OK – I have to admit it….. I have a love/hate relationship with social media.  While I find it useful as a networking tool, I go crazy when I have to read about what someone is fixing for dinner tonight!  For business – yes!  For personal – not my thing (yet)!  But I just finished reading an interesting article about social media in the context of business and realized that the UC reseller channel (solutions integrators) would be remiss in not acquainting themselves with the tools that young people entering the workforce take for granted, not to mention other older-but-still-savvy workers.

 Do I have enough hours in my day to add tweeting to my tasks?  I’d better!  And what about LinkedIn?  I’ve found former colleagues and potential business associates on LinkedIn.  Prospective clients have found me!  Yes, social networking is here to stay and is just going to become ever more pervasive.  In fact, the UCStrategies team has already added social networking to the topics for resellers and consultants at the UC Summit 2011.  You’ll see it right up there with mobility, collaboration, video, cloud-based unified communication solutions and other key areas that UC solutions integrators, consultants and vendors will be exploring and discussing at the next Summit.

 The usefulness of social media in the business climate cannot be underestimated.  Companies are using blogs and tweets to establish their own expertise in an area and to create dialogs with people in potential customer companies that they might not be able to reach otherwise.  And what a great vehicle for keeping customers happy!  It’s easy to keep your fingers on the pulse of your customers when they are expressing their satisfaction or frustration in real time.  And what about more personal service – tweeting about problems and fixes, new products, and on and on?

 And resellers (solutions integrators) not only should know about social media for intelligent discussions with their customers; they should also be using this resource as a tool for their own business.  Drink the kool-aid!  There are still too many telecom dealers who are struggling to move past TWIWAD (“that’s the way it was always done”) and start using today’s technology tools in their own business.  Social media is just one of those tools – but it’s growing in importance for both the reseller/solutions integrator’s own business and for their customers.  So start tweeting…. join LinkedIn…. but I still don’t want to know on my Facebook page what you’re going to fix for dinner!

Tags: Unified Communications Information by Pam Avila
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Score one for Microsoft!  In a recent blog on the Microsoft Dynamics Partner Community site, Kevin Machayya talked about a special offer - Analyst Relations for the Channel - for Microsoft channel partners.  Once I worked through the corporate speak, I figured out that it provides the partners with access to market trend data and business strategy validation such as Gartner’s Magic Quadrant, as well as access to Gartner webcasts and a special Gartner portal.  Of course, I can’t get into the partner portal to see if there’s an associated cost, but I’m hoping not - or that it’s very minimal and hence affordable.

And score one for IBM, who is offering to their PartnerWorld members sales training - real sales training, not product sales training - for a number of vertical markets.  This one isn’t free, but for the value that it provides, it’s well worth the nominal expense for any VAR (or telecom dealer, for that matter) who wants to shift from selling “boxes” to the more profitable selling solutions.  Years ago when IBM only sold direct and used solution selling sales training that was the envy of many manufacturers, I had the opportunity to be trained  IBM-style (long story….old history).  I’ve been a “consultative selling” evangelist ever since because I know it works!

So why am I tooting the horn for these two vendors?  FINALLY, we’re seeing manufacturers take significant positive steps to actually help their channel partners become stronger and smarter.  What vendor plans their future strategy without having market data to refer to?  What reseller can afford to pay for access to similar market data?  But they’ve needed the information just as much as their vendor partners.  How long have vendors been offering product sales training to their partners, when savvy and successful resellers have figured out that they can’t be successful selling products - they have to sell solutions and professional services?  This is especially true in the UC space.

A few sales leads that usually don’t go very far….. marketing collateral that focuses on products, not solutions….. marketing funds that are usually only good for product-focused events/advertising…..all typical elements of most vendors’ channel programs.  FINALLY we’re seeing signs that vendors are figuring out the same thing that I’ve been recommending over and over and over again on the Sierra Summit Group website and have integrated into the UCStrategies UC Summit events - today’s resellers (solutions integrators) need more from their vendor partners if they are to survive and thrive.  With an economic downturn still in full swing, a better set of sales and sales support tools are essential to equipping channel partners with every possible advantage to drive revenue. It’s time for vendors to think outside the traditional channel program/support box!  Let’s see more vendors stepping up!  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that if the reseller channel succeeds, everyone wins!

Tags: Unified Communications, Unified Communications Information by Pam Avila
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I don’t know whether to laugh or cry!  Avaya announced on Tuesday, May 26^th, that it is “inviting” Nortel and Siemens dealers to join the Avaya team through a fast-track program.  My first thought was that I’ll bet the announcement just made the day for current Avaya partners.  In many areas, Avaya dealers have already been competing against other Avaya partners – now they’ll have even more Avaya partners to compete against!  Whopee!? 

