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VARketing Hacks
What’s up, HaaS?
No, not Hoss Cartwright from the hit series, Bonanza. (wow, I’m dating myself.. but then again I did that all through High School) No, I’m talking about Hardware as a Service. More and more, my partners are finding prospects and customers that don’t want to own it, don’t want to lease it.. they just want to rent it and make a monthly payment.
I’ve recently started working with partners to put together these types of financing vehicles and surprisingly, they’re not rocket science. Here’s how it works: A finance company owns the gear and collects money from the end user on a monthly basis. They pay you, the VAR, the markup on a monthly basis so you enjoy the ever so sweet recurring revenue so you can make your Lexus payment. Can the finance company handle financing for services and management over and above the hardware and wrap it into one simple payment? Absofreakinlutely.
While leasing takes a lot of the pain out of purchasing , I believe HaaS can take away some of the negatives of leasing. More and more, customers just want results in their business and are looking at creative ways to do more with less.
Need Catalyst to introduce you to a finance partner who can help you go to market with HaaS? I reckon you best call me..
How to get a Maserati Quattroporte in 3 months.
Maserati Quattroporte
Okay, I probably should have titled this “Instant Business Strategy, Part II”, but that wouldn’t have been as fun.
In the aforementioned recent post, I described a strategy to sell 80+ IP Offices per month yielding $50K in profit every month. Many of you have asked for the details around this strategy so here you go…
- Identify targets. Sign up for Proven Prospects who data-mines UCC filings on past equipment leases
- Search keywords: avaya, lucent, partner and select geography in timeframe desired (when lease was executed: for instance 72 to 51 months.)
- You may be able to negotiate a one time purchase of a comprehensive list..?
- You get 25 points per month free, but you can get more points by inviting others to join (I’ll get 25 points when YOU sign up)
- Drive targets to a landing page (like the one I mocked up) http://upgrademypartner.weebly.com/
- Google Adwords: pay for advertising for high volume, low competition phrases (like attached)
- I found 50 search terms that are “low competition” (inexpensive) yielding a cumulative 606,000 monthly searches. 1% conversion equals 6,060 people visit your website each month
- Conservatively, 2% (of the 6,060) order equaling 121 orders per month costing perhaps 50 cents each (~$3,000/month)
- This doesn’t factor in SEO and organic traffic which would be free and build significantly over time.
- I’m not a PPC (pay per click) expert so I can’t guarantee the math and conclusions above, but this is what I came up with.
- Another strategy: Pay someone $8/hour to wear an official looking maintenance/phone co looking uniform with your logo and Avaya logo. Have them canvas dense retail and small office areas for small businesses with Partner ACS phone systems (probably ~25% to 40%?) Your person hands an official looking envelope 8×11 envelope to the owner. On the outside the envelope says “Partner ACS End of Life Notice” and “Critical Information Regarding Your Communication System” That person says “It’s very important that the owner get this information”. Have your person “check in” on facebook with a dedicated facebook account so you can track which customers to follow up with (or just have them write it down
)
- Use the IP Office Partner Migration Tool Kit: https://partner.avaya.com/ptlWeb/smbs/spCP/CS2010618132625355032/C20106183022553020/SN2010618132757191040/SN2010618132757191040
- If you can convince the client the following are worth ~$50/month, you’ve got a customer. A better way to say it, it’s costing you $X/ month to stay on this Partner ACS system.
- Voicemail messages routed to email so you only have to check voicemails in one place.
- SIP trunking – which could drive down their monthly telecom spend to pay for system. Even better: PAETEC, for instance, has a program called “EFS” where they actually fund gear up front meaning your customer could upgrade for free or at least at a greatly reduced price.
- One-Number access means you don’t miss calls (missed calls = missed business)
- Free conference bridge (no more paying for hosted bridge)
- Dial by name directories and visual mail on new 1400 and 9500 series phones
- Voicemail: 2 additional ports and 13 additional hourse of storage!
- Built in Autoattendant since messaging is included.
- Send the enduser a postage paid envelope with a blank backup restore card. Have them swap cards and send their existing backup restore card to you so you can pull translations and programming that you will need for the new IP Office. If you have their backup restore card, as well as the number of phones, you should have everything you need. Also, more importantly, the very fact that they send their card to you gets them psychologically invested in the process of upgrading with you. This won’t cost you anything (except postage) since they are sending back their card.
- Catalyst performs system integration on the IP Office system before it ships. This includes testing for DOA, patching and upgrading. You can then email the programming file which our SI team will load into the IP Office. This costs around $200.
- Catalyst doesn’t invoice the system until we ship it. We ship blind to the end user for free (you charge the end user for “shipping and handling”= PURE PROFIT!).
