Delivering Partner Value in the Gen 7 Upgrade Process
“We’re looking for a custom fit in an off-the-rack world…”
Some may remember Hawkeye Pierce saying this to Margaret Hoolihan in season eight of the legendary M*A*S*H TV series. They were speaking of life in general.
But our customers don’t live in an off-the-rack world and each expects and deserves a custom tailored network that specifically meets their needs now and in the future.
The Only Constant is Change
Credited to the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus, this admonition is particularly applicable to the world of information technology. As businesses change, customer needs are constantly changing, requiring faster speeds, higher capacities, more new functionalities, deeper inspection, and much more.
This is why manufacturers like SonicWall periodically upgrade products and platforms. What worked well for a customer a few years ago has quickly become nearly obsolete and less useful for today’s requirements.
This is also why SonicWall partners cannot simply replace devices reaching their scheduled “end-of-life” with a newly upgraded version of the same unit. It is all too likely that the customer’s environment and operating requirements have changed to the point where they would now be better served by another product in the SonicWall line.
The varied nature of customers’ requirements is what drives the selection of products SonicWall delivers. Our primary objective is to provide sufficient options in specification, capacity, features, and capabilities to satisfy any need a customer may present.
Excellent Performance – Just Add Partner
Customers depend upon you, their SonicWall Partner, to know the differences between the various SonicWall choices so you can recommend the right upgrades now that Gen 7 is available. Remembering that the equipment currently installed at your customers’ sites will eventually stop receiving updates, patches, and other support, it’s important that you get in front of the upgrade process and prepare your customers to keep moving forward with SonicWall.
There are several stages you should be sure to move through as you prepare and encourage your customers to approve the most appropriate upgrades.
Prepare
Before you begin scheduling upgrade meetings with your customers, take the time to review their installed environment. Knowing what hardware and software they already have installed should inform your direction in approaching them. But don’t cast that in stone! Before you can recommend the right upgrade strategy, you’ll need to learn more.
Review
The first revenue opportunity available to you in the upgrade process is to encourage your customers to engage you to build their strategic upgrade plan. Given the research and development time this will require, this must be a fee-based engagement.
You’ll need to analyze your own pricing strategy to determine how much to charge for this engagement. If you charge more for installation, integration, and implementation services you may want to keep your strategic planning program less expensive and more accessible. This is a decision each partner should actively consider very carefully. Charging for this planning engagement is critical to maintaining your position with your customer as a valued consultative resource. Remember, free advice is usually worth the price.
During the review process you’ll be analyzing your customer’s traffic and other logs to determine if their existing configuration is sufficient to support their operations. You’ll want to discuss future expansion plans that may require greater scalability.
Plan Development
Every great proposal begins and ends with the customer.
Don’t launch into a long exhortation about how wonderful your company is. For one thing, an upgrade customer is probably a customer who already knows you and doesn’t need convincing.
Instead, remember that many senior executives seldom get past the first page. That’s why you want to begin with an Executive Summary of your understanding of their needs, what your proposing doing to fulfill them, ending with a statement of your confidence that, working with their team, you can deliver the required upgrades on time, within budget, and at the highest level of quality.
Done right, development of your plan will likely require input from every part of your company.
Plan Presentation
You probably never want to just deliver a written proposal to your customer. Instead, schedule an opportunity to present it to their decision makers. This will give you a far better opportunity to receive feedback on your observations and recommendations that will accelerate your ability to develop a final version that will more than satisfy your customer.
Prepare Your Customer in Advance
Syms, a famous fashion chain, often exclaimed, “An informed consumer is our best customer.”
The more your customer knows about the SonicWall product line before you first meet with them, the more valuable their questions are likely to be. You can expect them to find features and capabilities they find desirable. The more they ask about them, the better the guidance you’ll receive regarding where their concerns lie. This will inform your plan development far better than starting with a blank state.
Fortunately, its incredibly easy to provide an early introduction to the new Gen7 SonicWall line by sending them the SonicWall Next Generation Firewall Buyer’s Guide. Successfully encourage them to read it and you’ll definitely find yourself benefitting from working with a well-informed consumer. You can always contact us to discuss further.
Finally, explore our concise 7-episode video series highlighting the benefits of upgrading your customers to Gen 7. Simply choose your region and language below.
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An Article By
Chirag Saxena
Chirag Saxena
