hi in this video I'm going to show you
five ways to effectively sell office 365
to maximize your services and margins
and not go to the price discussion rule
with your customer welcome to this
channel journey to cloud here we do
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technology so if you are new to this
channel consider subscribing let's get
started as you all know that office 365
is demanding is in the high demand today
with almost every customer looking for
in Microsoft is putting a lot of efforts
and marketing it so how can you do in a
much better way a sale of office 365 as
compared to hundreds of others resellers
and partners trying to sell them so I'm
gonna give you five different ways which
will make you a better office 365 seller
not only you will close the deals in the
right way but also you will be able to
make good amount of margin and services
opportunity so stay tuned for the five
tips here's the first one do your
homework doing your homework is very
very critical what I mean by doing your
homework is before you even get in touch
with your customer or prospect with the
right people I want you to do your
homework now that homework is very
simple exercise it's basically a sales
homework to do before you contact your
customers now the first one I would like
you to do is to go and check your domain
check the domain name of the customer
I'm assuming you're going to approach a
customer who is already having an email
domain any business going on so if
you're going and approaching a customer
who already has a domain name then just
go to who dot is and check their DNS
settings and what you specifically are
going to look for is
em extra corn so when you see the MX
record and makes the card typically
tells you where the current customer is
hosting their emails if it is an IP
address most likely it's going to be a
non from solution which is using like an
exchange other IBM Lotus node or
something like that if it is pointing to
something with the name Google then it
is most likely that the customer is
using on Google if it is something to do
with Rackspace and you will see a war
Rackspace if you see something with
outlook as a word then for sure that the
customer is already on office is
justified you don't need to waste your
time you can move on so that's a very
critical step most of the sellers forget
it and the Vista time prospecting
calling them and then they don't get
anything so do your homework check check
the check the domain name and you will
actually be able to find out what the
customer is using and you can pitch
accordingly so if your Google you need
to be prepared how you're gonna play it
how to switch the customer to office if
it is not office then it's a clear shot
that you should go and pitch office 65
to the customer so the next point in the
homework is size and industry of the
customer size of the customer plays a
important role on how you're going to
pitch because the whole solution to the
customer if it is a smooth and and the
easiest way to categorize them is into
three categories SMB which is small and
medium business I would say depending on
the country and region you are in but
the definition of size of the customer
varies from country to country but you
can define your own country if it is an
emerging country can be 0 to 150
employees if it is a mature country like
US Europe or Asia India then you can the
SMB will range between 0 to maybe 300
and 300 employees so categorize them in
either SMB mid market or an enterprise
because each of these will behave
differently and it is very critical that
which industry you are going after what
is the industry of the customer on their
website on their LinkedIn profile you
will easily
be able to find what exactly is their
industry whether it is retail
manufacture and so on
in mind in the following videos which I
will be doing in the next few weeks I
will pick up an industry and talk about
that and how it specifically you can go
and pitch it to them so know their
industry and the size it really matters
the number of branches the number of
branches it has and this is the easiest
way which I used to do in the past is go
to their website and find out the
contact offices if they have more than
one office it will be listed on their
website but that these are the number of
branches they have and so on why it is
important for you to know the number of
branches is very simple the more the
number of branches the bigger is the
problem of the data and the emails and
the connectivity a cloud solution is the
right thing to do that so find out how
many branches and this could be your one
of the questions which you want to
discover while you're talking to the
prospect check their website on social
and YouTube Twitter LinkedIn Facebook
why this is important this could be a
topic of digital transformation
everybody is transforming if the
company's website is pretty old but it's
a good company it's it's a well-known
name but they don't have a decent
website it doesn't render on the mobile
it has they don't have a youtube channel
they don't have a link them they don't
have Facebook you're not gonna make any
money out of this knowledge but you
definitely will be able to pick up these
insights that they are not yet ready and
they are not started their digital
transformation office this is defi which
is basically a communication
collaboration could trigger the first
step into the digital music that could
be one of the topics to discuss when you
meet the customers so my next tip is
talk to the right people talking to the
right people is is very very critical if
we are from IT sales background
typically we knock the doors of an IT
department and that's what is our
biggest mistake if you are going and
selling at cloud solution don't go to IT
department don't go to the
means they are afraid of you don't go to
IT managers they don't have budgets for
this they want to maintain their budget
they want to spend their budgets they
love servers and identify Andy in the
server room and everything don't go to
IDE directors also at this first place I
would suggest if you want to go and make
a right sale with the services and
margin you better want to go and knock
the doors of a business guys it could be
CEO it could be CF or it could be VP it
could be director it could be sales
directors somebody on the business side
who is concerned for the following the
reason I want you not to go to the IT
and go to business is the following the
business is concerned about the terms
called productivity productivity gain
business in fact time to market and so
on IT department doesn't care about all
of these IT department is caring about
whether the lights are on the server's
is on the systems is running or not yeah
that's a good point in offices 65
business but the decision making point
