# Presales Navigation System

> Deal management training for presales and sales engineering teams by Dmitri Lee. SE training that installs a deal operating system: COMPASS, SAIL, and ANCHOR frameworks, taught on real deals over 12 month engagements. Keynote speaking for sales kickoffs and revenue events.

## Pages

- [Home](https://presalesnavigator.com/): SE training that installs a deal management operating system
- [SE Training](https://presalesnavigator.com/se-training): 8 module program for Sales Engineers, includes The AI Craft where SEs build their own AI coaches
- [Leader Training](https://presalesnavigator.com/leader-training): 6 module program for SE leaders on inspection and operating rhythm
- [Speaking](https://presalesnavigator.com/speaking): Keynotes for SKOs and revenue conferences on why deals die after the technical win
- [Deal Labs](https://presalesnavigator.com/deal-labs): Structured deal inspection installed as a rhythm
- [The Book](https://presalesnavigator.com/book): The Presales Navigation System by Dmitri Lee
- [About](https://presalesnavigator.com/about): Founder background and speaker bios
- [Contact](https://presalesnavigator.com/contact): Book a discovery call or send a message
- [Deal Flow Benchmark](https://presalesnavigator.com/benchmark): Free anonymous six question benchmark of how sales engineering teams actually run deals. The teams measured so far measured so far
- [When sales engineers enter deals](https://presalesnavigator.com/when-sales-engineers-enter-deals): Benchmark finding on presales deal entry points
- [Sales engineer time allocation](https://presalesnavigator.com/sales-engineer-time-allocation): Benchmark finding on share of time spent on deals that close
- [When sales engineers raise doubts](https://presalesnavigator.com/when-sales-engineers-raise-doubts): Benchmark finding on what happens when an engineer does not believe a deal is real
- [Sales engineering team consistency](https://presalesnavigator.com/sales-engineering-team-consistency): Benchmark finding on whether teams share a method

## Facts

- Founder: Dmitri Lee, 28 years in presales, most recently Head of Sales Engineering, Americas at Zerto (HPE)
- Frameworks: COMPASS (direction), SAIL (momentum), ANCHOR (stress test)
- Deal Lab AI: deal inspection software, Free plan and Pro at $19.99 per month
- Deal Lab Coach: free practice tool, one module per day
- /revenue-leaders: Deal management training for SE teams, addressed to CROs and VPs of Sales who own the number. The 90 percent technical win versus roughly half close gap, the mechanism, published results, and three entry points.

## Deal Flow Benchmark instrument v1

The full instrument is public. Questions one, two, three, five and six frozen 9 September 2026. Question four added 17 September 2026. Nothing reworded since. Run them exactly as written and in this order or results are not comparable with the published field.

1. When do you usually first hear about a deal you will work? (Before the first customer call / Before discovery / After discovery, before the demo / When the demo gets scheduled / No pattern, it varies completely)
2. Of your last two weeks, roughly what share of your time went to deals that will genuinely close? (0 to 20% / 21 to 40% / 41 to 60% / 61 to 80% / 81 to 100%)
3. When you are fairly sure a deal is not real, what actually happens? (I say so and the deal changes course / I say so and nothing changes / I mention it, but not formally / I keep working it and say nothing / It has not really come up)
4. When you believe a deal is not real, who do you talk to first? (The account executive on the deal / A peer on the presales team / My presales leader / The sales leader above the account executive / No one, I keep it to myself)
5. What is missing for you to be most effective? (open text, one or two words)
6. Do you and your peers run deals the same way? (Yes, we are consistent / Mostly, with personal variations / No, everyone has their own approach / I genuinely do not know how others work)

## Deal Flow Benchmark findings

Original research by Dmitri Lee, Presales Navigation System. An ongoing study. Findings current as of October 2026, answered anonymously inside each team's own meeting. No organisation is named publicly. The full field will be published when the study completes. Free to run: https://presalesnavigator.com/benchmark

- Fifty nine percent of sales engineers enter a deal only after discovery is already finished. Twenty seven percent get in before it ends. Fourteen percent report no pattern.
- Sales engineers spend about forty percent of their time on deals that genuinely close. Fifty seven percent report forty percent or less. Not one engineer measured has reported more than eighty percent.
- Fewer than five percent of sales engineers keep working a deal they do not believe in and say nothing. Ninety two percent raise it. Of those who raise it formally, sixty one percent see nothing change.
- Eighty nine percent of sales engineers take a doubt about a deal to the account executive and nowhere else. None take it to a peer.
- Under two percent of sales engineers say their team runs deals the same way as each other. Twelve percent do not know how their colleagues work at all.