 My second thought was that if I was a savvy Nortel dealer, I would already have been exploring opportunities to bring my business into the changed world brought about by convergence, VoIP and unified communications – not to mention the current economic situation.  I would be looking for new vendor partners with both innovative products and a partner program that’s really a “partnership”.  I would NOT be looking for a new partner who is encumbered by years of legacy, even though this might feel like the “safe” option.  As a Nortel dealer, I would grab the opportunity to move my company into the fast-paced world of UC by aligning with visionary vendors, and with UC integrators/resellers that have heavy expertise on the data side but need expertise on the voice side to provide UC solutions.

 My third thought (yes, I can have more than 2 thoughts at one time….) moves to the question of how many of these Nortel dealers are currently successfully involved in VoIP and/or UC or moving in that direction.  Does Avaya need more dealers who are “exiters” waiting to sell their business rather than change to the new model that I describe in “The Industry has Left its Reseller Channel Behind”?  Or does Avaya need the “go getters” that I describe in that same article?

 Would it be crazy to imagine that every single Nortel dealer is already being courted by the likes of Mitel, NEC, Cisco, Microsoft and too many other manufacturers to name?  Right now, these dealers can pick and choose their vendor partners and if they are smart, in some cases, they can set the terms of the new “partnership”.  What a fantastic opportunity for these dealers to put themselves in a position to successfully move forward in a rapidly changing technology world…. in an already changed business environment where customers’ buying requirements make the PBX (of any type) a pull-through item.  Most of all, this is a golden opportunity for Nortel dealers to shed their own mantle of “legacy” and join the movers and shakers who will be the successful dealers of tomorrow.

Tags: Unified Communications Information by Pam Avila
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Sometimes my not-so-lofty thoughts strike a nerve out there.  This time I struck a number of nerves.  I’ve had several comments to my last blogs (take a look at them) discussing the need for resellers to learn how to consultative sell but each of the comments only sees a part of a quite complex issue. 

One comment decried the use of the word “reseller”, saying that UC requires so much more than just “reselling” or “selling” the products.  While I heartily agree with this, the challenge is providing a term that everyone in the industry will understand.  I’ve tried describing the group as telecom dealers/VARs/SIs but that’s pretty darn cumbersome.  I’ve tried calling them “solutions integrators” but no one in the industry recognizes the term, hence they have no idea who I’m talking about.  A group that I managed several years ago – the CT Pioneers – came up with the term “convergence integrators”, which I still think is a great term to describe the telecom dealers, VARs and systems integrators who are now providing converged voice, data, and video solutions – but the UC people take exception to the term “converged” as being outdated.  Out of desperation – and lacking in creativity – I fell back on the term “resellers”, which everyone in the industry seems to understand, even if it does fall waaaaay short of what is actually being provided by this group.  Any suggestions? 

Another comment talked about the role of the vendors in providing “sales training” which in fact is really just product training (features and benefits).  I heartily agree with the person making the comment that the vendors have done a great disservice to unwitting resellers who think they’re actually getting sales training for their sales staff!  In point of fact, the vendors themselves, with their “sales training”, have contributed significantly to the inability of most resellers to really “sell” solutions and address customers’ business needs.  And resellers aren’t the only ones who have paid the price – so have the vendors themselves.  In one of my white papers, “Survival of the Fittest”, I talk about what vendors can do for their resellers to aid in the transition from low-margin product selling to higher margin consultative selling. 

And yet another comment, from a distributor, talked about how they are working to get their resellers to begin “consultative selling”.  Kudos to that distributor (wish I knew who they are)!  However – and of course there’s always a “however” – in reality the answer isn’t as simple as getting resellers to start using the consultative selling approach.  Consultative selling requires a change in the mindset of and a commitment from everyone in a reseller organization – from the CEO/owner to the technicians.  In another of my white papers, I talk about the changes that a reseller business has to make to compete in UC, and many of the changes are associated with consultative selling.  It requires an investment in “real” sales training from a third party organization.  It means taking sales people out of their comfort zone.  It means that the technical team has to be able to take the “business needs/problems” that the salesperson identifies and “translate” them into solutions based upon technology.  It’s just not simple – but the rewards are well worth it!  Ask the few resellers who have made the financial and training investments in switching to consultative selling and they’ll all tell you it has made a big difference in the growth and profitability of their company.  And by the way, consultative selling is not just for UC – it works just as well for selling straight data or telecom.  I know – I’ve done it!

