The certifications not only created a lucrative industry but launched Brand Ambassadors into every business around the globe. Those Brand Ambassadors with their certifications were going to be buying Cisco or Microsoft.
An additional point about the certification, it was a buy-in from the partner. No fogging a mirror to be a partner, you had to take a test. You had to have skin in the game. I'm certain that won't be a telecom channel component any time soon, even though we are at a time when well trained and knowledgeable partners are desperately needed.
Finally, these companies build demand. They market to the channel, but they also market to the buyers, prospects and customers. Demand is a big piece of the puzzle.
One final factor was grass roots building with user groups. Microsoft did this better than Cisco. These user groups provided training, access, networking and more. VMWare has a large user group in Greater Tampa Bay. This helps the certified techie as well as the company. (You want well trained and engaged Brand Ambassadors.)
]]>It isn't a sprint. It isn't about just growth. It is about steady growth and customer experience. Also, product-market/fit.
On LinkedIn this morning, there were at least 3 posts from channel managers closing business for their partners. If the channel managers are closing business, that is a better use of time than recruiting. And maybe a trainer is needed to teach sales skills and product to both channel managers and partners to keep those skills and knowledge fresh.
The other topic on LinkedIn this morning: SD-WAN. All generic info being shared under the umbrella of the vendors. This is not a good start to content marketing. This is not a good start to branding and positioning.
Seth Godin is giving a 100 day online marketing seminar. Take it!!!!
CenturyLink data centers were acquired by a group of private equity firms (Medina Capital and BC Partners) for $2.8B. This group will combine the 57 data centers with four cyber-security and data analytics portfolio companies to form Cyxtera. (Who picked that name?) The CEO of Medina Capital will be running the new firm and he used to be CEO of Terremark.
Verizon closed on the sales of their data centers (formerly Terremark) to Equinix this week. Windstream sold theirs to Tierpoint a while ago.
The divestiture of data centers by Windstream, Verizon and Centurylink does not represent a bad position for data centers. It means that the telcos didn't have the skills to leverage DCIM. The data center market is hot and growing. Inter-connection, peering, colocation and cloud computing infrastructure (IAAS, PAAS, VM, Hosting) are all in demand right now. Data center construction is growing by 8% per year.
Polycom was acquired by a PE firm. Many top execs have left. One went to Star2Star. This week the CMO went to Intermedia.Net.
]]>Over-scheduling is a common problem. A client this morning asked me what she could take off her to-do list. That is a GREAT question! What can you get rid? What can you outsource? What can you stop doing? (I need to give some credit to Keith Rosen for this idea.)
I used to be an active organizer of the Tampa Bay tech community. I quit it all over 2 years ago (after an 8 year run). It was scary and refreshing at the same time. I was recently asked to help out with Startup Week -- and realized that I was not going to be able to be impactful. By impactful I mean: given my available time and participation, I wouldn't provide enough to make an impact and the group wouldn't get enough of me to be effective. I bowed out. It was not easy to say No. In fact, I struggle with it. As a consultant, I have to learn to say No to giving free consulting. You do too.
Seth Godin wrote a 92 page book on quitting called The Dip. A good read.
We live in a very cluttered, always on time. Either you manage your time - or it manages you to a result that you will not like.
All the success stories have one thing in common: time management.
Tom Peters says, "Show me your schedule and I will show you your priorities." He's right.
All the talk of habits is really about structure. Schedules are just putting structure around your day. And those appointments don't have to 30 minutes or even specific. It could be 3 hours for reading. Time for the gym. Time to leave the office. A 15 minute reminder to get up, stretch and drink a glass of water.
New year. Good time to get that schedule (calendar) off to a good start. See you at ITEXPO later this month. (And get on my calendar for coffee!)
]]>First, I have a shout out to my bud, Alex Doyle for this very nice video (commercial) for VZ UC&C. I have no idea if he is pitching the Cisco HCS platform or the Broadsoft VCE that he spent years sweating over.
Apparently, Forrester is predicting that UC's sell by date is the end of 2016. Like milk, UC is will go sour in the next 12 months. So much for all that talk about CAGR.
I will agree with this statement: "It is how a vendor uses UC technology that will influence the next wave of enterprise communication and collaboration." It is all about UX -- the user experience. That is 3 steps after the sale - deploy, train, adopt.
The case study company "Cresa saw high adoption of its new UC system because of the system's flexibility to allow individual users to customize the service to fit their needs while maintaining uniformity across the organization." The case study talks about Integration.
The problem with HPBX has been that other than click-to-call there really wasn't much integration. The providers are moving past them with acquisitions and alliances (like 8x8 and Fonality with Allstate and its practice management software).