will really really come from the fact
that you're going to help the company to
improve their productivity by 20 percent
they're gonna help the company to go to
market and be more agile in terms of
growing and being in communication and
collaborate much better collaboration
means nothing to IT department and this
is one of the important things which you
want to do so so it's very very critical
that you talk to the IT department I
have some tips here talk about the
business application not about emails
and so in office 365 you don't wanna
talk about emails at all because it's
it's known offices 65 has a much bigger
capacity 50 GB means nothing to people
today that is taken for granted it is
definitely there so you don't need to
mention again and again that all you're
gonna get 50 GB that's not a selling
point you want to talk about other apps
which comes along with office 365 or
talk about planner you want to talk
about tasks you want to talk about the
themes you want to talk about
calendar you won't talk about onedrive
SharePoint and these are the things
which can help business collaborate
better and that's the most important
piece of it ok talk about multi device
syncing this is important everybody
forgets about this to mention to the
customer very strongly and the business
side is multi device inking you can have
five devices and they're all sinking
together it means a lot to a business
person than an IT department so talk
about these things very very critical so
talk to the right people show them the
right stuff talk about the right things
don't talk about the the the capacities
and features of the offices but that
means nothing to people what they really
care about is collaboration or really
cannabis productivity how much they can
save money how fast they can do things
how better they can do things how better
they can communicate Skype for business
and so on and video calls and everything
so so that's what you want to discuss
all with the business things not with
the IT department another important
reason which you will talk about which
I'll talk about in the next few points
is white off the business for services
so let's go to the next point the next
way is to educate your customer
educating the customer is critical you
don't want to throw in a proposal the
fastest way you want to spend some time
educating the customer of course I don't
want you to be so very slow that
somebody else comes and throws the price
to the customer I want you to spend some
time right time with your customer to
educate them about various apps which
they will get by default when they
subscribe to offices if I plan when I
say that it comes with a bunch of like
1015 apps and if the customer doesn't
know about this you're not gonna make
anything out of it you will end up
selling an email service to them which
is not the right thing to do so I want
you to spend time educating that in
different ways and means maybe talk
about it maybe put it on a paper maybe
show them a video the best way which I
recommend is to show them a demo ask for
45 minutes an hour take a walkthrough
show them very quickly these are the
apps which comes through it and talk
about use case is not case studies use
cases there are two different things
case studies are success stories of
people who have done it yeah that means
okay but then if you want to sell things
you want to talk about case study which
means how teams can be used for sales
department and marketing departments how
planner can be used by project things or
sales teams for example how onedrive can
be used by finance department in sales
and marketing department these are the
things which will matter to them so you
need to pack all of these into about a 1
1 and 1/2 hours time slot and show them
live in person with right people in them
in the audience and those people should
be business not IT departments because
rightly deepening it typically resist
this whole thing so that was educate so
educate is my third tip the fourth one
is services you want to talk about
services you are there not to sell a
product you are there to give them a
service and if you don't tell them about
the services which you offer and
services I'll break it up into a couple
of things I'll break it up in
implementation services
break it up in the second point is
migration services so it could be
development services and finally it
would be the managed services of support
if you don't talk about these four
things and the most critical nerve you
cannot convince the customer that you're
adding value you're not there to sell
licenses if you do that you will end up
making minimum margin or sometimes no
margin and it's a liability office this
is the FRA selling under CSP and you're
not making money is a liability for your
business you will actually make losses
then actually profitability so you want
to talk about this for services the
fifth one is a bonus one it is change
management you wanna talk about change
management a lot of partners I've seen
they don't talk about change management
and I'll go one by one very quickly
implementation is all about the efforts
which you put in planning you put in the
mapping of all the things you discover
how
is the data to be migrated when you are
going to migrate all of these step by
step with the right sequence of people
categorizing a lot of good amount of
planning which goes into this and the
way you want to put across to the
customer is yes you you you you are
getting a product and it's a
subscription model you pay per month per
year whatever you want to do that and
I'm gonna give you a good price there
but then on the services I'm gonna put
efforts I'm gonna put one or two people
for a good amount of time and you want
to charge the customer for their foods
they putting so the right way I think is
and this was very successful with us and
myself was to put it across as in total
effort than how many days it is and
quantify the date these typically one
man day in depends on the region come
down to a dollar value for day and then
you will be able to find out a dollar
value for the whole project which is
incrementation and it's a code matrix to
go and put it in front of a customer and
customer will understand if you make him
understand that there is a good amount
of effort required to actually do a good
job and then if it takes time and
efforts by one or two people to do that
project then he will be happy to pay the
other thing is the migration piece the
migration is done in two parts the
migration is actually an effort by human
being which is an expert technical
person but also it requires the right
tool so you again need to educate about
these services that to effectively do
the project in time with a good
experience of the users not losing a
previous lead on the devices on the