- You arrange for rack+stack install since the IP Office is already programmed. Use a subcontractor from the following network www.onforce.com. Plan on $70 per hour, 2 hours = $140 remember the system is already programmed and these engineers are rated and reviewed by others so you know what you are getting (to some extent)
Instant Business Strategy: Just Add Water
- Use publicly available data mining tools to identify existing Partner ACS customers.
- Implement these systems very inexpensively by utilizing our staging services.
- Employ SEO and Pay per click to drive traffic to a website like the one above.
Quid Pro Quo
Based on the righteous teachings of Jim Sevier (via the SIP Smarts Series), I have organized and condensed a bite-sized SIP Playbook made for VAR sales reps. I will email you a copy of this amazing, no-fluff, high impact playbook if you (A) follow me on twitter (@convergencesoup); and (B) subscribe to my blog on feedburner. Deadline is next Friday (May 20th)
Good Selling!!
Tom
Social Media and Alter Ego (aka Don’t be a blow-hard)
Let’s face it, nobody wants to read on facebook about your whiz-bang technology. Think about it. How interested are you in reading on facebook or twitter, your insurance agent’s opinions on sufficient life insurance? Or your plumber’s new 24 hour rooter service? Chances are, your bloviations on cloud technology and WAN acceleration are equally dull to your target audience.. at least in a social media setting.
This is a hotly debated discussion I often have with VARs: Does social media really “work” for our industry? Isn’t social media geared more towards consumer products like Apple, Zappos, Fat Tire Beer, and the like?
My take is one of common sense. People put their eyeballs on social media, largely for some level of enjoyment. Do you think people really enjoy understanding how your SSL VPN has a lower TCO? They don’t. We’re all guilty of this. Heck, this very blog post may be guilty of it. I think there is yet another way to approach this — create an alter ego. Your company is Clark Kent — you need a Social Media Superman. Something that connects with your audience on a personal level.
This alter ego would be both a departure from your brand, but also have a connection to your brand. It would have a sort of theme or mantra. Here’s some ideas:
- Lifehacker is a popular website/blog because they include some really creative, counter-intuitive ideas, most of which can be implemented for little or no money. It demonstrates you’re not just trying to make money off the audience. You could include info on hacks to manage the network while you’re on vacation, free up bandwidth, tighten up security with freeware, get a better discount from carriers, you get the idea.
- Everybody cares about their career. If you focus content around how IT professionals can advance their careers and up their marketability, you’ve got an audience. People enjoy making more money and visualizing their ascent up the corporate ladder.
- Everybody likes to laugh. Sometimes, we really need to laugh. Sharing humor that is relevant to the industry strikes the perfect balance. There’s a lot of free tools out there like www.stripcreator.com to create free comic strips. Or you could create animation via goanimate. I know of one VAR that makes fake onion-esque news articles that spread virally. Here’s an example of a comic strip I created.
It’s possible to do all of the above while at the same time creating a path back to you for a discussion that leads to more business.
Really, it’s just common sense. It shouldn’t be all about you or the junk you sell, rather it should be all about your audience. Not many VARs have cracked the code here which is good. You’ve got a great opportunity to make social media work for you while your competition languishes.
What do you think?
Tom
Cloudy With a Chance of Pain…
Pain for whom? Pain for YOU if you aren’t paying attention to the Cloud. Friday, I wrote about the idea of using Google Apps to short-circuit Microsoft’s plan for inter-stellar domination in the UC space. Today, my proposed strategy received a worthy retort by early signs that Microsoft just may be getting it right with their Microsoft 365 solution (example.) Nonetheless, I think it’s safe to assume we have a battle royale on our hands between Microsoft and Google which will have far reaching impact on your business as a UC and/or infrastructure VAR.
The real question isn’t which solution is better, but how do both cloud migration scenarios play out in the context of your business? If your clients migrate to Google’s platform, how does that impact your ability to sell UC and/or infrastructure. Should you hasten that migration to block Microsoft from picking up the UC piece? Will customers trust business-critical, real-time voice and UC to the public cloud? How can you play in the context of customer’s migration to Office 365?
Or do you just continue to take a frontal, block and tackle approach on UC opportunities as they arise (I hope not)? What is your story? Where do you play? What’s your vision? What problems can you mitigate? What perils do your clients face with both Microsoft and Google? How can you squeeze money out of this situation? Why does anyone listen to Lady Ga Ga?
At the turn of the century, we saw Cisco stealthily gain UC marketshare by planting ISR’s (Integrated Services Routers) at branch locations right under out noses, only to turn up voice on said ISR’s while we were snoozing. What we are seeing now is very similar in that the choice they make now (or have already made) on messaging and collaboration will provide a path of least resistance to UC.