Tags: Unified Communications Information by Pam Avila
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I knew I was probably asking for a miracle, but I didn’t realize what a big miracle it probably is!  I recently posted a blog about the challenge of getting telecom dealers and VARs to act like real sales professionals as they advance into selling UC solutions – it’s going to take a miracle, in my opinion!  I talked about a proposal that I had been asked to evaluate – and my evaluation was pretty brutal.  Boilerplate about how good the reseller is, how much their customers love them, blah, blah, blah.  What the proposal totally missed was any indication that the reseller understood the customer’s specific business needs and long range goals.

 So here’s Act II in what’s turning into a sad saga……  The customer went back to the reseller and took the time to tell them that he wanted to know why they were recommending that system.  How did it fit his company’s specific business needs better than other products?  How would it fit into the customer’s overall evolving UC strategy?  What business benefits could the customer expect if they implemented that recommendation?  Get where I’m going with this……?

 Guess what!  The customer received a second proposal from that same reseller – this time for one of the other 20+ remote offices.  Great opportunity for the reseller to show that they really were listening to the customer, wouldn’t you think?  Oh, no!  The second proposal was exactly like the first – 80% self-promoting boilerplate, 10% product boilerplate and 10% cost figures (no ROI, of course).

 Telecom dealers!  VARs!  Listen up!  Especially in these challenging economic times, customers are only buying when the purchase will have a positive impact on their business – reduce expenses, increase revenue, improve customer service, etc.  They ARE NOT making buying decisions based upon how great your company is!  Or how much you are loved by your other customers!  If you have ever wondered how to make your own business more successful, this is a great place to start – begin focusing on your customers’ business needs and stop focusing on the products that you have to sell.  In a recent video presentation on The Inside Advantage: 4 Steps to Unlocking the Hidden Growth of Your Business, Robert Bloom stated quite clearly that “sellers have to think like buyers” if they are to succeed.  I totally agree with him, based on my own experiences in sales!  So get yourself into your customer’s head and start seeing better and bigger sales as a result!

Tags: Unified Communications by Pam Avila
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I’m looking for a miracle!  A couple of weeks ago a company contacted me for some assistance with a proposal that they had received for a “phone system” for one of their 20+ remote offices.  I told them I’d look at the proposal and give them my thoughts.  When I saw the proposal, my first thought was “What the heck is this reseller thinking?”  My second thought was, “Don’t they ever learn?”  Will it take a miracle to get resellers to act as sales professionals instead of used car salesmen?   

More than ten years ago, I began working with data VARs and telecom dealers who were interested in changing their business models to address the new opportunities being offered by “CTI” (computer telephony integration)….. then VoIP…. and now “UC” (unified communications). One of the areas we focused on over the years was the sales process for those in the reseller channel.  It’s well documented that too many resellers sell product, not business solutions, contributing to low margins and low revenue overall. Oh, some of these resellers claim they’re selling VoIP or UC “solutions” because they integrate several products to create a “solution” – but we know this isn’t solution selling.  It isn’t focused on addressing a customer’s specific business needs – it’s focused on selling products.  And too many reseller proposals reflect this product focus, to their detriment, not to mention to their customers’ detriment.

Here’s the perfect example of a product-focused proposal that is a lost sale in the making….follow me on this one.  The proposal looked professional and had lots of info about why a customer wants to do business with this particular reseller.  It talked about relationships and trust.  It talked about excellent service.  It described the product/phone system that the reseller recommended for this customer.  It gave a bottom line price for the system.  And all of this from a reseller that I had recommended because I considered them to be way above the norm in professionalism and understanding consultative/solution selling.

But what the proposal didn’t do – and should have in a true consultative/solution selling environment – was address the customer’s specific issues and questions.  Nowhere in the proposal did the reseller indicate that they understood the customer’s business overall, much less their communication strategy.  Nowhere did the reseller indicate why they were proposing this particular product to this particular customer.  Why not product A or B instead of product C?  Nowhere did the reseller talk about how the end-users would actually benefit from having the proposed product in their office, or how management would benefit by selecting and installing the product?  Needless to say, the prospective customer was left with a lot of questions and a lack of confidence in the reseller, which is too bad because that prospect was looking to the reseller to help them develop a long term voice and data (UC) strategy that would address all of their remote offices plus their headquarters.

On my own website, in a more recent White Paper directed to vendors, I discuss the economic prospects for those resellers who have committed their business to consultative/solution selling versus the prospects for those resellers who still insist on focusing on product.

Was the situation described here a blown opportunity?  Probably!  I’m still waiting for the miracle that will turn low margins into higher margins and small sales into bigger sales….. the miracle that  will only come when the reseller channel learns how to perform even a basic consultative sale.

