Where is the RoI in Unified Communications?
Industry analysts continue to report slow uptake of Unified Communications solutions, worldwide. Springboard Research and Research & Markets have both released studies suggesting that cost of implementation and measurability of benefits are often limiting its adoption.
Reading though the industry press, vendor websites and UC blogs it is clear that demonstrating Return on Investment is a key challenge in selling Unified Communications to enterprise customers. A Google search on “Unified Communications” RoI returns 377,000 results!
When you ask customers what they need in order to be convinced (actually to make most investments), the answer is, “show me where it saves me costs from my budget, or where it makes me money?” … and that is a challenge for UC salespeople.
We all intuitively know that ‘presence’ should improve communications between individuals. We know that unified messaging should allow employees to spend less time checking their messages, freeing them up to do something more important. But providing a compelling demonstration of how this translates into saving costs from an individual’s budget or making his company extra money is a real challenge.
With applications, it all becomes much more straightforward. Ask a lawyer how much it is worth to him to be able to accurately charge every client call he makes, and he’ll tell you. Ask the owner of a fast-food outlet what its worth to him to be able to automatically find cover when a staff member doesn’t arrive for work, and he’ll know… In these cases, demonstrating Return on Investment becomes very easy. Not only that; the Payback Period can often be very short – another vital consideration in today’s economic climate.
Linking applications with your UC proposal gives you a powerful tool for addressing one of the most difficult objections to handle – “I’ll need to see a Business Case for this”.
For more tips on handling objections and understanding customer financial processes, sign up for SCTV and download the corresponding episodes today…
Similar Posts:
- Simple Applications – the key to selling UC
- Selling IP Telephony… its the applications!
- IP Phone Applications sell Unified Communications and IP Telephony… pt 2
- How Interest Rates affect UC buying behaviour, and Three Things you can do to gain an Advantage over your Competitors.
- Winning a UC deal against Siemens – take away their revenue stream!