Getting the Right Players on the Field
As I write this article the annual NFL draft has just ended. Like many teams, my beloved Vikings had a long list of priority positions to fill and we fans look optimistically to the future. Planning for success in our evolving UC business is a very similar process. The UC cloud is upon us like a new football season. How will we plan and prepare our organizations for success? We know that we need to grow professional services but by how much and with what players? Specifically, many SI managers are struggling to determine what their organizations need to look like to support their refined business models. The decisions they make today regarding technologies, vendors, and organization development will determine their level of success in the future. Wouldn't be nice to have a clear-cut process like the NFL draft?
Our challenge is that the game is changing very quickly. Enterprises are moving mission critical business processes to the cloud and adopting buying models based on operating versus capital expenditures. SIs can get caught flat-footed with salespeople stuck in a vendor-type roles serving the enterprise IT departments while their competitors are entrenched with the business units that drive the strategic decisions for UC solutions. If you are a traditional telephony CPE reseller, your current organization may be designed to support a business model that is becoming obsolete. To put this discussion in perspective, I would like to repeat something one of my colleagues, Steve Leaden, heard from an SI recently:
"With the advent of the IP Telephony and UC cloud I can see 2/3 of my staffing becoming irrelevant in the next 4 years - this is the topic that keeps me up at night."
I do not believe that this is an over-statement. Compounding this angst is the lack of a clear organizational model to move towards. If you look at SIs who have been selling cloud UC solutions for some time, such as the Microsoft Lync UC reseller who's only CPE vendors are Polycom and Plantronics, you might get an idea of where all SIs are headed. A big difference is that their enterprise sales are won or lost in professional services. Another difference might be that their resources are aimed at supporting the mission critical business processes of their clients. If you are competing with an IT solutions provider like this you may ask, what kind of organizational structure do they have compared to yours?
One area to look at is sales and the people they hire. UC SIs can develop professional services internally around a core role of pre-sales engineers. The massive technical training of existing salespeople to fill these roles is time consuming, costly, and, often not effective. This is because core sales skills and behaviors are very difficult to change. Building an effective professional services organization includes committing to hiring and developing the right kind of technically competent salespeople. Whether or not two thirds of your staff is approaching irrelevance depends upon their "sales DNA" and your operational process to support the new complex sales cycle. To move a salesperson that is currently in a vendor role to become a strategic contributor or trusted partner will require the implementation of a dynamic business planning model and a quantum upgrade of skills and competencies.
Not all sales people will be able to "cross this chasm." So, how do we find the right players for your key positions? Like the NFL scouts, the sales candidate you pick will depend upon a systematic evaluation of the role that needs to be filled, the talent available, and your vision for how they will be playing the game. Unfortunately, there are no sales certifications or other competency standards to help in the hiring process. If you want an idea of what different UC SI resellers are looking for in sales people, just take a look at the careers sections of their websites. This will tell you a lot about the type of relationships they envision with their clients, and the sales operations process they follow. Look for how often key words such as "cold calling" and "revenue generation" appear. That's a sure sign of vendor-oriented relationships and activities-based sales operations, or, quantity over quality.
After that exercise, take a look at your client organizations and who they are hiring to design and implement UC solutions. Just last week a large fast food organization posted a job on their website looking for a "Senor Manager of Unified Communications". The job functions were broken down into strategic and tactical including:
"Develop an effective vision that considers technical innovation, business strategy, consumer touch points, risk, and affordability. Develop supporting business cases for new technologies and initiatives to communicate business benefits to senior management and across functions. Create inspirational presentations to communicate benefits."
That's an impressive summary of what a top UC SI account executive should be able to do. Further, the qualifications for this job include undergraduate degree, technical certifications, and "MBA is a plus." The point I am making here is that UC SI will need to build direct sales organizations that can develop trusted partner relationships with client contacts like this one. The game is changing and UC SIs need to get the right players on the field now.
My future articles will focus on creating a systematic approach to hiring the right sales people, sales development, and effective sales operations processes.
