In the Spring 2022 issue of Integrate Journal from NSCA, they listed five reasons As-a-Service may not be working for integrators, and 3.5 of those reasons are due to not having a rock-solid sales process for your revenue team. As you look to overcome these revenue team-related reasons, here are 3.5 areas to focus on to start driving managed services and improved win rates for your organization.
1 - Does your team understand the key business reasons for your customer buying the solution that you are recommending? Most sellers focus on customers' needs like I need another conference room, but they don't ask the next question, "why do you need another conference room?" Getting to the business case is critical to selling managed services. In the Qualify and Assessment stages of your sales process, you should have defined questions for your sellers to ask to get to the real business cases of why your customers are buying their technology. You are on the right path if you can put the business case into a spreadsheet and create a financial ROI.
2 - Are you meeting with the correct key influencers? Sellers in the integration space have stuck with IT for years, but the financial decision makers are critical to selling more advanced solutions in the integration space. Taking your ROI from step number one and presenting it to the financial team will help you win more opportunities and allow you to start changing company habits of using capital to acquire technology.
3 - Are you painting a vivid vision of the experience you will deliver for your customers? When you can show a future state of what the customers' environment will feel like, how it will operate, and what the ongoing experience will be for their end users, it will set you apart from your competition. Putting your business case into an executive summary with a financial ROI and creating a vivid picture of the experience will create a higher success in your managed service and As-a-Service opportunity.
3.5 Bonus - Are you documenting an action plan to accomplish these three items and supporting it with a sales and marketing process that supports selling recurring revenue? The sale process for AV, Security, and Nurse Call is months long, and the transactions are generally significant. Having a documented Action Plan that Sales, marketing, engineering, and when the opportunity is won, the operations team can follow is essential in driving your reacquiring revenue.
It is rare that managed service and As-a-Service programs fail because of the deliverable or the experience. Most of the time, the organization does not know the value or how to communicate that value to customers, which is why you see the majority of these programs fail. Starting with these 3.5 areas will help train your revenue organization to finally move the needle on recurring revenue.
If you are ready to move beyond these 3.5 focus areas, reach out to us! We can help you with the next 3.5 areas to focus on :).
-Your Sales Process Sherpa--Revenueify
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