Jola Cloud Solutions' Blog

It is five times easier to sell to existing customers than it is to attract new business, so it makes sense for resellers to sell their customers as many complimentary products as they can. This also stops competitors gaining a foothold in their customer base.

One person to call

For customers, having a single-source supplier makes sense, as they only have one person to call to report an issue. Often when resellers only manage the hosted voice solution and not the underlying internet connectivity, it is more difficult to analyse the fault and fix it quickly. Similarly, you can only guarantee an improved SLA if you buy the primary circuit and 4G back-up from the same supplier. Customers often feel fobbed-off by suppliers when they ring to report a fault with their telephony, only to be told to re-dial their internet supplier, as there is no known fault their end.

Lower churn

As a business if you feel valued and rewarded for buying several products from one single supplier, you are less likely to churn away, especially if you have a good deal and experience great service.

What is a commodity?

A commodity is defined as a product or resource that is traded primarily on the basis of price, and not on differences in quality or features. When a product or service becomes a commodity, the market price will fall to the marginal cost of the lowest cost volume producer.

What challenges must be overcome when selling commoditised products?

Many consider broadband and telephony to be commoditised products. The challenge most resellers have is how to add real-value and differentiate themselves, to retain existing customers and win new business.

Buy well

To compete with the price leader, companies need to buy well from their suppliers. To win business, resellers may have to accept lower margins. In these situations, it is useful to have higher margin products you can add, to help boost margins.

Leverage USPs

If products are commoditised, are you adding anything unique? Are these USPs valued by your customers? Good service is a given, however installation expertise may be USPs you can charge for.

There are two types of partners that sign up with Jola for mobile data SIMs. The first already has an opportunity and needs a supplier to help fulfil the data SIM element, the second has been impressed by the products, pricing and portals and is enthusiastic about growing a new revenue stream.

Experienced Partners

Partners with existing opportunities often have strong relationships with their clients. Although they may not already offer data SIM solutions, they are trusted advisors and capable of sourcing the elements they need to build and roll out solutions. These partners are looking for a solution to a data problem. They need a partner to quickly understand the problem, pose a cost-effective solution and help them to win their bid. This often involves pre-sales and product development, to create a tailored solution to displace an incumbent.

So often success is measured on anecdotal evidence. “It’s not as busy as it was last year...” “I was expecting more...” On the basis of one or two opinions, events can be deemed successful or not worth repeating.

Most marketers will be ready with measurables, such as leads generated, meetings conducted and predicted returns, however unless objectives and success were defined prior to the event, the figures lose their impact.

Before planning an event, it is useful to draft objectives, set a strategy and outline deliverables. Involve key parties, such as the sales team, to set joint targets everyone agrees defines success.

Key measures such as total cost of exhibiting, hosting or attending, plus total visitor numbers are good to gather as a starting point. You can then set targets for lead generation against costs, or as a percentage of the total audience, and follow up with leads converted and order values over time. This way you can calculate the return on investment and time taken to achieve the return.

Analysis of last year’s attendees and performance compared to this year’s statistics, gives you facts you can analyse. You can also compare visitor numbers and break them down into target audience and compare that with the number of leads generated. If target audience numbers were up and leads were down, you may want a closer look at how the stand was run.

The challenge for marketing teams in the channel is to continually promote their USPs to win new business, without becoming predictable. As marketers, we plan our strategy to deliver on objectives. Overtime we develop messaging and campaigns that work and we know which buttons to press to get results. We need to balance new copy with existing key messages, to stay on track.

Business owners are often focussed on the ‘next big idea’ and can influence copy. Some companies change their brand, their messaging and their offer regularly to stay fresh, but can lose brand identity and enthusiasm for the campaign, if it doesn’t deliver expected results.

As marketers, we know that prospects don’t absorb every key message the first time they see it. It takes time and several touch points to attract their attention, engage with them and convert them. We also know the importance of key messages and layouts to differentiate ourselves and build a recognisable brand.

Don’t be tempted to throw out what is working in favour of the next new idea. Try to incorporate the new idea into existing templates, that contain key messages and USPs. This way the copy can be regularly updated to meet changing demands of the market, without losing your brand identity and key messages.

Reporting is key. By analysing engagement, conversions and order value, you can see if the new campaign is working and make necessary changes.

For more marketing tips, read our blog.

Most suppliers have a quoting tool and say they have the best pricing and support, so how do you choose between them?

Choose someone you know and trust with experience managing multiple carriers and overcoming common issues.

Find someone interconnected with all the major operators, who has a simple tool you can enter a postcode and receive all the options quickly.

Consider someone with an easy ordering platform, which keeps you in the loop automatically, so you can keep your customers informed on order progress.

How can they help you differentiate your services from the competition?

Jola

As a team, we have over 70 years’ experience selling white label internet connectivity to the channel. Even if you are an accomplished reseller, it is useful to have someone on your side that really understands the technologies available, who can help to quote custom solutions and overcome common problems.

By partnering with Jola, you can offer a wide range of internet services, can quote customers onsite and provide unique 4G back-up solutions, you can’t buy from anyone else.

