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Changing Sales
Landscape
As businesses start to use
technology in new ways, the sales
process for channel partners is also
changing. Decision-makers are often
a team rather than one person, the
cycle is longer, and the trusted advi-
sor role is more important than ever.
There’s also the matter of institu-
tional and mindset shifts.
“You have to accept that the
market has changed,” said Antonini.
“For instance, T1s as an industry
standard were around since the
’70s. Now, the average bandwidth
is 10-20 megs. 20 megs is the most
common bandwidth. The move to
the cloud has driven bandwidth
needs way up, and prices are com-
ing down dramatically, so you have
to account for that.”
It’s also about understanding
the scope of the opportunity ahead.
“Telecom isn’t just selling phone
service or bandwidth solution, it’s
how these pieces tie together,
and partners need to embrace the
tools they have,” said Broadvoice’s
Ghahremanpour. “The era of sell-
ing dumb pipes is coming to a
close – and there are so many other
opportunities to go in and solve a
problem, such as offering an SD-
WAN to create a much more high-
quality, resilient network than they
have today.”
The additional challenge is the
fact that the IT and telecom worlds
have almost completed their col-
lision and are in many cases fully
melded. Yet telecom partners still
struggle with speaking IT’s lan-
guage, and vice versa.
“The challenge is to try to gain
that credibility in a market where the
IT suppliers have traditionally had
VARs in place,” said Antonini. “You
have to learn a new language.”
ARG’s Praske said that his agen-
cy has been retooling for the new
market realities for at least four years.
“It has become a more integral
conversation,” he said. “Before, you
may have talked to the IT depart-
ment, but what you’re doing now
is discussing the business chal-
lenges of each business unit, so
you’re talking outside of the techni-
cal aspects about what this can do
for your customer. You spend a lot
more time than ever before on the
total cost of ownership and ROI,
and opex vs. capex, and you’ll find
yourself having some pretty com-
plex finance conversations.”
That means that the channel
partner’s role has become more
complex in general.
“The IT department may have
researched some things, but you’re
now partnering with them to con-
sult with their company,” Praske
explained. “That requires a bunch
of different people – usually an en-
gagement with a larger group on the
client side – and on your side you
need a lot of specialities and knowl-
edge sets. But there’s definitely
an opportunity for the independent
channel person to go in and edu-
cate and assist through the busi-
ness process for their clients.”
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CHANNEL
VISION
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July - August 2016