I keep seeing the staggering growth rates predicted for VoIP -- it only happens if you count SIP trunking. UC is not growing that fast. Evolve IP surveyed businesses about UC. The results were anything but hopeful.
"Most of the professionals who responded to the Evolve IP survey didn't even know what "unified communications" means." [CRN]
Two-thirds of respondents said their phone was the tool they preferred to contact colleagues! So much for the death of the desk phone in the near term. ITSPs aren't exactly pushing soft clients and mobile apps with bluetooth and headsets. No idea why -- but they aren't. Most ITSPs are still Polycom distributors with a softswitch.
The problem for buyers of UCaaS: "The most prominent was simply the challenge of selecting the right system, cited as a major obstacle by 22 percent of respondents. An additional 17.5 percent said selecting the right provider was a major obstacle, followed by 16.5 percent who cited employee adoption, and 13.5 percent who cited determining feature priorities." NOTE: selling UCaaS is HARD! The buyer has to like the salesperson, listen to the salesperson, trust the salesperson, trust the service provider and believe that the service will help them and be deployed as promised! That is a lot to overcome!
"More than 80 percent of the organizations polled by Evolve IP host their own phone systems, but that's changing." More than 10 years and the premise PBX is still 80%! AND "only 16.5 percent said they're planning a move to cloud-based" <- that is less than the predicted CAGR
Don't get depressed yet. Remember as I wrote earlier, just sell transactional network :)
Then there is this hopeful piece from CP interviewing Broadsoft, Vonage Business and Coredial:
"Seventy percent of respondents believe cloud UC/PBX will capture at least half the SMB sub-100 employee market within five years, and expect 200 percent cloud UC growth for midmarket and in excess of 300 percent cloud UC growth for the large enterprise segment."
Expect, hope for, maybe some day. How much of that market will Cisco, Microsoft, AT&T and Verizon own? Probably more than anyone wants to admit in telecom. It is nice to hope and pray, but what ACTIONS will these providers take in 2016 to make deployment, adoption, User Experience and sales simpler?
"BroadSoft believes service providers will seriously challenge Microsoft's Skype for Business by offering an open, mobile and cloud-based UC and collaboration alternative with next-generation, real-time messaging, BSFT's Behbehani said." I'd like to hear HOW?
Collaboration tools like Slack, Glip and HipChat will significantly disrupt email usage. I agree with that. Millennials will be okay with that; older workers probably not. (They want to call co-workers.)
In another article, the prediction is that UCaaS will go Up-Market. I tend to agree since bigger companies used to high-end PBX and call center software will see cloud based contact center as a boon. They are used to feature-rich, high functionality AND Contact center -- a good fit for the UC&C providers that can match up with these enterprises.
There needs to be 4 things for UCaaS to grow as predicted:
1. Integration -- so it is more business functionality as a service and not just Hosted PBX. These are two opposing views of cloud comms. Plus it has vertical targets like with Allstate, CLIO, et al.
2. Training -- so much more training of users and sales teas is needed. And re-training annually for the customers and their employees. You need adoption to increase to reduce churn.
3. User Experience -- Slack took off - 2 million daily users in less than 2 years - due to its intuitive user interface. It isn't rigid. It has APIs. It integrates with other software. Flexible. Ease of use. Mobile and desktop. Much needed.
4. Better Targets. ITSPs chase the whole market. Each segment of the market wants a different story/message. Each segment has different hot buttons. No one provider can do it all. They have been trying and failing and failing and flailing.
I am invested in the cloud comm -- how many posts have I written about it; how many clients are ITSPs - but we are at a pivotal point in the VoIP industry. Some see it; some don't. Consolidation, MS, Cisco, Google, mobile, consolidation, automation and more factors are kicking in. Nothing is as it was in 2003 when BSFT's second customer rolled to market. Nothing.
]]>So for a few years now, the keynotes, most notably from a Gartner analyst, have been a singular message: become a cloud broker or service provider or die!
CLECs have been trying to transition to cloud - most notably TelePacific, EarthLink and Cbeyond (now Birch). As TBI's Ken Mercer writes, "We've been selling telecom services for years. Now our carriers like CenturyLink are having conversations with us on how they compete with the likes of IBM by offering professional services. Services such as consulting, managed services, system integration, outsourced IT and bundled IT packages: hardware, software and services with monthly pricing."
The transition to PS (professional services) and MS (managed services) is the path up the stack from network (Layer 1-3) to closer to the user's device (Layer 7 of the OSI stack). It is stickier (or not if done wrong or with poor customer service).
