Pushing the IP tipping point with sales training

An announcement from Axis Communications that landed in my inbox this week caught my eye. It's a new “sales essentials" training program, a one-day training program that starts Aug. 27 and will be offered in 40 cities in the U.S. and Canada. It is the first all-sales focused training session the network video provider has offered.

James Marcella, Axis director of technical services, said the session offers attendees the best answer to “Why network video?”

That very basic question is one that a large segment of installers need and want training on, according to installers that Security Systems News spoke to this month for a market trends report on the status of hosted video today.  Look for that report online later this month and in the September printed publication.

I spoke to Marcella and he said: "One thing we're seeing is that the technology has matured to the point where IP surveillance is now cost effective for small systems and the installer base that serves those small systems is the last to take up IP surveillance,” he said.

For those installers who are just making the leap from analog to IP cameras, “there's a real learning curve on the technical and the sales side.” The cameras may be “easy to install and configure, but we still need to educate on the sales side.”

The course will address the “video surveillance sales cycle, selling against objection and developing communications strategies that focus on the value of network video to meet the customer's needs," according to the announcement. The best way to demonstrate network cameras and the benefits of the Axis Channel Partners, “including pre- and post-sales support, vertical market solutions and the complete ecosystem of the Axis partner network.”

The first course will take place in Detroit on Aug. 27. U.S. cities on the tour include: Chicago, Cincinnati, Denver, Houston, Miami, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Philadelphia, San Diego, Seattle and at Axis headquarters in Chelmsford, Mass. In Canada, training will begin in Toronto on Oct. 2. Other locations in Canada area; Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver.

Marcella said the Axis' training sessions have evolved over the past decade in response to channel partner requests. Sales training was always part of the training until a couple years ago when integrators really wanted “a deeper dive on the technology side” but then Marcella said, Axis “started to hear that they were missing the sales aspect, that [installers] had new sales people who've come on board [who needed training].”