What is Pre-Sales Activities & Process with Example

By : Jessica Blake Jessica Blake
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⚡ Smart Summary

Pre-sales processing in SAP covers the activities that turn a lead into a paying customer before an order exists. It includes inquiries and quotations, captured with T-codes VA11 and VA21, plus prospecting, proposals, and pre-sales support.

  • 🎯 Pre-Sales: All activities that convert a lead or prospect into a paying customer.
  • 🔎 Activities: Prospecting, qualifying leads, product and market research, and proposals.
  • 🔁 Process: The pre-sales process runs from first contact to a won customer or sale.
  • 📄 Inquiry: An inquiry captures a customer request for product information (VA11, VA12, VA13).
  • 🧾 Quotation: A quotation is a legally binding offer to the customer (VA21, VA22, VA23).
  • 📞 Pre-Sales Support: Tracking customer contacts through visits, calls, and mailing campaigns.
  • 🤖 Automation: AI scores leads and drafts proposals to speed the pre-sales cycle.
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What is Pre-Sales Activities and Process in SAP

Normally all Sales activities (leaving out the activities undertaken by Marketing function) can be broadly categorized into pre sales and post sales activities.

What is Pre-Sales?

Pre sales meaning before the sales. In other words, it includes all the activities or processes that are performed in order to convert a lead or prospect to a paying customer or client. The pre-sales concept is applicable across all the businesses that deal with customers and clients in order to sell their products and services.

Pre-Sales Activities

Pre Sales Activities are the tasks that are performed before the product is sold to a customer. These activities often include prospect and qualify leads, product research, market research, data analysis, customer analysis, making unique selling propositions, managing deal qualifications and proposals, etc. These activities combined are performed in order to sell the product.

Pre-Sales Process

A Pre-Sale Process is a set of activities carried out in order to convert a new customer or win a new business contract. This process starts with the contact phase and ends once the customer is acquired or a product is sold. The pre-sales process flow includes tasks like making proposals based on customer requirements, product demonstration, etc.

Pre Sales Documents

They are of 2 types 1) Inquiries and 2) Quotation:

Inquiries : Inquiry documents are customer request for information about product.(e.g. Is product is available, product cost, delivery date etc.). T-code for Inquiries is –

  • VA11 – Create Inquiry
  • VA12 – Change Inquiry
  • VA13- Display Inquiry

Quotes: This is a legally binding document to the customer, for delivering product or service to customer T-code for Quotes is –

  • VA21 – Create Quotation
  • VA22 – Change Quotation
  • VA23- Display Quotation

Pre Sales Support

It defines tracking of customer contacts by sales visits, phone calls, letters and direct mailings.

  • Customer Tracking : Sales personnel track customer.
  • Mailing Campaigns: Sales personnel or company arrange a mailing campaigns to reach customers.
  • Customer telephone Queries: Sales support personnel answer Customer queries.

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Post Sales activities

These activities include Farming, Relationship Management and Support.

Pre-Sales vs Post-Sales Activities

Pre-sales and post-sales sit on opposite sides of the order. Pre-sales wins the customer; post-sales keeps the customer. Understanding the split clarifies which SAP documents and teams are involved at each stage.

Aspect Pre-Sales Post-Sales
Goal Convert a lead into a customer Retain and grow the customer
Typical activities Inquiry, quotation, demonstration Farming, relationship management, support
SAP documents Inquiry (VA11), Quotation (VA21) Sales order, delivery, service notification
Outcome A won order or contract Repeat business and loyalty

FAQs

The two pre-sales documents are the inquiry and the quotation. An inquiry records a customer request for information, while a quotation is a binding offer to supply a product or service.

Use VA11 to create an inquiry (VA12 change, VA13 display) and VA21 to create a quotation (VA22 change, VA23 display). Both are pre-sales documents in SAP Sales and Distribution.

An inquiry is a non-binding request for product information such as price or availability. A quotation is a legally binding offer to deliver a product or service at stated terms, and it often follows an inquiry.

Yes. AI scores and prioritizes leads by conversion likelihood, using past deals and customer signals. This helps sales teams focus pre-sales effort on prospects most likely to buy.

artificial intelligence drafts quotations from customer requirements, recommends pricing and products, and predicts win probability, shortening the pre-sales cycle while keeping offers accurate and competitive.

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