For some partners attending and sponsoring exhibitions is part of their marketing strategy and multiple events are booked every year. For others, investing in an exhibition is a big decision, with many internal discussions around investment and potential return. Often the Sales Director makes the final decision and organises it. These partners sometimes turn to suppliers for help and support to maximise their success. There are three key factors to consider when planning an exhibition.

Research your market

Who attends your event? Who attended last year? Are these the types of prospects you are targeting? If so, think about your approach. How do you plan to interact with these prospects?

Many will take an exhibition package, giving them either space for their own stand and materials or a pre-built stand package, branded with their corporate logos. Whatever option you choose, think about your shop window, how your image will compare to your competitors and factor in any additional costs such as broadband and electrics. Ensure you have the ability to demonstrate and promote your services in the most effective way.

Attract your audience

Think about how you will attract prospects to your stand. You don’t have to spend thousands on bill boards outside the event, videos at the entrance hall and internal signage to get attention. You can invite prospects to your stand beforehand but be aware they may also visit your competitors. You can advertise yourself in the show guide and work the stand to ensure that every prospect that passes your stand is approached and qualified.

When looking for a new supplier of voice and data services, there are a number of factors to consider. Who has the best pricing? Who offers the widest range of best-of-breed services? Who will give me the best service?

Pricing

Pricing is key. To win business and retain a healthy margin, you need competitive wholesale rates. Rather than going on headline pricing alone, quote a live opportunity to get an understanding of how prospective suppliers stack up against existing suppliers.

Products

To be competitive and win new business, you need to offer a better solution at a reduced price. How can your supplier help you differentiate your proposition? What is unique about their offering and is this of value to your own customers? Having a wide range of options from a single supplier, makes quoting and ordering easier, provisioning more efficient and support more effective. Having products that you can’t buy from anyone else, enhances your own USPs.

Service

How much does your new supplier care about your business? Channel-only suppliers, dedicated to supporting companies like you, better understand the demands placed on you by your customers. They answer calls and emails promptly and resolve issues in enough time for you to hit your own response targets.

The opportunity

Demand for business internet connectivity in the UK is being driven by the availability of faster more reliable, fibre and Ethernet technologies. Leased line pricing has reduced by up to 50% in the last six months, helping to further fuel demand.

Companies are looking for faster, more reliable internet connectivity to access cloud-hosted applications such as CRM, accountancy and telephony applications. Cloud applications tend to be pay per seat per month and come without the investment in servers and internal management.

Businesses are looking to suppliers to advise them on what is available and expect the best possible price, smooth installations and excellent technical support. Are your customers coming to you for leased line quotes? If not, why not?

Who to partner with for leased lines?

IT and telecoms providers are looking for suppliers that can offer them the widest choice of carrier services at best possible pricing with tools to make quoting and ordering easy. They are looking for experienced providers who understand the carrier installation processes and potential barriers to sale, such as lead times, wayleave and excess construction charges. Who do you partner with for leased lines? Are they competitive? Do they offer a quick and easy quoting tool?

Quoting Tools

One tool which delivers best pricing from multiple suppliers displaying all technologies available in minutes is useful when quoting solutions. They are fast, accurate and easy to order from. You can quote customers on-site, during a meeting.

IT and Telecoms companies can improve ARPU by supplying new products to loyal customers. Research shows that SMEs prefer to buy from existing suppliers, they trust. Until there is sufficient demand to justify investment in support, billing and marketing, the supplier will often partner with a specialist on an introduction and commission basis. Moving from a dealer to a reseller model provides better control and improved margins, however there are challenges along the way.

Forecasts, targets and contract terms

What are the rules? Are there any set targets? Read the partner agreement before you sign and ask to speak to a partner that has made the transition to ensure you are comfortable with the terms and conditions.

Billing

Billing can be problematic for IT companies that want to start reselling fixed, mobile and hosted telephony products. Alongside monthly service charges they will need to process monthly CDRs (Call Data Records), rating each call type and producing itemised bills and variable invoices. It is difficult and risky to try and adapt existing in-house billing systems and purchasing and managing specialist billing software is not always feasible.

There are some good third-party billing products available, however the set-up fees, monthly standing charge and billing percentages mean the reseller often has to take several orders before the margin covers the monthly cost of billing. Some of the more sophisticated suppliers offer white-label billing for their products and will even bill products and services the reseller buys from other suppliers. This can be a cheaper and less risky alternative.

Support

Until you reach a critical mass of customers it is not worth recruiting and training additional support staff. For business-critical products that have 24/7 SLAs, technical support is a particular challenge. There are some very good bureau services available however these come with set-up charges and minimum spends. Often, they will also charge for calls by the minute and per email on tickets. Incidents happen with any technology and a major outage could cost thousands of pounds. If the supplier of the products offers a white label technical support service, then this is the best solution until you can justify hiring your own team. Only the best suppliers will stand by their products by offering a white label technical support product on a fixed-cost basis. They will also help you to train your own support staff when the time is right.