Telarus, a master agency, bought VXSuite to allow for network monitoring by agents. This means that even agents can do network monitoring - a service that just VARs were doing a few short years ago. Now network monitoring is expected. Proactive monitoring is desired. RMM (remote monitoring and management powered by Labtech, Autotask and so many others for the VAR/MSP space) was the sole province of the MSP. Now CLECs, ITSPs (VoIP), and now master agents are in the space. Everyone wants a piece of that pie.
While the Service Providers want their partners to sell more cloud - today that almost means anything besides a pipe - they forget that selling network is a replacement sale and selling cloud or MS or PS is an entirely different kind of sale!!! Big disconnect.
I have no idea why C-LInk thinks that they are competing with IBM ??? or that VAR partners are going to dump their own RMM for yours. Or how the partners are going to get enough sales skills to make the transition from transactional/replacement network sales to MS, PS and cloud sales. It is a gap.
And the funny thing is that the vendors themselves aren't exactly knocking the sales of these services out of the park. The Mets lost the World Series because they were batting for home runs. Our industry should be the Kansas City Royals, hitting singles and doubles all game long to the finish line. How did they get there? Training, batting practice, good coaching and focus.
So as we move to a sector that resembles MSP World, remember a few things:
As partners, it is your business. You don't work for the masters or their masters (carriers). Design your business to what you want it to be.
Keep in mind that commissions for stuff we sell now are diminishing and probably going away.
It takes a plan to transition to cloud. Not everyone that tried was successful, because it is about planning and execution.
There is a skills gap - get training! Not just product but sales training!
Leverage your partners to help you get where you want to go.
Have Patience. This will not happen overnight.
Good luck!
See you in Ft Lauderdale in January for Channel Vision Expo, ITEXPO, MSP EXPO!!
]]>BTW, we both agree that training is a necessity for partners to really own cloud services.
Podcast info: This is a flash player. If you can't see it, you can download the mp3 here or you can listen on soundcloud.
]]>CenturyLink says "The future state of enterprise IT is going to be far more complex and heterogeneous than today. CenturyLink realizes this and is today rolling out the product updated to give people more choice." C-Link launched new some new services called Bare Metal Servers, AppFog, and WordPress-as-a-Service.
Why formally learn? For one reason, our industry is transforming before our eyes with new products, services, technology, buyers and sales processes. You might need to pick up a few things to stay relevant.
For less than $300 you can take the TCA Certified Telecom Professional course and exam to learn about all things telecom and cable.
You could join CompTIA and gran some certifications in a number of areas.
There are a couple of online academies like Udemy and SkillShare, where you can learn skills like coding or how to be a freelancer or marketing. And you can teach courses on these platforms. Good way to be seen as The Expert.
Road Shows and Expos. The Wearable Tech Expo in Vegas, CP Expo in Boston and the various carrier and master agency road show are just a few of the places to learn about new tech.
For example, TelePacific holds partner events throughout its territory. (I spoke at one of them.)
Another example, "CenturyLink is going on tour to the IT community about the emerging cloud services trends that are affecting IT departments inside businesses via a multi-city tour that will feature industry analysts and the telco's customers." (You might be able to interact with buyers there, but register those deals during a bio break!)
Finally, vendors provide training. Maybe not always good training, but training nonetheless. Online and live, there are a number of opportunities to grab some education. Netwolves has some good stuff on their security offerings. Masergy has managed security training for partners. RapidScale has a cloud university.
You aren't spending your time on learning -- you are investing in your career, business and future. Best way to handle it is with an appointment for 30 minutes to an hour in your calendar every week. Or at least read 20 minutes per day- perhaps my book (available on your kindle).
"Training takes time. But it's the best lifelong investment a person can make." #gitomer
]]>The big take away is the question: Why aren't you my customer? It is an important question. It is the story behind the answer that will tell you why people buy what they buy.
For the most part, this industry does a lot of replacement sales. SIP trunking for voice, broadband or Metro Ethernet for Internet or T1 - and it is the way the industry has evolved. It has always been about replacing like for like for a savings. Since the days of the pin drop in 1986, this industry has been saving people money and talking about fiber.
Sales has changed. A lot. It is harder to talk to someone on the phone (or in person). Cold calling is more frustrating than ever. Appointment setting is a success when 1 appointment is made per 500 calls. The Internet, voicemail, cellphones, caller ID and so many other things have disrupted sales. Well, that and people ruin every tool. I got 3 robocalls today!
There are 3 other factors working against sales. Less Personnel -- companies have been laying off for a long time (since 2007?) and doing without the head count. This means no one has time for anything because their day is already filled with stuff to do.