Tags
Start YourCustomized Search
SOLUTION AREA
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
- 8x8 (40) Apply 8x8 filter
- Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (50) Apply Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise filter
- AT&T (44) Apply AT&T filter
- AudioCodes (48) Apply AudioCodes filter
- Avaya (396) Apply Avaya filter
- Cisco (573) Apply Cisco filter
- Dell (11) Apply Dell filter
- Five9 (53) Apply Five9 filter
- Fuze (39) Apply Fuze filter
- Genesys (100) Apply Genesys filter
- HP (98) Apply HP filter
- IBM (171) Apply IBM filter
- Jabra (9) Apply Jabra filter
- Logitech (56) Apply Logitech filter
- Lumen (3) Apply Lumen filter
- Masergy (50) Apply Masergy filter
- Microsoft (766) Apply Microsoft filter
- Mitel (232) Apply Mitel filter
- NEC (128) Apply NEC filter
- Nectar (58) Apply Nectar filter
- Polycom (95) Apply Polycom filter
- Ramp (37) Apply Ramp filter
- RingCentral (126) Apply RingCentral filter
- Sennheiser (18) Apply Sennheiser filter
- Slack (13) Apply Slack filter
- Tata Communications (59) Apply Tata Communications filter
- Unify (186) Apply Unify filter
- Vonage Business (80) Apply Vonage Business filter
- Yealink (8) Apply Yealink filter
- Zoom (20) Apply Zoom filter
- Acme Packet (24) Apply Acme Packet filter
- Allworx (2) Apply Allworx filter
- Arkadin (22) Apply Arkadin filter
- Aspect (34) Apply Aspect filter
- BT (25) Apply BT filter
- CaféX (8) Apply CaféX filter
- CallTower (14) Apply CallTower filter
- Clarity Connect (10) Apply Clarity Connect filter
- Continuant (1) Apply Continuant filter
- Damaka (4) Apply Damaka filter
- Dialogic (5) Apply Dialogic filter
- Dimension Data (44) Apply Dimension Data filter
- Empirix (11) Apply Empirix filter
- Enghouse Interactive (17) Apply Enghouse Interactive filter
- Inference Solutions (9) Apply Inference Solutions filter
- IntelePeer (27) Apply IntelePeer filter
- IR (11) Apply IR filter
- Jive (21) Apply Jive filter
- Kurmi Software (21) Apply Kurmi Software filter
- Lifesize (33) Apply Lifesize filter
- Lightware (3) Apply Lightware filter
- Mavenir (6) Apply Mavenir filter
- Modality Systems (8) Apply Modality Systems filter
- Momentum (36) Apply Momentum filter
- Netfortris (5) Apply Netfortris filter
- NetSapiens (6) Apply NetSapiens filter
- NewVoiceMedia (31) Apply NewVoiceMedia filter
- Nureva (26) Apply Nureva filter
- NUWAVE (5) Apply NUWAVE filter
- Orange (32) Apply Orange filter
- OVCC (8) Apply OVCC filter
- Panasonic (18) Apply Panasonic filter
- PanTerra Networks (9) Apply PanTerra Networks filter
- ScanSource (21) Apply ScanSource filter
- SIPPIO (3) Apply SIPPIO filter
- Snom (20) Apply Snom filter
- Star2Star (8) Apply Star2Star filter
- StarLeaf (12) Apply StarLeaf filter
- Tadiran Telecom (2) Apply Tadiran Telecom filter
- TekVizion (9) Apply TekVizion filter
- Unimax (7) Apply Unimax filter
- Verint (40) Apply Verint filter
- Voice4Net (2) Apply Voice4Net filter
- VOSS (85) Apply VOSS filter
- Voxbone (14) Apply Voxbone filter
- West (28) Apply West filter
- XO Communications (3) Apply XO Communications filter
- Yorktel (17) Apply Yorktel filter
- Zultys (2) Apply Zultys filter
- 3CX (8) Apply 3CX filter
- ADDASOUND (1) Apply ADDASOUND filter
- Aerohive (1) Apply Aerohive filter
- Aryaka (1) Apply Aryaka filter
- Asurion (22) Apply Asurion filter
- Avnet (7) Apply Avnet filter
- Bandwidth (5) Apply Bandwidth filter
- Calabrio (5) Apply Calabrio filter
- Consilium Software (13) Apply Consilium Software filter
