Before heading out to buy a Palm Pre, it is very important that you do some soul searching to make sure it’s the right phone for you. If you don’t prepare yourself, Sprint employees will do it for you when you arrive. According to Sprint’s Pre business launch guide leaked by Engadget, sales staff are trained to properly qualify customers because they “can’t afford to sell the Pre to the wrong customers.” Dan Hesse has already stated that there’s concerned of Pre shortage at launch, so every sale needs to count. Otherwise, returns cost Sprint and Palm money simply because those returned units cannot be sold as new.

Here are key questions you need to ask yourself:

Does your company have specific security and manageability requirements for mobile devices, specific application requirements, require specific product features mobile devices, or centrally provision devices for large deployments? If you answer YES to all the above, then expect Sprint to push the Treo Pro (Windows Mobile) as an option over the Palm Pre. Otherwise, the Pre will be your best mobile device option.

For non-IT centric customers, Sprint recommend the Pre to businesses that do not require an extensive set of security policies, centralized mobile device control, dependent on IT infrastructure or generally smaller than 99-employees.

From my personal perspective, if you follow the above guideline to determine if the Palm Pre is right for you, as Sascha Segan from PCMag.com tweeted yesterday, “you shouldn’t use the leaked slides to make buying decisions or you are likely to end up sad, frustrated, disappointed.” Well said my friend.