My Journey into Pre-Sales
From the keyboard of Joe Pulickal, Principal Solutions Consultant
Hey there! Joe Pulickal, your friendly neighborhood Pre-Sales Solutions Consultant at ActionIQ, is here to share my journey into sales. It’s not your typical thrill ride but more of a GPS malfunction that took me to a detour into the bustling intersection of business and tech.
It all began with a degree in Electronics and Telecommunications. Loved it, even planned on a Master’s. For my capstone project, I had to design microstrip patch antennas (those used in RFID, mobile communication, GPS systems, etc) for mass production at the lowest possible cost. While RF(Radio Frequency) engineering concepts were crucial, I spent 80% of my time on data mining, feature engineering, data modeling, and statistical analysis. Although I found Electronics and Telecommunications fascinating and could have excelled as an RF Engineer, I was captivated by the power of processing information. So, I transitioned into IT and landed a position at Infosys.
Hold on tight, we’re about to get a dose of real talk, some laughs (hopefully at my expense), and maybe even a spark of inspiration. Let’s start with where it all began in the land of IT services: Infosys.
Episode 1 — Infosys: Where the Code Journey Began (and Ended… Almost)
Fresh out of undergrad in 2010, I snagged a sweet gig as a Systems Engineer at Infosys, a tech giant in India. Infosys throws you into a six-month bootcamp. During orientation, the then-CEO of Infosys quoted something that resonated deeply: “We’re building tomorrow’s enterprise today.” It sparked a curiosity that still drives me — how do we achieve that?
During the bootcamp, I was amazed at the pace at which everyone in my cohort picked up new concepts. We learned Java in 5 days; yes, that’s right — and database management, including advanced PL/SQL, in 2 weeks. The curriculum was perfectly designed with a great combination of theoretical and practical learning opportunities. The examples used during our classroom sessions were real, practical, and immediately applicable. As I observed my personal learning, I started to see a pattern that unlocked a new way of learning. Later, I came to realize that it is called the T method: go wide on the concept and then deep into each bullet point.
Once training was done, I was on the bench waiting for a project assignment. Reality hit hard! My first week flew by, then the second… and guess what? Before I knew it, the whole month had passed, and I didn’t have a project. I started feeling uneasy, stagnant, and unhappy. I wanted to quit and blamed the company, managers, and project leaders for my situation. Physics dictates, any state change can be accomplished by adding or subtracting energy. I decided I was going to add energy.
Episode 2 — Learning to Fail Fast
I am not one to sit around feeling useless, so I did what any resourceful engineer would: I dove back into my studies, sharpening my skills and staying on top of my game. Then, one day, Bam! An app development contest with a four-week deadline popped up. I thought it would be great to apply some of the new things I had been learning.
I assembled a team of fellow benchwarmers to develop an application that every employee at Infosys can use. We decided to build a marketplace to buy and sell items — eBay for employees only. With no time for lengthy research, we agreed upon core functionality and proof points to select approaches for our app. We discarded approaches that did not meet our criteria. I am proud to say most discarded ideas were mine! I became the master of failing fast and moving on. I learned the importance of having a plan and the value of solutions from different perspectives.
We won the application contest! Some colleagues doubted us, but now they were congratulating us and curious about our approach. While working on this project, I caught some people’s attention, and that is how I landed my first project at Infosys. This win, born from resourcefulness and a fresh perspective, landed me my first project — it was proof that destiny might nudge you in the right direction, but you have to grab the wheel to make it happen.
Episode 3 — First Project and the Hunger for More!
My first project at Infosys was with a large German automotive manufacturing company. As a developer, I’d be given a technical specs document to convert into code. However, I never understood why I created the custom applications, who used them, and for what. I lacked the “what” and “why”. To bridge this gap, I started engaging with business stakeholders. While these conversations were helpful, they were slow, limited, and revealed a mismatch between the problems and the requested solution.
Imagine this: You were asked to build a minifig-mobile with LEGO blocks, and you built a spaceship. Now, your little astronauts are floating around in space, wondering how they ended up in orbit and why their ride has wings instead of wheels. Sure, I had a general map to code, but I craved a deeper understanding of the “why” so I could build applications better.
Episode 4: Destiny Leads the Way to Carnegie Mellon and Dream Job (Accidentally)
So, what’s a curious coder to do? Stuck between wanting more and the limitations of my role, I spent countless hours researching roles that would help me learn the business on the job. Destiny (or maybe it was just a bad posture) intervened. I stumbled upon a program called Management Information Systems (MIS) — fancy, right? This program promised to bridge the gap between my technical skills and the intriguing business world.
Fast-forward to Carnegie Mellon University. I was surrounded by brilliant minds, devouring courses on business processes and strategic analysis, all while increasing my technical acumen. The US became my new classroom, and Carnegie Mellon my springboard. It felt like adding missing puzzle pieces to my brain.
