Pre-sales in telecom: a critical driver of business growth

Understanding the maturity level of a company’s pre-sales function is the first step to identifying improvement opportunities and moving toward more structured, scalable models

Tender processes and requests for proposal (RFPs) are becoming increasingly demanding in the telecommunications sector. As a result, pre-sales plays a direct role in a company’s ability to win new contracts. Its core function is to assess business opportunities and define the right technology solution, forming the foundation of the proposal presented to the client.

The quality of this function directly impacts competitiveness. Pre-sales goes far beyond preparing technical or commercial offers. It requires a deep understanding of customer needs and the ability to translate them into a solid, well-structured proposal. Achieving this demands strong coordination across multiple teams within the organization.

Pre-sales as a growth engine in the telecom sector

In organizations focused on new business development, pre-sales is a key component of the commercial cycle. Starting from an opportunity identified by the sales team, its role is to turn that opportunity into a concrete solution, one that is both technically feasible and economically viable.

This requires integrating multiple perspectives across the company. Technical expertise is essential, but so is a strong commercial understanding of the account. In addition, financial analysis is critical to ensure the proposal’s viability.

When pre-sales is well structured, companies can deliver more consistent and competitive proposals. It also enhances their ability to respond effectively to complex procurement processes.

The role of pre-sales in the telecom sales cycle

The new business sales cycle spans from strategic account planning to service delivery. Within this process, pre-sales plays a particularly important role in two key stages: opportunity identification and proposal development.

At these stages, it is essential to analyze customer requirements and define the solution architecture. Based on this, the business case that supports the proposal is developed.

Pre-sales therefore acts as a bridge between sales activities and technical solution design, while also connecting with financial analysis to validate the proposal.

When this function is properly structured, proposal development becomes more efficient and consistent, allowing organizations to respond faster and more effectively to new opportunities.

A common challenge: unstructured pre-sales functions

In many organizations, pre-sales is still managed in a reactive way. Proposal development often depends on the availability of different professionals across the company, who typically balance this work with responsibilities in operations or other areas.

In these cases, roles and responsibilities are not always clearly defined. Processes tend to be poorly documented, and supporting tools are often limited.

As a result, proposal quality can vary significantly between opportunities. At the same time, scaling commercial activity becomes challenging as the volume of bids increases.

This situation is common in organizations that are starting to develop new business lines, as well as in companies that have not yet formally structured their pre-sales function.

Moving toward a pre-sales maturity model

Assessing pre-sales from a maturity perspective helps organizations understand how developed and integrated this function is within the business. This involves evaluating team structure, processes used to prepare proposals, and the tools that support them.

This analysis provides a clear starting point. From there, companies can identify improvement areas and define a roadmap toward more structured and scalable models.

To support this process, Nae has developed a pre-sales maturity model that outlines the evolution of this function across four stages: reactive, standardized, orchestrated, and best-in-class.

Each stage reflects a different level of organizational maturity, from informal, ad hoc approaches to highly integrated models aligned with the company’s commercial strategy.

Understanding where an organization stands is the first step toward identifying improvement opportunities and advancing toward more structured and effective pre-sales capabilities.