This is regarding the career suggestion between ERP consulting and ERP sales or presales.

[former_member185081]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for reading this post as this would not give any knowledge to you but would help for my career progression.

I am presently working as SAP consultant in PP module in an MNC . I always had interest towards sales or pre-sales in the field of SAP.

I do not have idea why i want to shift y career path. But probably due to Monetary concerns.

I now want to know which career path is ore better and fruitful either SAP consulting or SAP sales or Pre-sales.

I have experience of 2 yrs as SAP consultant. I hold B.tech in mechanical and MBA in operations and systems.

It would be very appreciable if some one clarifies my ambiguity in between choosing the above mentioned careers.

Thanks!
Chaitanya.

[Former Member]

Chaitanya,

No one can answer the question, but you.

Do what you enjoy doing. Be it consulting or pre-sales. If you enjoy being a consultant and pursue career in pre-sales because of monetary reason, bright chances you will not do well. On the other hand if you continue being a consultant, you may earn more than average consultant because you'll do it better than others.

According to me there is no clear answer to your question. You should be asking yourself what do you enjoy, what gives you satisfaction, what makes you feel you achieved something?

Good luck !!!

Regards,

Himanshu

[rupesh_brahmankar3]

Hello Chaitanya.

The Presales consultant is very knowledgeable in SAP solutions and understands the business value they can deliver to customers. The Presales Consultant has strong business acumen and communication skills, and thus, possesses the ability to bridge the gap between technology and business value.

A solution expert who presents and demonstrates the SAP solution to the prospect.

If you fit in that and you are looking to fast-track your career at SAP and make a real impact on our customers yes you can choose presales as career path.

Please refer this discussions,

SAP Academy for Presales | SAP

Best Regards,

R.Brahmankar

[Former Member]

Hi Krishna,

Let me answer your questions:

Interest & ability are not same. Some people might be interested but they have not done anything which actually proves the fact that the person is already established to make the call.

Are you interested in sales or consulting. If you say, you are interested in sales as they will give you more money then the next question you should ask yourself is, have you already enabled yourself to do the Pre sales or sales job.

Prerequisite to do Pre Sales/Sales job:

• First: You should have good high level solutioning knowledge.
• Second: You should be passionate to work on different industries.
• Third: You should have already done 15/20 RFP.
• Fourth: You have already worked as SME for some of the high level solutions that's given to client.
• Fifth: You have already established yourself as a solution architect.
• Sixth: You have more or less have good integration high level exposure.
• Seventh: You are ready to travel with very short notices and always readdy with baggage.

You have mentioned that you have 2 years experience as SAP Consultant and with this much experience as consultant is probably not a very wise thought to move your career to presales.

So I would say consider the pre sales or sales option after you have at least 5 years or so and you have quite seen the functional side clearly. Though its not a very hard and first rules but it helps if you think in this way.

Let me know in case you have any other queries or need any clarifications.

Thanks & Regards

Subhasish

[former_member185081]

Hi Subhasish,

Thanks for the expertise comments and giving clarity on the thought of going into Pre-sales.

But i do see some of friends entering into the field of pre-sales with an MBA degree rather than what all the things you elaborated in the above reply.

That made me think about the pre-sales path after 2 years of experience.

My goal is to be in Product marketing and to head a operations department in an organization.

Please let me know if you any path for the same or if any opportunity.

Help will be appreciated.

Thanks!

G K C.

[Former Member]

Hi G K C,

Off course MBA Marketing or Sales are good and effective qualification to be in Pre Sales but dont underestimate the product knowledge. Agree you dont need to be a technical expert to enter into pre sales but it will be more effective when you do couple of RFP as it will basically show you more visibility around the overall solutioning as this is very much required when you want to do ERP Marketing like SAP, Oracle etc.  and you will have the edge as a product sales person instead of other fellow colleagues.

Shortcut is there and people take short cut to do that but they dont find it very easy to commuicate when they dont have enough experinece or basic knowldge.

When you go to clients place to sale sap products they expect you to know what all capabilities that product can give them,  for example you are in the market to sale a Closing Tool as its required in every month end.Now in this case it is always good to know in high level what are the month end activities that are generally done in a business, how much time do they take to close, how much manual activities are done before they close their books etc.

Now the tool that you are selling can it take care of customer painpoints what they pointed, if yes how and how much it will take care.

Thanks & Regards

Subhasish