Sennheiser's headphones enjoy huge popular support among consumers but their acclaim in the business market has been relatively mute until now...
Sennheiser has found its answer to a business communications world characterised by flux and opportunity. Admittedly slow to recognise the potential for headset sales in the enterprise space, Sennheiser has in recent times gained significant ground in comms territory and last month revealed plans to triple its market share in the UK by 2018, having already doubled its UK business year-on-year.
If these bold intentions haven't yet caught your ear, the noise cancelling properties of Sennheiser's just-launched Presence UC headset certainly will. This device, which is optimised for Lync, puts the finishing touches on the company's headset portfolio and its arrival comes at a time when the firm completed its relocation to an impressive new office complex at the Globe Business Park in Marlow, home to many ambitious comms and IT companies. Work is already underway on a demonstration facility at the premises that has now become the hub of a purposeful growth strategy supported by a long-term investment in product and channel development.
Not surprisingly, the wider context of Sennheiser's growth plans neatly align with positive predictions on the healthy state of the market for headset sales. For example, Frost and Sullivan is forecasting that the enterprise headset market will notch up total revenues of approximately $2.2 billion by 2019. Sennheiser has also crunched some big numbers, noting that headset attachment rates in UC currently stand at around five per cent with projected growth to 15 per cent by 2015, a figure that is set to double the following year. "We identified where the future opportunities will be found and refocused on the market accordingly," said Jane Craven, Director of Sales.
Sennheiser operates a channel-only model through distribution partners Nimans, Corptel UK, Go2 Telecom, Westcoast, and last month the company joined forces with IT distributor Triade. Significantly, Selective Distribution Agreements ensure that Sennheiser's products are properly sold by certified partners.
To better enable partners to sell its products, Sennheiser is now busy building on its The Blue Space partner portal and developing a new channel programme that will be rolled out later this year. Meanwhile, noted Craven: "The Corporate Account Team is also busy driving interest in Sennheiser headsets at end user level, prompting many customers to contact local resellers who then reactively fulfil end user requirements."
According to Craven this tactic is proving to be a strong model for generating sales, and the results also illustrate the strength of the Sennheiser brand which has become synonymous with quality. Such brand perception gives the company a foothold in the business market despite its relatively late arrival. And in an environment that on the face of things looks tightly sown up, it is also encouraging for Sennheiser that, aside from the UC piece, the wired headset replacement market is another exciting area of fertile ground for resellers.
"A big part of our growth is the adoption of wireless technology replacing wired, even in traditional contact centres," added Craven, who cited a recent project undertaken with Go2 Telecom to implement wireless headset technology into three of EE's UK contact centres. "EE understands the benefits of wireless and wanted to offer people flexibility and the ability to move around," added Craven. "EE wants its employees to feel valued so it gives staff a quality headset from day one. This investment in EE's agents has improved employee retention, which has been attributed to the adoption of wireless headsets."
Solutions such as this show how far Sennheiser has travelled since it first set about developing headsets for the Contact Centre and Office (CC&O) market just ten years ago. Its rapid advance in this area has been propelled by the firm's 70 year legacy in audio technology, from headphones and microphones for music listeners to aviation headsets and audiology products. Between 2003 and 2012 Sennheiser developed its CC&O headset product portfolio and globally revenues have risen by 19 per cent annually.
Now that its new Presence UC headset is neatly packed into the product kit bag, Sennheiser's mission in the Unified Comms space is to educate resellers, particularly IT system integrator sales channels, on the key point that a quality headset is integral to the entire UC roll out. "Driving this message is Unified Communications Sales Manager Ewan Stephenson who has built a reputation for helping SIs include the headset component at the beginning of the sale, enabling them to accrue more margin as well as supply a complete solution," commented Craven.
"We are working to increase awareness of our products and drive sales though promotions and incentives that offer more value and profit potential for partners. And we have a adopted a higher level of positioning with our distributors and resellers to ensure a significant market share for the Sennheiser brand now that we have the full portfolio with the launch of our Presence UC device."•