There is a budget and capital question. With competition everywhere, margins are tight so cash flow is tight. It might be in the budget - or that line item might have been used for something else. Hosted PBX sales still have a CAPEX in phones, switch, install, etc. And it is usually more than the SMB buyer thinks it will be.
The final factor is that most projects never realize the savings, synergies or benefits that they were sold on. Integration hardly ever works as advertised. The features don't produce the desired results for the employees. Historically, the company may have switched carriers before and had a really bad experience (not uncommon in our industry). That history and skepticism gets in the way of sales. At the least, it drags the sales process out a really long time.
Cloud is Change. It should be. It is NOT just a replacement for the box (or why not just sell the box? It would be easier.) Most sales reps don't get that at all. Our industry is about replacement, so we think the cloud is too. And sell it the same way.
People fight Change. Including You.
Be Honest: Aren't you still selling the same way you were 5 years ago? You are going to say No, but the truth is that 40% of reps don't hit quota. Blame the quota if you want, but most sales reps don't have a ridiculous quota -- and it on average takes about 3 sales to hit it. Selling has changed, but your style hasn't. Do you still wear the same suit you did when you got into this business?
The information superhighway has taken away a lot of the sales reps' power. The buyer has all the information. LinkedIn and other social networks allow for referrals that bypass the sales reps.
I know that we don't sell food or rooms, but do you know what Urbanspoon, Google reviews, TripAdvisor and Yelp have done to restaurants and hotels? Yet our industry is all about customer service too -- and we haven't really taken to social selling or even social media or referrals or testimonials. Why not?
All these changes and you still sell the same way.
]]>This wasn't recorded, but there are plans to hold another one which will be recorded. Pay attention to the TCA.
Also, Channel Vision magazine will be running a multi-part series on Channel Management written by me starting next issue. Subscribe to Channel Vision magazine here. The series of articles will lead into the CVX Expo in Anaheim California in October, where Bullseye's Tim Basa and I will be doing a few live, interactive sessions on channel management.
If you can't wait that long, you can get surf over to my site to invest in a training module based on a presentation I gave in October.
]]>The new year is like a clean sheet of paper. The above Calvin & Hobbes cartoon talks about how a blanket of snow makes everything new again. January 2nd is like that as well. (No idea why you have to wait for that date to start something or change something. You could start now!)
On this blank sheet of paper, what will you write or draw?
One
Goals for the new year? I say Goals, not Resolutions. Big difference. Goals, like coffee, are for closers. Resolutions are for quitters. (See gym around Feb 15).
Two
Ways to get more business in 2015. Call your Top Customers. Meet them for coffee, lunch or breakfast. Listen to what they use technology for. Find out why they buy from you. Ask for a testimonial (video, audio, or written).
I have often been told that there aren't enough businesses in a locale to build a business on. I have often preached about verticals and niches. In either case, you aren't locked into just one locale, vertical or niche. And Seth Godin wrote yesterday, "You might not need a bigger niche. You might only need to produce more value for those you already serve."
Value. It isn't what YOU think it is; it's what THEY think it is. It should always be about them. Sales at its core is about being helpful. Want more sales? Be more helpful. Go make some friends.
Three
Stop Being Mediocre. The bar is slow low in customer service that it doesn't take much to make a splash. Word of Mouth is the best advertising. You know how to increase WOM? Be Remarkable -- do something worth remarking about.
Again Seth Godin, "The thing is, your competition might actually act like the thing that they're doing is their only job. They might believe that in fact, treating this customer as if she's the only person in the world is worth it. That fixing that squeaky door, addressing that two-year old bug in the software, or taking one extra moment to look someone in the eye and talking to her with respect is worth it."
Use the phone more (email and text less - I need to do this too). Follow up 2/2/2 with any support ticket - in 2 hours, in 2 days, in 2 weeks. Send a thank you note - hand written.
Four
Business owners tell me that the difference is their people. If that were true, what are you doing to attract the best talent, retain the current talent - and grow the current talent?
Develop your people! Training in sales, leadership, management, technical skills, communication. Start a library of personal development books and tapes in order for everyone to take advantage.
When was the last time you did a team building exercise? Or a charity event that all can get involved in - like feeding the hungry, painting houses for the elderly, or other stuff that takes about 4-8 hours per year but gives so much more.
"If you work your heart out to help people grow, they'll work their hearts out to give customers a great experience." - Tom Peters
Five
Write down what you are doing for marketing. How does word get out? How up-to-date is your website? Yeah, your website - probably your most valuable online asset and most neglected.
Take that white sheet of paper and draw a picture of what you want 2015 to look like. Pick one of these 5 and get started.
