Making managed services work
By Martha Entwistle
Updated Tue May 21, 2013
WESTMINSTER, Colo.—Once you make the decision at the management level to sell managed services, how do you get your sales staff to follow through?
This was the topic covered in an educational session, moderated by Sharon Shaw, president of Integrators Support, at the PSA-TEC conference here May 5-10.
“Compensate them,” said Rob Simopoulos of Advance Technology. Simopoulos called his compensation plan “aggressive” and added that the commission is all paid upfront. The company has to budget for that, “but it's a strong incentive for sales,” he said.
Gary Hoffner of Digital Security and Electronics suggested taking a “champion salesperson and turning them into an RMR salesperson.” He said that it's a great way to entice a sales force into selling managed services. “As success of the new program grows, others are dragged into it,” he said.
What if an employee is negative, or will not get onboard with a new initiative like managed services? Paul Cronin of Atrion Networking said his company always works to show employees the value of a new program and particularly how this initiative ties into their personal career goals. If negativity persists, however, the employee has to go.
“A service model is too client-centric to have that in the background,” he said.
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