Compensation

Can service delivery staff play an effective role in selling services? The answer, according to Chuck Kolkjen of The Sales Performance Group, is yes as long as you ask them to identify opportunities and make recommendations consistent with their role as the customers’ trusted experts. In most cases, don’t count on them to close sales. Most technology companies shy away from using their service and support staff to sell anything for good reasons. Whether they are helping the customer on the phone or on site in the field, engineers have been trained and measured on efficiency: troubleshoot customer problems and move on to the next customer. The more technical engineers have the worst communication skills. Many feel uncomfortable socializing with customers. Using the word ‘sell’ in conversation is guaranteed to offend all present service engineers.

This perspective addresses a challenge presented in a ServicesRevenue business case listed under Relevant Links The primary challenge that Intopia will face is to avoid being perceived as a competitor by their channel partners. This perception is somewhat unavoidable if Intopia has always been a pure product vendor and has not previously offered direct services. Conversely, if Intopia does not do something to supplement their partners’ solutions with more value-added services, they may be missing an opportunity to generate a positive service and support revenue stream.

This perspective addresses a challenge presented in a ServicesRevenue business case listed under Relevant Links Mike Nasch and Intopia may have unrealistic goals for increasing their service presence. Intopia’s service organization is an unknown startup with unknown capabilities. Failure to deliver on this deal can lead to a very negative service reputation. The potential also exists to damage the relationship with NetOps who may decide to partner with an Intopia competitor. Considering the limited breadth of its products, Intopia cannot build a sustainable services business around network components alone. Components are typically very reliable and are not maintenance intensive. The revenue is on the front and the back-end of the storage devices and the hosts.

This perspective addresses a challenge presented in a ServicesRevenue business case listed under Relevant Links I think Hans is on the right track. There’s some groundwork that must be laid to handle customer objections. A thorough examination of this situation may reveal alternatives and opportunities to turn it around.