"How to" vs. "How to Apply"

We've recently seen an increase in demand for our electronic learning courses covering the "how to" as well  as the "how to apply" of various BroadSoft VoIP features and applications.

Our customers are saying "hey, we need better educational tools that help our customers understand how they can use their features in their business and when to apply them.  Plus, we need to show them how to use them." 

How do you do that?  Here a few steps you may want to take:

1. Take the engineering/configuring/provisioning/set-up out of the equation first. Focus on the APPLICATION.

2. Identify a few simple, real world examples of how this feature could be used.

3. Determine if this feature relates to other features included with the service offering.  Tying 1 or more services together will help connect the dots for your customers. 

4. Last - how do you enable/disable/configure/provision/set-up.

5. Once you have identified all of the content in #1-4 -- then start putting together your tutorials.  And don't forget to keep them SHORT and easy to access. 

#4 is the easy part.  If you really want to create valuable resources - help them understand WHAT they are enabling/disabling/configuring and HOW that impacts their productivity or business operation. Without that context - those tutorials are just a verbalized User Guide.

Start talking "how to apply" and let the "how to" come as a byproduct.

"Trainsulting"

Long time no blog.  We've been busy over at B-Lynk.  With BroadSoft's latest release rolling out and many new customers launching the BroadWorks platform for the first time - we have seen an uptick of providers looking for "training"...however after developing and delivering 8 new courses in less then 6 weeks, I'm not sure "training" is the right term for the type of services we end up delivering.  I'm actually considering launching a service called Train-sulting, because what we most often end up doing is developing highly customized training content for new product launches for sales people, or programs for customer end-users however the path we take to get there is much wider then the sidewalk used for storyboarding a simple and straightforward course covering BroadSoft-BroadWorks features and applications.

This path turns, there are lots of bumps and instead of following the customer's map, we end up being co-pilots on the journey. We point out what their customer's FAQs are going to be "if we design it this way, versus that way",   what topics and features their sales people are going to struggle with and the most effective way to deliver this "training" to their customer, sales people, client support staff, etc.  Can a Sales person really sit through a 3 hour webinar?  Probably not.  Or will Bill in Accounts Payable really sit and watch a 45 min. video on how to navigate through a web portal covering the features with his new phone service that he will occasionally need to access?  Probably not.  If the goal of providing training  is anything but "providing training" then we need to determine what problem we are solving for and design effective learning tools to solve them. 

Selling telecom service during the holidays....get real!

With the holiday season quickly approaching, it might be a good time to round up your sales team and take one last look at the sales pipeline, because guess what - nothing new (at least at an enterprise level) is going to close this year.  Get off Hope Island and report your numbers.  It's "the holidays" - people are traveling, too busy, closing out their year, don't have it left in the budget, don't HAVE a budget, nothing is "broken" so we aren't going to fix it until next year".... these are all excuses that every "S4" (in SF.com opportunity stage terms) is going to give.  It's reality.  

Bluebirds are great and that's all you have left.  Instead of dreaming about that big deal that was promised to close this year - why don't you chase down the business that is moving locations.  You have  a better chance of closing that then anything because they actually NEED your service.  There are only 3 ways account will close in the next 6-7 weeks (assuming you don't fold and discount your services):

1. They NEED what you have to continue running their business.  Meaning their phone system died, blew up or was stolen - OR, they are moving and don't have phone service arranged.

2. They must spend their budget or they lose it.  These are going to be very tough deals to find because typically those scenarios only happen in larger organizations and at that level, there is no way they are going to make a decision on an enterprise hosted PBX solution in a month.  Just not happening. 

3.  A deal that has been in the pipeline, is in negotiations and had executive level approval with contract dates approaching.  (closely related to #1).


If your sales people think their deals are "going to close" you need to ask more questions!  Then it's time to start looking at the Q1 funnel....not trying to be negative Nancy here, just Realistic Rita. 

Happy Holiday Selling!

Welcome to The B-Lynk Buzz....

Hi, my name is Katie Butcher - CEO and Founder of B-Lynk. If you haven't heard of us - well, we provide training service for BroadSoft Service providers.  Check out our site, or just give me a call.  You can catch me on my Anywhere number.

I've recently been told by a handful of professionals in the IP Communications industry that I  need to start blogging.  It's been on my 'to-do' list for 2 solid quarters now and it's time to check it off the list and give this  blogging thing a whirl.  ...so here we go.  TheB-Lynk Buzz.


If you're a BroadSoft Service provider and looking for tips on how to get your sales people to sell more deals, running into objections in the field that you just can't overcome, realizing that every hosted PBX deployment is a debacle, or just don't understand the BroadWorks licensing, you
might want to stop by The B-Lynk Buzz for some therapy.

We're going to kick this off with a series called "Is your sales team ready?"  This series will focus on the challenges and objections that your sales team will have while out selling your BroadSoft service.  It will be focused on real world scenarios and actual situations that your sales people will face, and  will be based on the types of audiences that they will interface with while on a sales call.  It's important for your reps to be able to quickly determine the type of audience they are in front of how the present the solutions accordingly.  If it's "Steve the IT Director" or "Joe the business owner" the message will need to be adjusted for those prospects to understand the dynamic shift that is happening in regards to IP Communications and Cloud as a Service.  Make sure your sales team knows how to connect the dots and present value based on the type of customer and audience you are selling to.  This isn't a commodity, it's a solution.  Is your sales team ready?