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In the latest episode of Presales Podcast, Rob Bruce, a presales leader at Syndigo with two decades of experience, shared an innovative approach that's transforming how his organization operates: the Pursuit Desk. Hosted by Jack Cochran, General Manager of Presales Collective, and Matthew James, the conversation explored how dedicating resources to handle RFPs, security questionnaires, and administrative tasks can unlock solutions engineers to focus on what they do best.
Listen to the full episode now!
It Should Be About Customers, Not Checklists
Rob's philosophy is simple yet powerful: presales teams should focus on customers, not administrative checklists. After 20 years of trial, error, and refinement, he's built a system at Syndigo that embodies this principle.
"Your typical presales person has so many things on their plate," Rob explained. "They have NDAs that they have to make sure they're signed. They have InfoSec documents. They have demos. They have RFPs. They have to figure out who the reference is going to be."
The Pursuit Desk functions like a world-class hotel concierge, ensuring everything runs smoothly around the main event. Just as a concierge handles logistics so guests can enjoy their experience, the Pursuit Desk manages the operational burden so SEs can focus on discovery, solutioning, and building trusted relationships with prospects and customers.
Operating at the Top of Your License
The episode opened with a powerful concept borrowed from the medical profession: operating at the "top of your license." The idea is that professionals should spend their time doing what they're uniquely qualified to do, maximizing both efficiency and outcomes.
For presales professionals, the top of the license includes discovery, creative thinking, empathetic listening, and presenting effective solutions. The bottom? Responding to RFPs, demo prep for routine tasks, and helping AEs find lost documents.
"If you're spending most of your time doing more administrative tasks, prep tasks, RFP responses, security questionnaires," Jack noted, "if I was going to hire someone just to do those, I probably wouldn't be paid the same as what I'm being paid as an SE."
The math is simple: when highly paid professionals spend their time on tasks that don't require their expertise, organizations lose value. More importantly, SEs lose the ability to stay in flow and focus on the work that truly moves deals forward.
The Modalities of Presales
Rob's Pursuit Desk operates across several modalities, with the RFP desk being a critical component. This team is accountable for creating the best, most empathetic responses for customers across all branded documentation including RFPs, InfoSec documents, due diligence questionnaires, and more.
Operating on a global scale adds another layer of complexity and value. Different cultures have different expectations for how companies should present themselves. A response appropriate for a German buyer might differ significantly from one crafted for a Japanese prospect. Centralizing this function ensures consistent, culturally appropriate messaging across all regions.
"If you have a marketing team and an RFP desk that is siloed, that could potentially work against you," Rob emphasized. "RFPs are contracts, whether you sign them or not. Your words are your blood."
The Origin Story: From COVID Crisis to Creative Solution
The Pursuit Desk didn't emerge from a windfall budget. It came from creative problem-solving during the 2020 pandemic.
"I had an executive sponsor at the time," Rob shared. "I said, 'Hey, we have a presales travel budget that we ain't going to use and we aren't going to use for a while. We're going to be virtual. So why can't we invest in this kind of structure?' And they went with it."
The timing aligned perfectly with Rob's discovery of Garen Hess's book "Selling is Hard, Buying is Harder" which Rob asserts is a must-read for anyone in presales. Rob took Garen's philosophy and extended it internally: if buying is tough for customers, operating internally shouldn't be equally tough for presales resources.
AI: The Roomba of the Pursuit Desk
AI plays a critical role in making the Pursuit Desk scalable, but not in the way many might expect. Rob describes it as "the Roomba" sweeping the floor and cleaning up the mess, taking the first pass.
"If we didn't have AI at the Pursuit Desk, we would not be able to effectively scale and keep up with the pace at the rate that we're going," Rob explained.
For RFPs, AI handles the initial pass based on machine learning, past responses, and company knowledge. Following the 80-20 rule, AI completes roughly 80% of the work. The Pursuit Desk team then comes in to personalize responses, add empathy, and ensure they address the specific buying personas on the other side.
"Is it perfect? No way. Would you send it out like that in the first pass? Hell no," Rob said candidly. "But what it does is fill out the form in the appropriate way in an 80% fashion."
AI also powers go/no-go decision-making through scorecards that consider customer history, industry patterns, and timeline feasibility. This creates an audit trail showing how long teams spent on pursuits, whether deals were won or lost, and why certain opportunities were declined.
The Formula One Analogy
Rob's favorite analogy for the Pursuit Desk is a Formula One racing team. While the drivers are on the track competing, there's a massive engineering facility back at headquarters analyzing data and optimizing performance.
"While they're out on the track and they're in the pit and they're winning the race, we're back at HQ looking at all the data and making sure that the team is running at optimum performance," Rob explained.
The analogy extends to the level of focus and investment required. F1 teams spend billions ensuring every element supports the driver's success. While presales budgets aren't quite that generous, the principle remains: create specialized support structures that enable your front-line performers to excel.
Building the Business Case
For presales leaders inspired by this model, Rob's advice is clear: start with an executive sponsor.
"If you're going at it alone and you're going to be a lobbyist, independent lobbyist that is working their way through the different divisions of your organization to secure budget, you're going to have a more challenging time," he cautioned.
The ROI conversation comes down to deals. Organizations measure sales by wins, and presales is no different. When SE resources are freed from administrative burdens to focus on discovery and relationship building, win rates improve. When talented SEs don't burn out from nights and weekends spent on RFPs, retention improves.
"You're not going to have your presales resource very long because you're going to burn them out," Rob noted. "Having the organization understand the impact of that does take some doing. But if you look at the deals and the deal sizes and the amount of time and effort that your presales resources are taking, to me, it's a really easy calculation to present to the executive team."
The Real Success Metric: Nights and Weekends
When asked about success stories, Rob's answer was immediate and telling: "The resources that were spending their nights and weekends filling out RFPs no longer have to spend those hours doing that because they have a dedicated concierge team."
That alone represents a massive win for employee wellbeing and retention. But the benefits extend further. With administrative tasks handled centrally, SEs can focus on POCs and complex proof-of-concept work where they add the most value. They can mentor new team members. They can stay in flow during customer engagements rather than worrying about the RFP due at midnight.
Presales Culture and Values
Throughout the conversation, Rob emphasized that presales is a culture with distinct values and norms.
"We have these values and we have these beliefs and we try to stick to these different norms," he explained. "The presales collective is definitely a culture or a subculture for sure."
Within that culture, genuineness matters. SEs must be chameleons who adapt to different buyer needs while remaining authentic. They need to build trust through technical knowledge without coming across as salespeople. They need to read the room and understand that everyone on the buying team has different learning styles and requirements.
Rob also stressed the importance of working somewhere you feel valued. "If you're not at a place where you don't feel welcome, then you're at the wrong place," he said. "There are definitely places, many places that will welcome you and embrace you."
The Path Forward
The Pursuit Desk model represents a significant shift in how presales organizations can operate. By creating specialized support structures, companies enable their SEs to work at the top of their license, reduce burnout, improve win rates, and build more meaningful customer relationships.
While not every organization will have the resources to build a full Pursuit Desk immediately, the principles apply universally: identify what tasks keep SEs from their highest-value work, find creative ways to centralize or automate those tasks, secure an executive sponsor who understands the value, and measure everything to prove the impact.
As AI continues to evolve and presales roles become increasingly strategic, the organizations that embrace these principles will have a significant competitive advantage not just in winning deals, but in attracting and retaining top presales talent.
Join the Presales Collective Slack community at presalescollective.com/slack to stay updated on future episodes.