]]>One really wants to do the project but the people aren't in place yet. The time isn't right. Is the time every really right?
More than one is just too busy to make a decision. Too busy. Stephen Covey would tell then to read his book.
Many business owners - me included - are busy running from task to task. That is a fast path to the day running you and not the other way around.
There are like a million articles on the web - about 20 of those are on BusinessInsider, Forbes or Entrepreneur mag - about how really cool people, really rich people or Steve Jobs work their day. You know what? It is all about Working Your Day (and not the other way around).
When I coached with Keith Rosen we worked on my time management. The four things I learned:
Quite a few things contribute to success. Here are a few:
That multi-tasking is like cutting down trees by whacking at each one once, then going back and whacking at it again. We see it on the road: people talking or reading their cell phones who are not paying attention to driving, There are numerous articles about this, but you cannot active listen and do other cognitive activities. And if you are only going to passively listen, why bother?
Look how many tabs you have open in your browser. Really? Bookmark that stuff. If it was important you will get to it, if not why is that tab open? I fall into this every day as I open link after link from FB or twitter or my RSS reader. Then 2 hours are up and hardly any of the stuff was pertinent. Sure more trivia in my head but nothing actionable.
Delegating is tough because you have to stop to say, "Let me let James do that" then tell James to do that and maybe explain it. So by then it could be done. Key is: COULD. Between virtual assistants, oDesk, fiverr and other platforms you can find someone to do some of your tasks for you. It frees up your time to do other stuff. It requires trusting some else to do it and you not micro-managing it, but those are issues you have to work on anyway, right? ;) One year, my VA's ganged up on me to tell me to learn to delegate. It's a work in progress.
Most of the projects in the air are either marketing or sales training. Putting them off means missed revenue opportunities. How many of those do you think you have lying around? You read about the consolidation and how the cablecos are going to crush the market, you can't delay opportunities that are there.
Realize that some of it isn't that you are too busy to decide; it's more about the fear or the risk or the other excuse.
Rarely does an investment in sales training go to waste. Sure the salesperson may leave but you demonstrated that you care about their development -- to your employees now and future. In many cases, one additional sale will pay for the training. Just one.
Marketing projects: Lead generation is the number one problem for service providers. Without some kind of marketing, how do you get lead gen?
I did my annual Goal Setting webinar yesterday. One of the draft decks is up on slideshare along with a slide deck from 2010. Wouldn't hurt to run through the goal setting exercise.
]]>There are other associations for channel partners. CompTIA for IT training and certs. There is also the Cloud Services Community. Both have alliances with the TCA. I did a webinar for CSC a couple of years ago. With their re-boot last month, the website is new and they are looking for bloggers.
I am sure there are others, but these are the places I know to network online, educate yourself and get certifications. Join up. Be Active. Learn & Grow.
There is an association for master agencies that basically does volume buying. That group is the Agent Alliance. They have a new executive board.
And one plug for a webinar I am doing on 10/10/14 at Noon ET: 3 Secrets for Channel Manager Success - register here.
]]>At a few shows, including the latest ITEXPO, the 3 big cablecos - TWC, Comcast and Charter - share a booth. One message, 3 supposed separate companies. Now they are doing training together. How? Are the systems, processes and products the same? Kind of.
TWC doesn't have a Hosted PBX offering yet. And TWC will likely never have one, since it is up for sale and about to be parceled out between Comcst and Charter.
You can't call it collusion because they don't do it in secret. If the ILECs did this (and who knows they might at USTA meetings), the FCC would step in.
]]>Define your role by being clear and concise on your benefits, values, outcomes that businesses, especially small businesses, can expect and generally receive by utilizing your services versus your many competitors.
Your talent is your business. Investing in your employees shows that you care about their personal development - even if they leave you. Yes some will leave after you train them up. Guess what, Sparky? Some would have left you anyway.
The reason there is a managed services space is due to a lack of talent. If you don't have the talent on hand, what will you do? It's kind of like the NFL. Without a star quarterback and a good hands receiver, your season ended yesterday.
Culture is vital to a service provider. It is a top down, lead by example, intangible thing that sets companies apart. The difference between good and great is culture (or purpose). 2013 was a year where my clients were struggling to develop a culture or to scale while maintaining the culture that had delivered their success. I even gave a keynote about it in 2013. Employees stay - not just for money - but for purpose and recognition and achievement. Culture ties into talent.
Fire some customers, especially the no margin pain in the asses. You'll feel better - and so will the employees that have to deal with them. One good customer is worth a handful of PITAs.
It's a new calendar in two days. If you do what you did yesterday, expect the same results. (Expecting anything else is the definition of insanity.)
]]>