Inside qashqade: Peter Vass

In a series of interviews, we find out what makes the people at qashqade tick. In this article we sat down with Peter Vass, who works as a Technical Pre-Sales Manager.

Hi Peter, can you give us an idea about what your role is here at qashqade? 

I work as a Technical Pre-Sales Manager. The financial models that our potential clients bring to us can be complex, so the sales team benefit from someone that has a deep understanding of these models. Therefore, my primary role is to support the sales team by providing them with in-depth knowledge of the products and services we offer.

When dealing with prospects who are interested in our offerings, I play a crucial role in showcasing how our products and services are implemented to fit their specific use case. This involves demonstrating how our models are applied in our platform, and by doing so, we help prospects visualize how they can work seamlessly with us.  

How would you present a proof of concept (POC) to a prospect and how does this approach differ depending on the kind of prospect? 

Let me start with the phrase “proof of concept”, which refers to demonstrating the capability of our product to perform precise calculations. At this stage, we have already established that qashqade can handle these calculations effectively. The main objective of the proof of concept is to illustrate to prospects how their specific models would operate within the qashqade platform.

Each prospect has unique priorities, and as a Technical Pre-Sales Manager, my approach is to highlight the aspects of our product that align with their specific needs. For instance, if a prospect places great importance on customized reporting, I focus the demonstration on showcasing our reporting model's versatility. This way, they can see how we can fully meet their reporting requirements, including design, colouring, content, and formatting, with precision and accuracy. On the other hand, if the prospect doesn't have specific preferences, I emphasize other relevant features, such as how easily their complex waterfall calculations can be set up and managed in qashqade.

In essence, I tailor the proof of concept to address the individual requirements and preferences of each client. By doing so, I ensure that the demonstration resonates with them on a deeper level and strengthens their confidence in our ability to deliver precisely what they need.

Besides POCs, what other kind of activities do you do in Pre-Sales? 

My role might be a special case since I come from the implementation team and therefore still do work for the SPM (Service for Private Markets) team in the form of training, projects, testing, communications etc. These are not technical sales manager roles; it just happens to be my responsibility as well. As a technical sales manager my other activities include giving training to clients or holding webinars, making sure that the application bugs are reported, tracked and solved, as well as ensuring that the environment where we perform demos, are up to date and maintained properly.  

Since you mentioned that you were recently promoted to Technical Pre-Sales Manager, how has your experience from the SPM team helped you in your current role? 

Exactly, so the main difference between my previous and current role is the position in the customer service journey. Before I used to work with clients who have signed, have their models and then help them implement this. For my current role, I moved forward in the sales channels and now talk with prospects. As such, my previous experience of working closely with clients helps me explain and demonstrate to prospects how the models would work if they became clients. I can confidently outline how the qashqade-client relationship will look like for them, unlike only having an idea of how the implementation team will potentially work with them. This enhances my credibility, as well as the company credibility when talking to prospects.  

Have you faced any challenges when it comes to talking to prospects compared to clients? 

Certainly. With clients we have an already-established relationship; we know their expectations and challenges making it easier to tailor our work to the needs of the client. In comparison, prospects are unpredictable; I don’t know if they are interested in all our platform features, if they want me to create shining reports, or the solutions we provide will precisely meet their expectations. I need to predict and approximate the things that add value to what they are looking for. In other words, a client relationship has usually been established for years whereas in a prospective relationship you must provide a fit to satisfy any expectations and provide the right solutions during the initial meetings. In these meetings I need to take the smallest clues and use them to tailor what I am presenting; in an hour I need to learn the prospect challenges, what they are looking for, what they don’t like, what their concerns are and ultimately understand these clues and transform them instantly, and that is more challenging than working with clients.  

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