offices 6 define always keep going back
to old PSD files is to migrate some
amount of data not all the data some
amount of data they need to help the
customer to migrate the calendar the
contacts and the files and folders also
and for that doing it like a donkey
person doing man will do this and that
it's it's disaster you need to use the
right tool you need to educate your
customer there are right tools available
like Sky King and bit tighten and they
can actually help you to move that data
on the clock
and there are two parts of the migration
fees which is the tools and the efforts
both of them into it migration efforts
can be again man days and then tools is
by user and type of the data which you
migrate let's talk about the development
piece development is optional but then
here is some value add and stickiness
you want to create you definitely want
to talk about SharePoint portal
development it's very easy it's not a
rocket science even if you have a
regular basic HTML designer if you don't
have anybody also you can use tools like
short point and and it's basically a UI
design I put it on top of SharePoint
drag and drop and get things done but by
just showing it and putting that effort
so even plan for your customer is going
to help you get that stickiness because
you're selling something more than that
and by selling that service you are
actually making the customer you use the
full value of the investment he's doing
on the office the last piece is the the
support piece now support generally is
not a rocket science to support a
customer but I'll tell you there are two
types of problems with every customer
faces one is actual product problem it
could be mail box not working calendar
not syncing this and that it's a policy
it's a product problem something which
definitely requires the technical
assistance from Microsoft and then you
get it done the other type of the
support which is oh I need few users I
need to configure this typically how to
do stuff and because the office is
changing so fast more and more features
functionality is coming it's quite
impossible for a customer to manage
everything you want to offer this as a
service you want to offer this as a
managed service that we will manage your
all requests whatever you say and we
will get it done within SLA plus the
support end-user support is more
critical not every time if customers
user runs into a technical product
problem it basically runs into oh I am
NOT able to open this not
do this in that and that's where you
offer that as a service one month per
year whatever you want to manage
services and the bonus service which I
was talking about
it was change management lot of partners
resellers micros apartments don't
understand what is changed management
change management is actually the one
which actually brings the change in the
organization of the customer what does
it mean when you're introducing a brand
new apps of course nobody needs to learn
how to use outlook I agree but then the
new outlook has a lot of features like
add-ins how to use add-ins but I'm not
talking about how to promote how to use
the office outlook I'm talking about how
to educate the customer by educating
them about the various other apps which
is part of office 365 that is teams
Skype for business Skype for meetings
SharePoint portal for example how to
create a portal how to maintain a portal
how to use planners how to use the video
stream and xyc
so pick up these apps which means very
level to the organization's departments
and then offer it as a change management
service change management is nothing
it's just basically creating some
awareness you can put up posters you can
put up banners stickers and some run
some sessions around it and also change
management is really about resistance
management you train the top managers
that you're gonna push onedrive as the
choice and you will register come back
saying no they cannot use it if they
keep attaching emails again and again
you want to push back so this is
something which managers can do in the
organization and you train the managers
on how to handle this change and it's
all about change management it said good
services revenue which you need to you
can make but the most important it will
drive a very deep adoption this custom
is not going to go when they actually
find it this so my last final step or
way to sell this effectively office 365
is the bonus wave
don't ask for a purchase order sign a
contract you all know it's subscription
business don't ask for a purchase order
why you should not ask for a purchase or
if you ask for purchase order the
purchasing department is again going to
look for one or three codes in the end
of the subscription term and you will
end up fighting for their subscription
problems or renewal basically if you
sign a contract which should have an
auto renew clause it doesn't go through
purchases eyes again and again whether
it's a contract it keeps going on and on
and if you have an auto renewal clause
there it makes me life much easier so
switch from purchase orders to to
contracts it could be a two page three
page contract put down your terms
condition some of the terms could be it
will be auto renewed if you want to
cancel give us 30 days notice it's going
to be billed one month in advance if it
is monthly option and there is no
renewal option there it's basically on
and on and on so and you can give the
rates of the individual user licenses as
and when they want to add licenses and
so on so contract is going to save you
from the Battle of renewals on and at
the end of the year at the end of the
renewal term the other way you can deal
with this is to run away get away this
renewal business is signing multi-year
contract you collect the payment still
yearly but sign three years contract
give them a better price so that they
get motivated to sign a three a monkey a
contract and put some clause there six
months if they if they bake the contract
they have to pay six months of money in
advance so something like that which
will help them to lock out but then
signing a multi-year contract with the
payment terms like that of course
mentioned that if there is a price
change from Microsoft you're going to
transfer that thing if there is a
reduction you're gonna pass said if it
is a hike you will definitely pass that
also but signing multi-year is really
really helpful it can it can really save
your business in terms of the fight of
renewal business so those are my five
tips on effectively selling office 365
so if you like this video
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your comments and if you have any
challenges other than these please leave
it on the comments below and I will
ensure that I will try to solve it
through my experience of selling it
thank you