Tags: Unified Communications by Pam Avila
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I never cease to be amazed at how badly we communicate within the “communications industry” and now the “unified communications industry”. Of course, the BIG news is Nortel filing for bankruptcy, but they have had other “news” lately as well and one announcement triggered some thoughts on reseller education and certification.  I just read an article in Network World about Nortel announcing a “vendor neutral” Unified Communications course for end-users and technical people. “The program is designed for channel partners and end-customers and professionally-speaking, it will also be for sales engineers and IT department professionals since there’s more of a pre-sales UC focus,” says Scott Schauer of Nortel.  Now, my amazement comes because here again is an isolated effort to “educate” the various constituencies in UC – and I’m sure the “education” has a definite bias to some degree.     

 First, call me a pessimist (I prefer to think I’m “experienced”) but I never trust vendor neutral material from a vendor. Second, is Nortel not aware of the Convergence + certification from CompTIA, an industry-wide organization well known for its vendor neutral certifications? Isn’t it time this industry started working together to coordinate resources and information?

 What could be more “vendor neutral” than an education program developed by a non-vendor, with input from a cross section of industry vendors? Granted Nortel’s guide is purported to discuss solutions as well as technical issues, but it is still Nortel’s.

According to Scott Schauer, “The self-study guide is available from Nortel Press, a Nortel authorized publisher that develops guides for IT professionals and other individuals who support Nortel products and solutions.” And Scott goes on to describe the Nortel certification program. Here we are again….. another certification program for resellers to invest in. 

 Vendors – hear these words of wisdom….. in my latest white paper “Survival of the Fittest Will Rule Your Channel”, I explain how resellers are finding the going tough in these economic times. I suggest here that limited certifications (i.e. vendor specific) will fall far down the list in their budgets. One of the toughest issues from the reseller perspective is the time that a technician or technical engineer spends on the same basics in each and every training they attend/take. We should all know that technician time equals money and time spent away from the customer equals lost revenue. There is an excellent means for all vendors to ensure that those attending their technical training/certification have a solid foundation in VoIP and UC when they begin the vendor’s training and are not “wasting” valuable time repeating the “basics” each time they begin a training. And think of this – as a vendor, you won’t have to expend valuable resources developing the “convergence/UC basics” portion of your training. 

 My suggestion to all VoIP and UC vendors….. start thinking as a member of a community and look into making CompTIA’s Convergence + certification a pre-requisite for your own technical training/certification. You and your reseller partners will thank me later!

Tags: Unified Communications Information by Pam Avila
2 Comments »

What a surprise! A judge found some of the provisions in Cisco’s ICPA (indirect channel partner agreement) to be “clearly one-sided” and “unconscionable”, and found no evidence that Cisco has ever negotiated a partner contract. Now I could say I was shocked and appalled, but the truth is that I don’t recall ever seeing an indirect channel partner contract - from any major manufacturer - that wasn’t one-sided and non-negotiable. At times, the one-sided nature of partner agreements has even led me to question the use of the word “partner” to describe the relationship between some manufacturers and their reseller channel.

In this particular situation, the provisions in question revolved around termination (of the partner) and damage limitations (the vendor’s, of course). I understand the need of a business to protect its’ interests. However, what I don’t understand is protecting those interests at the expense of the “partner”. Whatever happened to the idea that a partnership is undertaken to be a win-win business relationship? The point is to create an environment where partners create and share in success - and sometimes in failure. Not to pick on Cisco - because they have some excellent elements in their partner program - but this is a great example of how one-sided the vendor-reseller relationship can be.

The data industry is a wonderful place to be. The pace is fast (make that frantic), and the changes in technology are exciting. But I believe that the industry has hurt itself with the dysfunctional relationship between manufacturers and their reseller channel. Rather than seeking ways to strengthen their resellers and help them be more successful (increasing the sales of the manufacturer’s products), many manufacturers have actually fostered the very elements that lead to the failure of many of their own channel “partners”. For example, we see partnership agreements that require a great deal of the reseller and give little in return, including “sales” training which encourages “box selling” leading to low margins, flooding geographic areas with many resellers with the same product competing against each other, onerous certification requirements for infrastructure products, and on and on. On my website, www.sierrasummitgroup.com, I discuss what is essential for resellers to be successful, and mention the importance of vendor selection in the reseller’s success. When all else is stripped away from the relationship, the degree to which vendors actually contribute to resellers’ success directly impacts the volume of products sold - i.e. the vendors’ success.

My words of advice…. vendors beware! Those one-sided channel “partnerships” may now come under some heavy scrutiny from the “other side” of the partnership.

Tags: Unified Communications, Unified Communications Information by Pam Avila
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