During internship season, interviews flowed, but success remained elusive. Then, a friend, drowning in offers, mentioned an intriguing possibility: A pre-sales Solutions Consultant internship at Pitney Bowes Software.
“Pre-sales Consultant?” I thought, utterly perplexed. This was uncharted territory, a completely new species to me. As I learned more about the role, I found that it required you to be part technical, business translator, and solution architect. It was like they took everything I wanted in a role! I interviewed and landed my first pre-sales role, thanks to a helpful buddy. Talk about beginner’s luck.
My internship at Pitney Bowes opened my eyes to the tech sales world. Every day was a new adventure, delving into data management solutions and learning the magic of translating those technical specs into real business value for clients. It was the perfect blend — the technical knowledge I had and the business acumen I was learning, and it was finally coming together. I realized it was never about features and functionalities but crafting solutions that addressed pain points and helped businesses thrive.
After the internship, I returned to school for my final semester and then became a full-time Pre-sales Consultant with Pitney Bowes Software. My first two years were a crash course in sales — learning to pitch, demo, charm clients, and use various sales strategies.
Over the following years, I continued developing skills. Being a world-class pre-sales consultant boils down to five key areas, a handy acronym I call SCABS (I promise I will expand on this later, coined by a brilliant mentor).
I came to lead a small team in Australia, which was another eye-opening experience. Leading a team in Australia made me appreciate all my past managers and those who would guide me in the future. It taught me the importance of teamwork, the empowerment of others, and the ability to go from good to great by focusing on strengths.
After I came back from Australia, our company, Pitney Bowes, was going through an acquisition, presenting a unique perspective on what it is like to be in a company going through an acquisition and how chaos can bring unexpected opportunities.
After the acquisition, the company planned for more acquisitions to boost inorganic growth and was looking to build an internal change management team. I, yours truly, raised my hand! So, though I was in a pre-sales role, I spent the next 12 months moonlighting as a human resources change management lead. Change management is uniquely challenging and complex. It taught me that “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”… without the right culture in place, even the best strategy fails.
Episode 5 — The Never-Ending Learning Curve
Fast-forward to today, with a decade of sales experience, I’m a Principal Solutions Consultant — it’s like a buffet of roles. The best part about pre-sales is that you’re constantly evolving. You can master a specific skill, switch gears, and explore something new. It’s a role that keeps you busy and keeps you curious. I find absolute joy in talking to people and learning about their experiences.
One day, you’re a developer, coding away. Next, you’re an architect, designing the solution. Then, you might be a consultant, a subject matter expert, a business analyst, or executing on a proof-of-concept. Sometimes, you’re even your client’s therapist, helping them navigate their anxieties and concerns.
Episode 6 — The Final Word (for Now)
Look, my journey has been anything but a straight line. It’s packed with changes, calculated risks, and a relentless pursuit of knowledge. Sometimes, the most unexpected detours can lead you to opportunities.
Remember I mentioned SCABS? Let me tell you what it is and how I use it for personal development (I told you I’ll get to it)
S — Solution Skills: Problem-solving skills primarily focused on identifying, analyzing, and resolving problems.
C — Communication: Clearly articulate ideas, simplify the message, and ability to talk to stakeholders at any level in an organization in a language they can understand.
A — Attitude: Developing empathy, adaptability, collaboration, curiosity, and leading with a solutions mindset.
B — Business or Industry skills: Learning about a client’s or customer’s industry, business, pain points, successes, and failures.
S — Selling skills: Active listening, emotional intelligence, negotiation, relationship building, resilience in tough times.
These five key learning areas have been my north star for the past decade. If you ever get bored of developing one flavor of your job, move on to the next. Hey, even the most delicious flavor gets boring after a while, right?
While I love my role in sales, I also crave a life filled with diverse experiences, stimulating conversations, good food, and maybe even an adventure trip (or two!). Don’t judge, but I also have a soft spot for reality TV — it’s a guilty pleasure that sparks inspiration in the most unexpected ways. Think of it as keeping my brain on its toes by absorbing information from all corners of the universe.
So, if you’re reading this and feeling stuck on the bench (figuratively or literally), don’t despair! Take charge, embrace the unexpected, and who knows, you might just end up in a pre-sales role with a reality TV obsession — like me.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a client call about a data platform that could revolutionize their customer experiences.
Until then, stay curious!
ActionIQ is a new kind of customer data platform for enterprise brands, giving marketers easy and secure ways to activate data anywhere in the customer experience. ActionIQ’s unique composable architecture means data can stay securely where it lives, and marketing teams only use the tools they need. We are backed by top-tier VCs Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, and March Capital. Enterprise brands such as Autodesk, Bloomberg, The Washington Post, e.l.f. Beauty, Atlassian and many more use our Composable CDP to achieve growth through better customer experiences.
Learn more at https://www.actioniq.com/
Read our product blog at https://www.actioniq.com/blog/
Explore our career openings at https://www.actioniq.com/careers/
Want to get in touch? Contact us: https://www.actioniq.com/contact-us/