Have an opinion on this with your customers. Understand the advantages and perils of cloud vs premise, private cloud vs public cloud, google vs. microsoft. Find a way to (a) insert yourself in your customer’s migrations (see my post yesterday) and (b) direct them down a path that provides them flexibility and you account control.
This will be a hotly debated proposition for your customers. But,as they say: no pain, no gain.
Tom
One Strategy, Nine Revenue Streams.
There’s a formidable competitor on the brink of making some hay in the UC space and I’ll give you a hint: it rhymes with Bicrosoft. There’s no doubt that this company, with the majority of enterprises running Exchange, will leverage enduser ubiquity and deep pockets to steal marketshare with their “Lync” UC solution. Based on conversations with partners, it’s becoming more of a threat every day.
With this threat looming, you have two options:
1. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em and sell Microsoft Lync. That is, if you can figure out how to make money doing it. Being a Microsoft partner is a very different business model that appears to be a dramatic departure for most of us.
2. Convince customers that Avaya UC works in symphony with Microsoft — afterall, Avaya probably has the best integration of any of the UC players.
But both of those options are, well.. risky. I think there’s a third option and very few partners are considering it. Migrate enterprises to Google Apps. What’s that? No, I’m not insane. This strategy makes A LOT of sense for many reasons:
1. Google Apps are picking up serious steam. A combination of migration into the cloud and Google tapping former Cisco executives with serious channel chops are paying off.
2. Google Apps are becoming increasingly mainstream and enterprise worthy. Yes, some customers will have some hang-ups, mostly around security — but those concerns can be mitigated by enterprising partners (who will make money doing so.)
3. If you can convince a customer to migrate to gmail and other apps, you’ve essentially destroyed any chance Microsoft has of selling UC to that client.
4. The financial return on moving to Google from Microsoft is simply too compelling ignore. Although Microsoft has their own cloud offerings (BPOS, Office 365), Google has a big head start and has the swagger of an innovative disruptor.
5. Avaya can and will integrate with Google Apps. Let me repeat that. Avaya integrates with Google. I haven’t done a ton of research, but I know that as an example, there’s a company called Esnatech that has a solution that integrates CM. Don’t like their solution? Develop your own integration!
6. Not all customers are ready to migrate to Google Apps because of the way their network and security is architected. That’s a very good thing for you since it provides you an amazing opportunity to provide pro services, project management and incremental hardware to prepare their network for moving into a cloud environment.
7. As I understand it, Google sells direct to only the very largest of organizations. That leaves quite a bit of room for you to position yourself as the trusted advisor and charge a pretty penny to do so. Come to think of it, smart partners will find out which really big customers are migrating to google apps (believe me, they’re out there), and pitch them UC powered by Avaya.
I’ve just shared a business strategy that makes you money in at least NINE ways:
1. Google Apps readiness surveys/ assessments
2. Network Architecting Pro-Services
3. Sale of security appliances and network infrastructure to support secure network traffic to the cloud.
4. Implementation of the above.
5. Up front commission for converting customer to Google Apps.
6. Recurring Revenue from your customers on Google Apps.
7. Sale of Avaya UC Solution that integrates with Google Apps.
8. Pro-Services of Avaya UC to integrate with Google Apps.
9. Managed services on the above.
If you ask me, it’s just crazy enough to work, except it’s not that crazy. The only thing that threatens this strategy is Google coming out with their own fully baked UC solution. They don’t appear to be close and there’s a lot to be said for business critical uptime. In my opinion, customers will really hesitate to take any gamble with real time voice communication.
What say you?
-Tom
Video Killed the Radio Star
In this case, the “radio star” is your wireless network (hey, it’s a radio frequency isn’t it?) Take a look at the hot new technologies coming out in the collaboration space. We’re going to see a lot of action from companies like Avaya and Cisco and their latest tablet-based video collaboration. This will be the sizzle du jour the likes of which we haven’t seen since in awhile.
Are you doubting tablet-based collaboration, presence and video will be big? I was too until I had a lively discussion with Jim Sevier. He reminded me that telepresence gained fast momentum due to the sizzle it generated with CXO’s. Once the CFO or CEO of a Fortune 1000 company saw how “cool” telepresence was, it was easy to build a plausible ROI. Likely, the same thing will happen with tablet presence/collaboration and video applications like Flare. What flare is above all else is CXO candy. Once the CXO says, “I have to have that,” there’s a lot less friction. And if there is an actual ROI and business case, you can start rounding third base.
