Vendors are adding AI, video, SMS, CX and so much more to their UCaaS offering. Boil that down and that means voice is just one component. Stop focusing on just voice!
The ROI for UCaaS comes from the many components that a unified offering can replace like video conferencing, audio bridge, team chat, file share, and so much more. To really sell the value of Unified Comms, we need to break away from selling voice replacement.
The first word is Unified. The whole idea behind that was efficiency in having a single pane of glass for many forms of communications. Customer Experience and omni-channel take that to another level. Being able to see WhatsApp, social media, texts and more in a single window is the holy grail for very small businesses who have to have their coordinator work with six apps open all day. Now it can all flow to one window to make it efficient. This means we are affording the customer of time savings in minutes every day.
These are talking points to have with prospects and customers. Most customers may not know about the added functionality since they signed on. Most businesses have employee turn-over so the employees may be unaware of the many advantages of your service offering. Education is a vital part of sales and retention. We have to remember that what we are really selling is a Software Platform – and the myriad capabilities that flow from that. It is a full stack of software that includes voice, but goes far beyond that.
Because it is software, it can integrate with other software. These software integrations have increasingly improved and with AI will become an even bigger driver of productivity for many workers. Inputting data once and having it available across the workflow is a dream for workers.
Sellers normally forget to ask the buyer about software being used in the business. The discussion typically is around the voice and PBX. Those are table stakes of commodity sales. Helping a business leverage the many aspects of the platform to propel the digital transformation of the business moves the sales rep from a sales rep to a business advisor. That’s where the magic happens.
Telling stories of how similar businesses took advantage of the platform will allow the buyer to see the possibility AND take a step away from PBX replacement. Remember that a key system buyer hasn’t shopped in over five years and the capabilities available to a small business now for $20 per user were unaffordable and unfathomable.
Many sales reps even forget to discuss the mobility piece of UCaaS. Work from Anywhere is still a viable business strategy. Businesses – even small ones – have many employees who are not just remote but mobile or at least on the move. Having a mobile friendly platform to stay in the know and on top of things is one more productivity point to make.
It is really easy to get caught up in PBX and voice replacement in the sales process, but we are the experts on this software platform. Our job is to educate the buyer on the many ways that this software can enhance his business and improve productivity for the workers.
During the sales process, you can have a discussion about the value of the platform and the outcomes that other businesses have derived from it or you can talk about the commodity component (voice), lower the price and hope for the best.
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https://www.netsapiens.com/partners/
Peter Radizeski Biography
Peter Radizeski is a veteran of the US Telecoms Channel based in the Sunshine State of Florida. He has assisted numerous prominent service providers across the United States in growing their businesses by offering guidance on sales training, marketing, channel development, and business strategy. He is a reliable source of knowledge about the telecom industry. His candid and straightforward Channel Playbook Blog is essential reading for industry insiders, and he is a sought-after speaker and moderator at industry events.