·         Beware the “Low Power Consumption” angle

·         Look for evidence of “low power” in your competitor’s messaging

·         Include Softphone options in your proposal to compete successfully

 Recent product announcements from Avaya about Unified Communications talk about reductions in power utilisation. As everyone gets aboard the “Green” bandwagon more and more vendors are trying to win sales based on power consumption of their equipment. So how can you outsell companies like Avaya in a competitive situation?

Well, first, you must gauge how hard they are pushing this “low power” message.  Then review your proposal. If you are basing it on lots of hardware components (gateways, voice-ready routers and, especially IP Phone handsets), you are probably going to lose when it comes to this “green” battle with Avaya. Instead, take a look at how the customer runs their business. As you know, we always recommend you do this rather than just pitch the products from your vendor  (Top Sales Tip!!).

Here’s what you’ll find. Most of the hardware, especially the IP Phone handsets will be either over-specified or unnecessary. Instead, look for ways to incorporate voice technology that can run on the customer’s existing computing platforms. Look at the deployment of soft-phone technology rather than handsets. If you come from a traditional voice market this might be a bit out of your comfort zone, but find out more about this technology. Microsoft, for example, has a rapidly growing portfolio of software solutions for Unified Communications.

So look for areas where you could include this technology. Why? Because deploying this technology uses even less power than Avaya’s hardware, because it can usually be deployed on existing equipment. In fact, the customer will makes significant power savings with this approach as they ditch all their power hungry traditional equipment as you move them to Unified Communications. Go on, give it a try and give Avaya a headache!

Mike Willshare

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