SAP presales is the customer-facing work that happens before a solution is purchased or an implementation engagement is finalized. It typically includes discovery, understanding business priorities, mapping requirements to SAP capabilities, preparing presentations or demonstrations, answering solution questions, supporting proposals and helping the customer understand the value and fit of the proposed solution.
Presales begins with discovery, not with a demo
A weak presales approach starts by showing software features. A stronger approach starts by understanding the customer: strategic goals, current pain points, process maturity, decision criteria, stakeholders and desired outcomes.
SAP's current Solution Advisor roles explicitly describe discovery sessions, executive meetings, presentations and demonstrations as core presales activities. The aim is to connect customer priorities with relevant SAP capabilities rather than deliver a generic product tour.
What typically happens during the presales cycle?
| Stage | Typical presales work |
|---|---|
| Discovery | Understand the customer's business challenges, priorities, current systems, stakeholders and desired outcomes. |
| Qualification | Decide whether the opportunity, timing, problem and proposed solution are credible enough to pursue. |
| Solution mapping | Connect requirements to SAP capabilities and identify areas needing deeper technical, industry or partner input. |
| Presentation / demo | Show a business-relevant story rather than a feature dump; tailor the demonstration to the customer's priorities. |
| Questions / fit | Clarify what is standard, what may require design decisions, and what assumptions still need validation. |
| Proposal support | Contribute solution content, responses to RFPs, value narratives, scope assumptions and supporting material. |
| Handover | Ensure important discovery knowledge and commitments are not lost when delivery or implementation teams take over. |
Who works together in presales?
Presales is rarely a one-person activity. Account executives or sales leads manage the commercial relationship. Solution advisors or presales specialists bring solution and process expertise. Architects, industry specialists, partners and delivery teams may join when the opportunity needs deeper design, integration or implementation knowledge.
The exact model varies by organization and deal, but the principle is consistent: business, solution and commercial perspectives have to align.
A polished demo cannot rescue weak discovery.
If a customer says, “We need better inventory visibility,” a presales professional should not jump immediately to a favorite dashboard. First ask:
- What visibility is missing today — quantity, value, location, age, availability or forecast?
- Who needs the information and what decision will they make with it?
- Which systems and data sources currently hold the truth?
- What business outcome would make the change worthwhile?
Presales vs implementation consulting
Presales helps shape and validate the solution story before the deal is completed. Implementation consulting takes responsibility for detailed design, configuration, build, testing, migration, adoption and go-live according to the agreed engagement. There is overlap in business-process thinking, but the depth, accountability and timing are different.
This distinction matters because presales should avoid creating commitments that delivery teams cannot realistically fulfill. Credibility depends on knowing what is certain, what is an assumption and what needs deeper validation.
Skills that make SAP presales effective
- Strong business and industry understanding.
- Enough SAP depth to connect capabilities to real requirements.
- Discovery and questioning skills.
- Executive communication and storytelling.
- Demonstration design focused on outcomes rather than features.
- Collaboration across sales, solution, partner and delivery teams.
- Discipline around assumptions, scope and handover.