Playbook Volume 10 - ChannelVision Magazine

“You don’t want a financial advisor to just start pushing mutual funds on you,” Siegler said. “You want them to ask questions about your family, and where you want to be in five years. We take the same approach, by asking customers what they want to do in their differ- ent locations, and what is important to them. Then we go from there.” Ecessa’s premises-based architecture treats SD-WAN like a traditional router, by putting the control and data plane together on the device. This gives customers more control over the routing policies of their network, eliminates sending the control plane to the cloud and avoids having to SD-WANSales Starters S oftware defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) is now generating significant mainstream adop- tion, with sales expected to continue growing at an annual rate of 69 percent through 2021. Tips for approaching customers about SD-WAN deployments In light of this growth, agents sell- ing enterprise connectivity need to be prepared to help customers under- stand the different types of architec- tures that are available. SD-WAN can be confusing, and a misunderstand- ing on either end can have costly consequences. “First of all, it’s very important for people to realize that SD-WAN isn’t a single thing, and there is no one way to address it,” explained Ecessa CEO Mike Siegler. “Even today, while SD-WAN is a buzzword and everyone has heard about it, the sales process is still very consulta- tive. Customers need trusted advisors that will ask the right questions.” Agents, Siegler added, should take a cue from how financial advi- sors approach customers. Source: Cato Networks Sur vey 18 THE CHANNEL MANAGER’S PLAYBOOK