IP telephony: Demand picks up, how to sell

Telephone systems at the bottom of the market are sold on the style and appeal of the handsets. Higher value sales are being won and lost around the applications available on one vendor's system compared to another, Scanlan says. A number of PBXs integrate with Microsoft Outlook and popular databases.

Applications are critical for call centres, even those as small as five people. Downsizing call-centre staff means fewer people have to carry out more tasks. "Having tools that make that job easier is critical now," Scanlan says.
Unified communications is another important application. It is now much easier to combine traffic from email, voicemail and text messages on the one platform. Users can tell who is calling and their contact history through integration with address books and CRM software.

Other unified communications features include voice to email, which sends voice messages to a mobile phone; free text messages on mobile phones to internal staff; and "twinning", where an incoming call rings a mobile and deskphone simultaneously.

More sophisticated applications are specialised voicemail, website links and predictive or progressive dialling within a sales team.

Companies of all stripes are investigating these applications and buying the IP systems that support them. There is no expensive outlay to get access to the latest software features, Scanlan says. Some applications cost as little as a $50 flat fee, and licences are added as needed.

Scanlan calls the category of customers willing to invest in IP systems "smart SMBs" because they understand staff productivity.  If the reseller's salesman understands the business a application could cost very little and yet have a dramatic effect, he adds. 

The prospect of selling additional features opens the door to future sales. Conventional TDM systems are quite simple in comparison and once installed offer little recurring revenue to a reseller other than maintenance calls.
However, a reseller can keep returning to a customer to introduce more features that make sense for the business as it grows.

Selling extra features was the reason Centrix Systems chose to move to IP systems, Mahdi says. The Zultys range has added a conference bridge allows users to set up a conference and send participants Outlook invites with the PIN and phone number to dial.

Another feature lets a user host a webinar, which can be two-way or host-driven. It has allowed people to replace their GoTo or Citrix subscriptions, Mahdi says.

Unified communications and more exotic features are not something SMBs typically demand, unless they are moving from a similar system, Mahdi says. However, once the features are in use and the company is drawing a benefit they are hard to remove.

"I don't expect clients to willingly request those features but they do add value to the prospect of having them switch over to the solution," Mahdi says.

Next: The soft touch