今年售前这工资是认真的吗？

PresalesChina Community (售前青云荟) publishes a job posting every Saturday, without fail.

After nearly two years of doing this, I'd never actually compared the postings side by side.

Today it's raining in Beijing. Nowhere to go.

I brewed a cup of tea, opened up the recent JDs—19 positions in total—and lined them up on my screen.

And then I felt... a bit dazed.

Presales Job Postings 2026-08-01

I had AI compile a quick summary of recent postings. Take a look at this table first.

I swear, not a single word changed—copied straight from the JDs:

The highest pays 80K a month. The lowest pays 15K.

Different roles? They're all called "Presales" and "Solutions." Different experience requirements? All say "5+ years." Different education bars? All uniformly "full-time bachelor's degree."

Yet the pay gap is a full 5x.

My first reaction was, of course, discomfort. But the longer I looked, the more that discomfort turned into curiosity—what exactly do these JDs say? What justifies the price tag?

So I clicked into each one, and I'll read them to you.

Let's start with the lowest one

Energy Industry Presales Supervisor. Monthly salary: 15,000 — 23,000 RMB.

The JD is long. Very long. I scrolled down for a while. Here's what it says:

Responsible for building and managing the presales technical support system for the energy industry (mining, power, metallurgy, chemicals, etc.), coordinating industry-wide presales resources...

Responsible for presales support for key accounts and key projects, including customer requirement research, technical exchanges, solution presentations, system demos, POC testing, and project advancement...

Responsible for bidding on major energy industry projects, organizing the preparation of technical proposals, bid documents, technical responses, and solution reviews...

Responsible for customer requirement analysis and technical risk assessment, producing key deliverables such as requirement analysis reports, overall technical solutions, and implementation recommendations...

Responsible for cross-functional collaboration with sales, R&D, and delivery teams...

Responsible for building and managing the industry presales team, including team member development, mentoring, performance evaluation, and knowledge management...

Responsible for building presales assets such as industry case studies, standard solutions, bidding materials, and competitive analysis...

I counted three times: 10 responsibilities.

Leading a team. Managing multi-million-yuan projects. Writing proposals. Running bids. Building asset libraries. Doing competitive analysis. Coordinating with R&D and delivery... Pick any two of these, and at most companies that's a Director-level role.

Compensation: 15K to 23K.

Now let's look at the ones above 50K

Senior Solutions Expert, AI + Smart Hardware track, 30K — 55K.

There's a passage in this JD that made me pause for several seconds:

No robotics/embodied intelligence experience required. We value your underlying problem-solving ability. You can learn the product on the job.

"No experience required." "Underlying ability." "You can learn on the job."

This isn't a JD that's screening candidates. This is a JD that's begging for candidates. The tone carries a careful, almost tentative sincerity—as if afraid you might think you're not good enough, so it quickly adds: Don't worry, we're not picky.

Salary: 30K to 55K.

Solutions Manager, Residential Energy Storage, Overseas Market. 40K — 50K.

There's a line in this JD that I think every presales professional should read:

Translate technical language into the benefits and value that users care about.

And this:

Fluent in written and spoken Chinese and English. Must hold a valid EU visa. Able to independently write bilingual marketing materials and deliver presentations, livestreams, or training to overseas clients.

"Must hold a valid EU visa."

You could do presales for ten years and never imagine seeing that sentence in a JD.

And if you look closely—this role isn't doing traditional presales work. It's market insight. Product positioning. Global sales enablement. Trade show presentations. It's clearly three roles—product marketing manager, GTM manager, and presales architect—compressed into one.

Many people would say: "One person doing three jobs. That's brutal."

But the salary is: 40K to 50K.

And that energy presales supervisor—also one person doing three jobs—gets paid 15K.

Same "brutal" workload, different price tags.

Presales Key Account Expert, Telecom Industry, VIP Client Mandate. Annual salary: 600K+.

This is a position directly commissioned by one of our training clients. The JD is also long, but in a different way. Here's how it's written:

As a senior systems architect, partner with core VIP accounts and work with the responsible presales team to form a core unit, owning the commercial success of designated key account breakthroughs and retention.

As the presales technical leader, synthesize experience from key accounts and major projects, lead technical architecture design for specific verticals, and codify replicable architecture design methodologies.

As an internal instructor, collaborate with presales training departments or regional teams, participate in cross-regional technical exchanges, develop internal training materials, explain technical architecture design, and share customer case studies.

See that?

The energy presales supervisor role crams 10 responsibilities under a "Supervisor" title, each one a task list. This role? Every responsibility is preceded by an identity—"Senior Systems Architect," "Presales Technical Leader," "Internal Instructor."

It's not that the work is different. It's that the packaging is different.

The former says: "Here's a pile of work. You do all of it." The latter says: "Here's a set of identities. You are all of them."

But at the end of the day, both are saying: this person needs to be able to do a lot.

The difference? One pays 15K. The other pays 600K annually.

And some JDs that, as you read them, make you realize... the world has changed

Solutions Expert, Drone Direction, 30K — 60K.

Identify regional market needs, monitor competitive intelligence, and discover new industries and scenarios for drone applications.

Two years ago, if you searched "drone presales" on job boards, you'd likely get zero results. Now it starts at 30K.

Sales Solutions, AI Compute & Large Models Direction, 30K — 60K.

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