Keep Singing, Batman!
He’s singing my song! The “Holy UC, Batman..” article by my colleague Jay Brandstadter certainly struck a chord with me. For years, I have avoided falling into the jargon pit that both the voice and data industries seem to love so much; and there is good reason for this avoidance. When I work with resellers, whether VARs or telecom dealers, one of my goals is to help them understand the importance of consultative selling rather than product selling. To me this means approaching any sale from the perspective of the customer’s needs rather than from technology and products. So I try to speak the language of business… not technical jargon (of course, this encourages some in our industry to assume that I don’t understand the technology - too bad for them).
But to my point… it seems to me that the unified communications industry is so busy trying to define UC according to what a product or group of products can DO, that they’re missing a very important issue. THEY’RE CONFUSING CUSTOMERS! And when customers are confused, they don’t buy! Why not define UC according to what it means to a business - how it can improve business overall? It’s similar to defining a car as a vehicle with 2 or 4doors, 4 wheels, an engine, etc. So what? From a customer perspective, a car is a means of getting them from here to there quickly, safely and comfortably. THAT’s why they buy a car.
If I’m a customer, I don’t care if “UC” is about presence or mobility, or even integrating business processes with my communications system. I’m going to buy a solution (whether it is “real” UC or not) solely because it is going to make my business more profitable by reducing costs, making my employees more productive and/or improving customer service.
If UC is to grow as an industry, customers must buy solutions that we know are made up of products and software that we manufacture or develop…. and today’s customers are smarter than ever. Steve Burgess, a very savvy integrator and CEO of Guidant Partners, firmly says that the customer doesn’t care HOW it works, they just care that it DOES work - and that it makes a positive difference in their business. So I’m going to be so bold as to offer another definition for “UC”…. Unified communications brings together and utilizes communication tools and information tools to make workers more productive from wherever they are, provide management with the information and means to make better and faster decisions, provide better customer service and improved customer experiences, and overall help a company be more profitable. How are we going to do this? The person who signs the check to buy doesn’t really care how!!!!!!! Only the vendors who provide the products and the distribution channels who sell and install those products care “how”.
Let’s stop talking to ourselves and begin talking to the customer - please!
Great Blog Pam !
To take a slightly different tack on this..
I have a phrase like yours and Steve’s which goes along the lines of ” Many people would rather buy something that they know works even if it appears old technology rather than something that they are not sure works and is new technology “.
If someone wants to stall or slow an industry,initiative or sale they apply F.U.D. ( Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt ) and sometimes customers get concerned about the new technology.
Arguably this tactic has in fact slowed the convergence and UC industry but so has the point you make.
In fact it is so important to do what you have said because of this tactic.
The customer needs to be clear what the business benefits of adopting UC are because otherwise they may be deflected from, to some extent, pioneering.
( I think that we can assume that some aspects of UC are in early adopter phase ).
Pioneering is a calculated risk - the business benefits of being at the forefront outweigh the risks of being an early adopter.
If the business benefits are not clear the journey is likely to be cancelled !!!
Hi,
I’m looking into the business case for unified communications solutions for SMEs.
I’ve designed a survey to help me understand use of communication at work at if deployed, how UC could reduce those costs.
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/60884/unifiedcommunications
I hope that participation from technology experts and enthusiasts like the readers of this blog will help in my goal.