If you've worked in presales, you've heard some version of these requests. And if you're leading a presales team, you've probably fought the battle of changing how your organization perceives what presales actually does.

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Utkarsh Banwar knows this battle intimately. After joining Netscribes post-merger to build a presales team from scratch, he faced a fundamental challenge that had nothing to do with repositories, playbooks, or processes. The biggest obstacle was cultural.

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"Their thought process was that presales is something that is just trying to put things together and sending it out," Utkarsh explains. "Which is not the case. We are putting our minds into it, we are creating stories, we are creating narratives for you to go and take it to your clients."

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This misunderstanding isn't unique to Utkarsh's organization. It's one of the most common challenges presales leaders face: the perception that presales is a support function that assembles slides, rather than a strategic function that crafts storylines.

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The difference matters. A lot.

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When presales is seen as "the people who put decks together," the requests that come in reflect that perception. Leadership expects presales to be order-takers who execute on whatever sales needs, whenever they need it. The value presales could provide gets buried under an avalanche of low-impact tasks.

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But when presales is understood as the team that creates narratives and builds storylines for clients, everything changes. Sales comes prepared with qualified opportunities. Leadership involves presales in strategic decisions. The team focuses on high-impact work where their storytelling and strategic thinking actually matter.

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"It's not just about putting things together and sending it out, or showing it, or demoing it. It's more about the storyline that we're trying to create for the clients," Utkarsh says.

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Getting stakeholders to understand this shift is hard work. The key, Utkarsh found, was treating the internal selling of presales value the same way he would treat external selling to clients. He mapped his stakeholders, understood their pain points, and crafted narratives that resonated. He showed them what happens when presales is involved strategically versus tactically. He demonstrated the difference between a generic demo and a customized storyline that speaks directly to a client's specific needs.

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"Even if you're selling to internal stakeholders, it's about selling. You have to get your storyline right," Utkarsh emphasizes.

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This is the work that doesn't show up in presales job descriptions but defines whether presales teams can actually operate strategically. It's not enough to be good at demos or technical presentations. Presales leaders have to be equally skilled at selling presales internally, at shifting organizational mindsets, at persistently articulating the difference between execution and strategy until it sticks.

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The perception of presales as "people who put slides together" isn't just annoying. It's the enemy of strategic presales work. And changing it is one of the most important things a presales leader can do.

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Join the Conversation

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Want to dive deeper into presales leadership, career development, and the real challenges facing SC teams today?

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Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/-RY7dtP2T1k

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Subscribe to PSC Unscripted for weekly unfiltered conversations with presales leaders who are figuring it out in real-time: https://luma.com/pscunscripted

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Join the Presales Collective at presalescollective.com to connect with thousands of solutions consultants, sales engineers, and presales leaders who are building their careers together.

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Do you have a story that you'd like to share? Join PSC Unscripted as a guest: https://www.presalescollective.com/contribute

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PSC Unscripted is a weekly series featuring unscripted conversations with presales leaders. No rehearsed answers, no polished talking points, just honest dialogue about the challenges and opportunities in being in presales. New episodes are live every Thursday, and you can find the full playlist of past episodes on YouTube.

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About the Guest

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Utkarsh Banwar is a Manager of PreSales at Netscribes, where he's building presales capabilities from the ground up following a company merger. An active member of the presales community in India, Utkarsh hosts in-person Presales Collective events in Bangalore, Delhi, and Mumbai, connecting presales professionals across the region. His approach to leadership combines strategic thinking with hands-on execution, and he's passionate about elevating the presales function from support to strategic partner.

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About Presales Collective

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Presales Collective is the largest community of solutions consultants, sales engineers, and presales professionals in the world. Through events, content, resources, and peer connections, PSC helps presales professionals level up their skills, accelerate their careers, and build the relationships that matter. Learn more at presalescollective.com.

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