Eco System Specialism

How much thought do you give to the Eco system of your specialism?

Fear not this isn’t a twist on the Darwinist argument; more the opportunity to raise awareness on just how broad your speciality probably is.

Let’s run with an obvious one first which is the Microsoft Voice product range.  This is typically the hardest item to deliver to any reseller who’s first question is; “How do we make money out of it?”  The answer in all likelihood is that you don’t.  Obviously this is a fantastic business proposition then…(!)  What you do make money from is the Eco-system and the services in providing it.Naturally the challenge here scales disproportionately depending on the positioning of the reseller in the first place; but assuming the reseller has a services proposition already in place and can deliver Professional Services then in effect they stand to make some significant margin over what is essentially ‘free’ licensing for some end-users.  There are however some obvious problems with my money making observations; chief of which is the length of time it takes to deliver a single service such as Lync or Exchange which more often and not brings the margin vs effort ratio plummeting back down to earth. 

So what’s the answer? Well for MS it’s hardware endpoints, they have created a ‘Optimised for Lync’ range which engages with vendors such as Polycom – who also provide conference phones, Aastra and snom for phones. There are also headsets such as Jabra, Plantronics and Logitech.  Finally an entire range of HP and Dell laptops are also covered which amounts to a certain guarantee of quality for the customer. 

To the most part these are quick sells but this is where the Eco-system also extends into service; for example if you know the customer is intending to use the USB headsets in a noisy call centre environment then dual microphones are required. The service and experience offered here more often and not justifies the extra expense to the customer. It’s the little things…

So moving this subject away from Microsoft but staying within the refines of Voice over IP, the hardest challenge for any sales professional in this arena is when they are presented with an enthusiastic end user who wants the latest VoIP system; yet has no desire to upgrade their network infrastructure from string to something more palatable like Cisco or HP.  In my experience there are two obvious stances here both of which have the same end goal.

1. Offer the customer a network health check and highlight what elements of their network need to be updated and why.
2. Walk away.

Now personally I’m a fan of number two. Having spent all too long at customer sites when a sales team have sought margin over common sense and gone ahead with selling a solution minus the infrastructure updates it is ultimately the customer that suffers.  All I will say is that for one role I did the sales guys changed regularly after being given their marching orders for the same reason again and again.  The company would end up forking out for their customer’s network updates to make the solution work as it was sold to them and to retain their reputation, which in this day and age of social media it is incredibly easy to lose a reputation in seconds not months.

So why walk away?

Well three elements, one is protecting your company’s interests and reputation, lest not forget your own as well.  Plus let’s face it do you really want to be working with a customer who essentially wants a large brick mansion built on a foundation supported by mud?

Finally and for me the oldest trick in the book is that if the customer has any credibility then they will realise at the point you stand up to walk away that you are about service first and margin second, yet it costs you nothing…

Any thoughts? Please comment below or email me at:

Chris.Ovett@Azlan.com