ChannelVision Magazine July-August 2016

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ter start talking about the price and
the spiff then!
A spiff war already is happen-
ing. Partners are being bombarded
by spiff. Some of it is to capture
attention. Some of it is to buy mar-
ket share.
Carriers would be wise to use
spiffs to get partners to take notice
of other types of services such as
Office 365, conferencing or backup.
These services are different to sell
than bandwidth, but they are stickier
and can lead to the sale of other ser-
vices. They also allow the partner to
have a diverse conversation with the
prospective customer. It is a good
time to take advantage of all the
noise and hype around Microsoft.
Leverage that brand and press to
get meetings, get a small sale, and
prove yourself.
Understandably, getting partners
to sell services such as hosted
email, cloud, conferencing, backup
and SaaS is the struggle. Chief rea-
son is that they are heads done just
trying to sell enough to stay afloat.
Price compression on DIA, T1,
broadband and voice means that
you have to sell two or three times
as many deals to make the same as
you did a few years ago.
That is exactly why when you
have their attention at the next con-
ference or webinar that you cannot
give the same spiel that you have
been using during your entire career
in telecom. You want change? Then
your spiel has to change. Start tell-
ing stories about successes, deals,
business outcomes and hot buttons
– even ways to newsjack.
We live in a social media world
with sound bites. You have to adjust
for that. Choose words carefully. Be
impactful. Be visual. Be emotive.
This sounds like a lot. It is, and
it isn’t. If you aren’t preparing for
presentations then it is a lot of extra
work (over winging it). If you are
preparing, it is the same amount of
time used in a different manner.
Many blogs today use tweet-able
phrases with a link to tweet this now.
Every presentation has one goal. What
is that? The entire presentation should
be that one concise goal. That goal
should be about 140 characters. The
stories should underscore that goal.
“The key in mastering any kind of
sales is switching statements about
you and how great you are and what
you do, to state-
ments about
them, and how
great they are
and how they will
produce more
and profit more
from ownership of your product or
service,” advises business trainer,
speaker and author, Jeffrey Gitomer.
“If leaders are to be followed,” he
says, “it starts with clarity of message.”
Peter Radizeski, president of
RAD-INFO INC, started as a VAR,
then became an agent. Now he
writes about the channel and the
telecom space while consulting to
service providers and occasionally
still selling some circuits.
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July - August 2016 | CHANNELVISION