The VoIP PBX Reseller’s Survey Results

In our recent series of how to sell IP PBX systems we tried to point out a number of ways that you can improve your sales meetings, your consulting, and your quote process. We also wanted to take a baseline measurement today as to where the typical IP PBX reseller is at and see if our less formal survey would stand up to a wider audience. The results were almost exactly what we had expected. Many of you are struggling with how to really be effective at selling VoIP Phone Systems today. Hopefully, you can learn from the lessons we have been writing as well as see from the results that you aren’t alone.

Do You Sell Support/Maintenance Contracts

In what was actually one of the few surprises of the survey, 83% of the respondents actually sell support and maintenance contracts on a regular basis. Support contracts are a significant value-add to your customers that provide them with the security that you will be there to support their system. A support contract provides the customer with a generally discounted rate, and it provides you with recurring revenue. Many new resellers are reluctant to try to sell support contracts but they can be a very lucrative part of your business while providing your clients with a high level of support. The other advantage to you is that it binds this customer to you for an extended period of time, again, ensuring your long term success and revenue.

Do you manage adds/moves/changes for your customers?

The typical business person knows very little about managing a phone system, designing call flows, and managing IVRs. It was very good to see that 87.5% of you tend to manage your customers systems for them. We actually expected this number to be lower so this was yet another pleasant surprise. For the 12% of you who leave this to the customer, you may want to rethink that strategy and try to pick up more consulting revenue by providing this service to your customers. Some good pointers can be found in our article “How to sell a VoIP Phone System – Part 2 – The Call Flow Design”.

Do you design a flowchart for the IVR design?

Most people can more easily grasp concepts if they are presented visually so preparing a flow chart is an excellent way of making your customer feel comfortable with the system you are proposing. Almost 1/3 of you do not currently provide flowcharts of proposed call flows. Adding this to your quotes and proposals will go a long way to boosting your perceived value, enhancing your professionalism, and should help you close more jobs. At the same time, it will also make your job of programming the system easier by providing you with a visual roadmap of what needs to get done. After the initial programming, it is also a great tool for testing and troubleshooting  the call flow to ensure that it is working as designed.

Do you try to sell paging and intercom devices?

This one came as no surprise to us at all. With over half of the respondents not really selling any paging and intercom devices, this is a HUGE amount of business that isn’t being made. Traditional phone systems have a ratio of paging devices to desktop endpoints ranging from 10-20%. If you sell around 50 endpoints a month, which would be around 600 per year, you are probably missing out on selling around around 90 paging devices. If you really stop and take notice, you will be amazed at the number of paging devices you will see around you in businesses of all sizes. From simple ceiling speakers, to warehouse bullhorns, to external intercom boxes, as well as other types of paging and intercom devices. These devices not only provide a convenience to your customers but can also provide a means of providing emergency announcements that might otherwise not get heard.

Do you provide leasing options to your customers?

Let’s face it, this is a rough time in our economy and nobody can blame a company for trying to keep their expenses under tight control. If you can provide leasing options to your customers you can help them to afford a new system with very affordable monthly fees and little to no buyout option at the end. It is fairly easy to get setup with a leasing company and this is a sure-fire way to close more business. You get paid up front by the leasing company, the customer gets their equipment, and the customer pays a very small monthly payment. This is a win-win for everyone involved.

Do you provide itemized/line item quotes?

This is almost a guaranteed method of losing sales. With 87% of respondents  providing line item quotes, it is no wonder we hear from so many resellers that they are having problems closing deals or getting haggled to death over prices. There are numerous problems with providing your quote as a simple line-item and we discuss this in detail in our recent article ‘How to sell VoIP Phone Systems – The Quote’. If you want to impress your clients, close more business, and reduce the haggle-factor, than moving to a more professional quote process will help tremendously. If I am asked for one single tip that is most likely to improve sales, it would be to never deliver a line item quote…ever!

Do you resell dialtone and/or SIP trunking services?

We actually expected this to be much lower but 2/3 of the respondents said they are actively selling dialtone or SIP services on a regular basis. This is another excellent way to build up recurring revenue if you are setup as an affiliate or agent. We certainly recommend getting involved with companies that provide you a recurring payment versus a one-time signup fee. For those of you who have no idea how to even get started with this, one simple way is to signup with The World Telecom Group. As an agent of WTG, you can resell from a wide variety of services that you can tailor for each company and get paid for all the services your clients are using on a monthly basis.

Are you typically the IT and Network consultant for your PBX clients?

This came as no surprise to us at all. With 92% of respondents being IT/Data consultants, this clearly shows that this is the growing segment of the VoIP PBX reseller base. It also explains why a lot of you are having problems selling phone systems today. The IT business, while similar to the telephony business in terms of hardware and technology is vastly different in terms of the sales process and the level of customer interaction needed to successfully close deals.

The articles and training we are trying to provide to you is aimed at helping you overcome any barriers to success. Take a close look at the survey results here and see where you fall in. It may just be that with a little help, you can dramatically improve your results.

Tags: marketing, sales, VoIP, VoIP Education