Avaya Partners' Lesson Plan
Omaha, Neb.-based Voda One recently held a Tele Track Web seminar for Avaya IP Office and plans to hold similar events that will focus on Avaya's Merlin Magix solution, how to gain entry into the health-care market and tips for selling Avaya Global Services.
In addition to the online seminars, Voda One, a subsidiary of Tarrytown, N.Y.-based Westcon Group, plans to host a 12-city Fast Track road show through September 30 that focuses on selling Avaya solutions for small- to midsize-business customers.
"This program puts everything Avaya is doing to reach the SMB market into a nice little package. It's a nice way for us to get this message out to resellers," said Jennifer Jensen, director of marketing at Voda One.
The free training is aimed at smaller partners that haven't yet moved from selling boxes to selling converged applications and systems, Jensen said. "They may sell a lot on price vs. solutions. This is designed to help them take the next step forward," Jensen said. "They're all designed to help [partners] sell into the marketplace, [focused on] how the new offerings can help them. We cover the new functionality of IP Office, Magix and Partner [Advanced Communications System], but also how to incorporate the products into a total solution that meets customers' business requirements."
Tim Kubiak, national vice president of sales at St. Louis-based solution provider STL, who has taken some of Voda One's online training courses, said both the distributor and Avaya provide strong support to help his company sell into the SMB market.
"The last [IP Office] Tele Track was one of the best training events I've seen. Voda One brings its own value, and Avaya's revamped channel management has brought additional resources that help as well," Kubiak said.
STL previously had one account manager and one technical associate contact at Avaya. Now an additional channel employee and an inside-sales person at Avaya help farm SMB deals to STL and other solution providers, Kubiak said.
For its part, Catalyst Telecom, a distributor of Avaya products and a subsidiary of Greenville, S.C.-based ScanSource, is running IP Office boot camps and quick-start training events to get partners up to speed on selling to the SMB market, said John Gaillard, vice president of sales and business development at Catalyst Telecom.
"We realize the SMB marketplace represents a huge market segment for telecom spending. Technology spending is increasing again. We want to make sure we tap into that," Gaillard said. "The Avaya portfolio is as robust as it's ever been in that segment. Now is a good time to train resellers on that to make sure they're prepared to sell to end users."