So now that we’ve established that tablet collaboration will gain significant traction. Let’s imagine how well that video will perform over the customer’s wireless network. I’ve seen some great Flare demo’s when the thing is plugged into a network cable. Unfortunately, every demo I’ve seen has been somewhere outside of a demo lab. Hence, the trick will be showing the demo over wireless. Most wireless networks simply can’t handle video. I’m not talking about Skype (Which by the way I LOVE) quality. I’m talking about business-grade video.
The bad news is– your customers are going to need a carrier-grade wireless network. The good news is– your customers are going to need a carrier-grade wireless network. I’m talking about a network that won’t drop, re-order and deliver out of sequence packets on the network because it doesn’t know the difference. I’m talking about an architecture intelligent enough to know which packets are video in any given stream and prioritize them.
Smash-cut back to 2003 when you sold that first cutting edge VoIP solution only to find out the customer’s LAN didn’t have QoS and bandwidth necessary to support real time voice. You couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting someone pointing the finger at the other guy. Deja Vu isn’t it? So you learned to perform (or require) a network assessment to cover your butt. Then, if you were opportunistic, you upgraded the network for them so it would support voice. Heck, that was Cisco’s playbook.. still is.
So what? Somewhere in all of this you need to find a wireless vendor that is up to the task of supporting high definition video over wireless. As luck has it, this is a conversation we’d love to have with you since Catalyst partners with the best of the best in wireless (and collaboration.)
Okay, so here’s my points: Avaya Flare represents the opportunity to get in the CXO’s door with irresistable techno-candy. Once you puppy-dog that gadget and get him hooked, he’ll move heaven and earth to enable the sale so long as you can provide a plausible ROI. You’ll have yet more opportunity to capture high margin pro-services and hardware sales by upgrading the network to support these sizzling apps. On the other hand, if you leave the wireless network to the “other guys”, you risk a really unhappy customer and worse yet, a competitor sneaking into save the day.
If you are serious about collaboration, you had better be serious about wireless. If you are serious about wireless, Avaya Flare can drive WLAN refreshes with your customers. Catalyst understands this space better than anyone and can help you navigate this path.
Good Selling,
Tom
The Social Media Torpedo is in the Water for VARs
Social Media WILL have an impact on your business. The question is: Which side of the torpedo are you on? Those that are putting serious, disciplined effort into facebook and twitter today WILL (if they haven’t already) see revenue directly resulting from social media. It’s not instant like say..firing a gun. The torpedo takes time to wind it’s way through the sea. Those VARs that are on the wrong end of this torpedo (those that aren’t taking it seriously) will be surprised when social media explodes. They’ll quickly find out it takes time to build the critical mass that their most successful competitors started building many months ago.
Meanwhile, those partners that are taking this media seriously are getting progressively more mindshare each month..often with exponential monthly growth. At the same time, these clever VARs are learning tricks, short-cuts, and best practices every month that give them an unfair advantage in getting followers and eyeballs on their content.
I could quote you statistics and site experts to show you why you are probably on the wrong end of this torpedo today.. but I’m simply too lazy to do that kind of homework. I’d prefer to appeal to your common sense and simple powers of observation. I recently attended an event attended by 300 IT directors and CIO’s. One of the speakers asked the audience how many people in the audience own an iPad. About 75% of those people raised their hand. If you think for one millisecond not every single one of those iPads are running twitter, facebook and blog aggregating apps – I recommend boarding your dingy now… or start greasing up your own torpedoes.
Think about it — VARs, more than any other type of business in the world, are selling to decision makers who embrace apps like twitter, facebook, pulse, tumblr, youtube, digg, reddit, etc. Not only do I.T. people use these applications, I’d venture to guess they use them more than anyone on the planet. Why? They are addicted to gadgets and information! And you’re still asking yourself , “I just don’t know if social media really does anything for my business.” Really?
A lot of you are going to read this and breathe a sigh of relief since you already have a presence in social media. I’d venture to guess most of you are just “checking the box.” Go on to facebook or twitter and see how much content is really there. Most VARs are putting a couple blurbs out a month thinking customers will be fooled into thinking they are in synch with the market. The reality is, when your customer see you have 7 posts or tweets in the last 3 months you look like …well, a poser. Customers see through that facade pretty quickly and will think you just don’t have anything interesting to say.
Don’t take this to mean it’s too late for you…it’s not. But you really can’t afford to ignore social media or worse yet tread lightly in this proliferating form of communication. Social Media is in fact a torpedo in the water because it doesn’t explode immediately.. but make no mistake: there will be an impact and once it explodes it will be very hard to catch up. Which side of the torpedo will you be on?
