Virtual Technician Newsletter
November 2008
Unlocking the value in your Help Desk.
Helping your customers stay in business (and you too..).
In today's economic conditions, with hardware margins declining and new sales opportunities drying up, your dependency on your services revenue will increase so you better be able to make those deals happen. If your organization is attempting to sell support services and you are not happy with the results, you are not alone.
Traditionally people that sell hardware often struggle at selling services. The challenge they face is two fold – hardware is a product - it is tangible, “demonstrate-able”, replaceable, and it is not personable. Services are performed, they are conditional, they are invisible when being sold, and they are highly personal. In addition to this, most hardware sales reps feel that they are selling against themselves when attempting to sell services. They only mention the basic minimum offering as not wanting to potentially put negative thoughts in the prospect’ s mind.
Sound familiar:
- Talking about support services is also talking about something breaking. "I want the customer to focus on all of the great hardware features, not think about things breaking".
- Adding services will increase the price tag of the deal. "This could make me more expensive than the competition."
- "What if a service technician does not do a good job and the customer gets mad at me!"
Three Key Things You Need to Consider...
I. Train your sales people to listen.
Service sales are consultative sales (in reality all sales should be consultative sales). They are learning how the prospect operates, what are their expectations about their business performance - what happens if things go right, what happens if things go wrong. Being able to have this type of discussion with your prospect will better position your reps against your competition to add value to your communication with your clients. If you understand their business, you can then understand how your product and service offerings can add value to their business. You go from being just another sales person to a valuable consultant.
II. They must believe.
Your sales team must believe that your service organization can deliver on what they are promising. They must believe that the support services are a continual connection to the customer that will create additional opportunities for additional sales down the road. Having a branded, defined service offering with distinct levels will help your sales reps position your services offering properly based on the understood needs of their prospect / customer.
III. Have a Methodology for Help Desk or Support Services. Selling Help Desk or support services has been referred to as selling the "invisible". For some prospects it is hard for them to understand the value that your service offering and commit when the value they will receive will be at some point in the future. Selling on fear could turn the prospect off thinking that you are trying to force them into making a decision and people like to make up their own mind.
Sales reps tend to avoid hard and lean more towards easy. You need to put "tools" in their hands something that will distinguish your services like reports, graphs, or screen shots. Your sales reps should be able to use this as a “guide” making the process easier for them. Also in going through the process, the sales rep is has the ability to better understand the client’s business and offer value that different stages in the process.
Staying in business...
In order to stay in business you need customers that are in business! So, you need to make your business about your customer's business (Refer back to #1 - listening - knowing your customer's business)! Your customer needs to focus on running their business - sales, marketing, training, inventory management, etc. They DO NOT need to be taken away from these activities by POS support issues. This is bad for them and ultimately bad for you if they are not able to stay in business.
Customer needs and business opportunities are driving rapid growth in the services industry. Leading organizations are figuring out how to effectively use services as a competitive advantage that also can greatly increases revenue, profit and generate customer loyalty. Changes are required on the front-end process (aka. sales) and the back-end process (aka. support) for you to achieve the results you are looking for. |
