UC Roundup: Brush Up on Your UC Sales Strategy

… position proofs of concept (POCs)/pilots with customers to give them a taste of how UC worked, its benefits, etc. Many of these were successful. Where things went awry was the next step: expanding the POC to address a larger user population without addressing the corresponding requirements around technical scalability and user adoption. It’s critical to begin with the end in mind.

CP: What are examples of common and costly sales strategy mistakes that can kill a UC deal?

PG: There are dozens of UC solutions on the market that are able to deliver on the benefits they purport. Once a solution is chosen, there are two key factors that can derail the success of a deployment: failing to address the company’s network readiness (the technical side), and failure to consider the importance of user adoption and change management (the human side). Once the technical readiness and human readiness are aligned, there is a much higher chance of a successful rollout.

CP: How detrimental can partnering with the wrong UC provider be?

PG: Being able to effectively communicate with customers, partners, vendors and colleagues is critical. Choosing the wrong UC solution can put that at risk. Partners are placing a lot of trust in their providers and need to think about their track record of success, the systems and processes they have in place to successfully deliver time and time again. Today, some providers are offering big SPIFFs or low prices to win business; often that can come at the expense of quality, whether related to the product, the people or the process. And the stakes are high — a partner could lose a customer if a deployment goes poorly.

CP: Is following these sales strategy tips a difficult process for channel partners? Does it require a big departure from how they’ve been doing business?

PG: It can be, because for some of them, these market shifts represent a sea change from what they’re used to. My team actively works with partners to help them evolve. We find that partners who are willing to do this have an edge over their competitors.

Zoom to Offer Encryption to All Users

Zoom says it plans to offer end-to-end encryption (E2EE) to all users, not just those who pay for the video conferencing service.

The company found itself in hot water over its security and privacy practices as use of the service skyrocketed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, the company has been working to improve its practices.

This week, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan released an updated E2EE plan.

Zoom’s Eric Yuan

“We have identified a path forward that balances the legitimate right of all users to privacy and the safety of users on our platform,” he said. “This will enable us to offer E2EE as an advanced add-on feature for all of our users around the globe – free and paid – while maintaining the ability to prevent and fight abuse on our platform.”

Earlier this month, Yuan said Zoom wouldn’t make E2EE available free to users.

Free/basic users who want E2EE will participate in a one-time process that will prompt them for additional pieces of information, such as verifying a phone number via a text message.

“We are confident that by implementing risk-based authentication, in combination with our current mix of tools – including our Report a User function – we can continue to prevent and fight abuse,” Yuan said.

Zoom will start early beta testing of the E2EE feature …