activities and is called presales management. These solutions support established best practices, which may be influenced by the demo usage analytics, assist organizations in tracking and reporting on presales activities or KPIs, and provide greater opportunities for aligning internal teams (sales, product, and customer success) and their priorities. 

What does G2 data say about presales software?

As noted above, presales software can assist businesses in a variety of ways, such as automating demos, enabling presales professionals to better tailor demos, or tracking and analyzing presales activities to better manage and prioritize. Now, let’s take a look at some G2 review data and see how customers view these solutions.

Historically, presales have been overlooked and are often viewed as “the person that does demos”, which can lead to difficulty in acquiring internal budgets to justify purchasing solutions specifically designed for presales teams. However, based on the data above it is clear that users of these solutions recognize its value. More importantly, based on G2 review data, users are able to quickly implement these solutions and realize their return on investment—which are critical data points when justifying the cost to purchase these solutions. 

Why is it that these presales solutions have such high NPS scores? Perhaps it’s the vital role that effective demos have in the sales process by demonstrating functionality and reducing buyer confusion. Here are two interesting quotes from presales experts highlighting the importance of presales software.

“The best product doesn’t often win, but the best demo often does.”

Chris White
Founder and CEO, Tech Sales Advisors

“Products are designed to be used, not to be demoed.”

Kerry Sokalsky
President and Founder, Presales Mastery

With software buyers seeking a more seamless buying experience, it is helpful to leverage technologies that allow buyers to recognize a product’s value early in the buying process and simplify the functionality of complex software.

What’s the future of presales software?

As virtual sales continue to increase, there will likely be greater emphasis placed on enabling presales professionals, due to the increasing number of presales activities needed to support organizations. As such, we will likely see an increase in product features, expansion of integration capabilities with tech stacks, and more than likely, an increase in new products. G2 will continue to monitor this emerging category to ensure we are best serving buyers seeking presales solutions.