- Drum (5) Apply Drum filter
- ESI (6) Apply ESI filter
- Esna (16) Apply Esna filter
- Exinda (2) Apply Exinda filter
- EZuce (3) Apply EZuce filter
- GUnify (6) Apply GUnify filter
- Highfive (4) Apply Highfive filter
- Huawei (47) Apply Huawei filter
- Imagicle (3) Apply Imagicle filter
- IPCortex (1) Apply IPCortex filter
- KnoahSoft (1) Apply KnoahSoft filter
- KOVA (1) Apply KOVA filter
- Logmein (9) Apply Logmein filter
- Metropolis Technologies (4) Apply Metropolis Technologies filter
- Mutare (2) Apply Mutare filter
- NextPlane (27) Apply NextPlane filter
- Ooma (16) Apply Ooma filter
- Patton (11) Apply Patton filter
- Radish Systems (1) Apply Radish Systems filter
- Radisys (3) Apply Radisys filter
- Shango (1) Apply Shango filter
- SMART (163) Apply SMART filter
- Stack8 (1) Apply Stack8 filter
- Swyx (1) Apply Swyx filter
- TrueConf (4) Apply TrueConf filter
- UJET (13) Apply UJET filter
- Voximplant (3) Apply Voximplant filter
CONTENT TYPE
- BC Expert Insights Market (42) Apply BC Expert Insights Market filter
- BC Expert Insights Objective - Vendor Neutral (42) Apply BC Expert Insights Objective - Vendor Neutral filter
- BC Expert Insights Planning (15) Apply BC Expert Insights Planning filter
- BC Expert Insights Solution (12) Apply BC Expert Insights Solution filter
- BC Expert Insights Vendor (80) Apply BC Expert Insights Vendor filter
- BC Expert Insights Vendor Solution (145) Apply BC Expert Insights Vendor Solution filter
- BC Expert Roundtable (133) Apply BC Expert Roundtable filter
- Bcs Webinar (0)
- Bcs Webinar Registration (0)
- Best Practice (38) Apply Best Practice filter
- Buyer Guide (14) Apply Buyer Guide filter
- Case Study (29) Apply Case Study filter
- Executive Interview (145) Apply Executive Interview filter
- Expert Roundtable (450) Apply Expert Roundtable filter
- Guest Contributions (34) Apply Guest Contributions filter
- Multimedia (38) Apply Multimedia filter
- News Analysis (2081) Apply News Analysis filter
- Newsfeed Article (1303) Apply Newsfeed Article filter
- Newsfeed Article (1) Apply Newsfeed Article filter
- Thought Leadership (21) Apply Thought Leadership filter
- Vendor Collateral (211) Apply Vendor Collateral filter
- Vendor Resource Best Practices (24) Apply Vendor Resource Best Practices filter
- Vendor Resource Buyers Guides (2) Apply Vendor Resource Buyers Guides filter
- Vendor Resource Multimedia Content (4) Apply Vendor Resource Multimedia Content filter
- Vendor Resource White Paper (4) Apply Vendor Resource White Paper filter
- Webinar (13) Apply Webinar filter
- Webinars (7) Apply Webinars filter
- White Paper (64) Apply White Paper filter
MORE FILTERS
INDUSTRY
- Banking And Investment (800) Apply Banking And Investment filter
- Education (446) Apply Education filter
- Energy And Utilities (487) Apply Energy And Utilities filter
- Finance (12) Apply Finance filter
- Government (675) Apply Government filter
- Healthcare (482) Apply Healthcare filter
- Hospitality (180) Apply Hospitality filter
- Insurance (100) Apply Insurance filter
- Manufacturing (704) Apply Manufacturing filter
- Media/Publishing (422) Apply Media/Publishing filter
- None (43) Apply None filter
- Professional Services (745) Apply Professional Services filter
- Retail & Distribution (798) Apply Retail & Distribution filter
- Technology (1611) Apply Technology filter
- Transportation (110) Apply Transportation filter
Comments
There are currently no comments on this article.
You must be a registered user to make comments