Learn why focusing on solution benefits will outsell product features every single time.
Modern telecoms customers want a lot more than ‘just’ a phone line and a PBX. Shifting business priorities and changing operating procedures demand new solutions to old problems. To ensure business success, communications suppliers must now offer solutions that address these new challenges and demands.
Delivering what they (and you) want
The modern business demands increased flexibility along with a new focus on mobility. Traditional systems may be able to deliver a working solution, but the complexities involved in doing so tend to cancel out many of the cost-savings.
As a reseller in the internet era, you need to consider how newer technologies, such as hosted telecoms systems, can better deliver according to your customers’ needs. Focusing on customer requirements rather than system functionality will change the way you sell – and should make you more successful in the process. Start thinking in terms of the benefits, not the features.
“Can you give an affirmative answer to the question “Will this one thing improve the life, cost, health or well-being of someone?” If the answer is yes, then you have a benefit that can be marketed to this someone who’s part of your target market. If the answer is no, chances are, you’ve identified a feature. You must now find the benefit associated with that feature. If there’s no benefit, forget about it.” – Sales Tip: Stop Listing Features. Tell Your Customers the Benefits.
Manage spend (and income)
The global financial crisis has taught us one thing – that there is a need to better plan budgets and manage spend.
To tackle this challenge, look at providing solutions that are specifically designed to give your customers a better understanding of their current telecoms spend. Hosted systems can help businesses plan their telecoms spend more effectively – hardware and software maintenance bills that are included as part of a flat-rate service fee for example.
“With cloud computing, there’s no need to over-engineer or manage capacity with the ability to provision new capabilities almost instantly. And if usage is decreasing, you can reduce resources in parallel, also cutting costs.” – Time To Think About Cloud Computing – Information Week.
Complete flexibility
For the majority of businesses that have downsized or outsourced, it’s likely that their telecoms system has remained unchanged. This means that more often than not they’re paying for support and maintenance of equipment that is no longer being used.
But what are their options? Well they could sell unused equipment and cancel their support contracts, but should they need to increase headcount in the future, they’d also have to increase capital spend to replace the missing capacity.
Hosted solutions offer a more attractive proposition as using this model, the telecoms infrastructure is owned and maintained by the supplier, immediately reducing capital expenditure. But with easy online provisioning, customers can increase their capacity within minutes without the need for onsite maintenance. Better still, they only ever pay for the resources they use.
Adapting to the new marketplace
To address the changing needs of your customers, you’ll need to:
› Think like a customer – what do they need, not what can you offer
› Think finance – source solutions that help your customers to better manage their expenditure
› Think flexibility – recommend solutions that are easily scalable in line with their business needs
