You win some, you lose some

So not every discussion with a customer or prospect is pleasant for me (or them most likely). One very recent conversation was quite frustrating.

This particular interaction was with a mid-sized firm that was comparing us to prem-based options and had decided we were the most expensive choice.  That assessment didn't sound right to me, especially since I was very familiar with the competitors they were considering. However it is very typical for a potential client to not fully contemplate all of the expenses associated with a VoIP/UC deployment and honestly, we don't do the best job with the TCO discussion either.

This particular prospect was comparing a premises based PBX deployment using their existing LAN infrastructure and being connected to traditional PRIs to a fully managed solution. The list of differences hurt my head!

                                                                       Them                                      US

New LAN switches                                      No                                         Yes

LAN/QOS Management                             No                                         Yes

Inter Office VoIP Connectivity                No                                         Yes

Complete PRI Replacement                     No                                         Yes

Managed VoIP WAN                                   No                                         Yes

Business Continuity                                    No                                          Yes        

But we were "more expensive". We're "more expensive" because we do a lot more, and we do it a lot more efficiently than most enterprises could ever do it themselves. Now, I know many enterprises don't have that kind of demand for relentless voice quality, but for the type of enterprises we serve (see "it's all about the dial tone - stupid" entry below) PSTN quality voice is job #1. And you can't have that kind of quality 100% of the time without undertaking the management of all of the components that make up a VoIP network.

So every once in a while, we engage in a conversation with a client that can sound like we're selling hard, when what we're really doing is trying to save them from themselves, and from those people who only provide a single component of a VoIP ecosystem and who forget to warn them of all of the "other things" that go into a first quality VoIP deployment. 

And when we're the only folks at the table with that message, it certainly can appear self-serving. So sometimes the message isn't heard, the decision goes the other way, and we (I) leave frustrated that "they" didn't hear us and we didn't make our case well enough. Very sad.