Why Unified Communications Is an Easier Sell Than Vanilla Voice Services

IP voice services are a staple offering for many resellers and managed service providers. Businesses rely on their phone systems to facilitate new deals, run projects and communicate internally. That said, the modern business employs more than just voice: email is a vastly popular channel and so is instant messaging. 

Knowing as much, resellers and managed service providers can tap into greater opportunities with Unified Communications (UC), which ropes in video, instant messaging, email, SMS and voice under a single platform. Interestingly, this robust solution even promises an easier sell because it transcends an ordinary communication solution and broaches on collaboration software. 

Demonstrate ROI with UC

With IP telephony services, the largest selling feature is cost reduction. Domestic and international calling is markedly cheaper online compared to PSTN routing, plus the solution is remotely accessible and easily expanded or retracted. Therefore, the conversation often boils down to dollars—a reason why the market is so cut-throat. 

UC services, on the other hand, while still cost-efficient, promise a return in other areas. For example, the suite of tools built into a UC service can improve workforce productivity and efficiency, helping connect employees to data and information faster. The ROI talk becomes a conversation about how UC transforms a business in addition to saving it money. 

Open New Revenue Streams

Voice services scale in a single direction—more traffic or SIPs. While resellers and providers may sell complementary services, the ‘a la carte’ approach results in fragmented revenue streams; some stronger than others and some with lower capacities. 

UC solutions allow providers to bundle in a greater amount of services and scale their core offerings simultaneously. It is a more cohesive sales pitch, too, as the customer needn’t think about the different components as lines on a bill but rather as gears in a much more powerful machine.

Make Solutions Stickier 

UC solutions inherently have a wider service scope than voice. Consequently, customers implement the different services at every level of their company, making it harder to replace. For example, switching a hosted phone system can be as easy as changing the SIP service, username and password and rejigging the call-flow. Because it’s so easy to jump solutions, providers are always at risk of churn. 

Conversely, moving UC platforms is invasive, especially if the platform uses native applications like propriety soft phones and instant messengers. Thus, there is greater resistance towards churn, helping providers retain customers and win more opportunities to delight them.