Westcon Group's resellers are now being rewarded for the artfulness of opening a deal, rather than closing one.
In a partnership with vendor, Avaya, it has launched the Deal Room, a new application which has been developed for the Australian reseller market.
The new Deal Room app attempts to address the issue of ‘deal-swooping' and rewards partners on their individual sales efforts for Avaya products.
The application encourages resellers to open more deals by then feeding the user more ‘hot leads’ to assist with their sales pipeline.
In addition to offering the reseller pricing and priority pre-sales support, it also delivers a useful space for resellers to store information during the sales process.
According to Westcon director of vendor alliances, marketing and innovation, Nick McMenemy, the Deal Room is a response to a significant and recurring issue for resellers worldwide.
“What we’re seeing are sales people opening a deal with a potential customer and a third-party reseller ‘swooping’ into the conversation and closing the deal with a better offer on the product," he said.
"It’s a universal pain-point for resellers, and we worked hard with Avaya to develop the Deal Room to address this.
McMenemy said the company was now rewarding resellers on opening a deal, not closing.
"With the Deal Room we can identify resellers who open an Avaya deal, and help build out their sales pipeline in return," he said.
"The more deals they open, the more lead opportunities we can provide,” McMenemy said.
According to a company statement, it offers Westcon’s Avaya resellers with a deal registration system that’s easy to use and available to sales staff on the run, with instant accessibility on tablet and smartphone devices, including iPads, iPhones, and Android devices.
McMenemy said it also enabled his company to build a strategic stock profile to ensure it had the stock available to help the salesperson deliver the deal.
Avaya managing director A/NZ, Tony Simonsen, said it had become clear from conversations with resellers that an application such as the Deal Room was needed.
“Sales people within the channel put considerable effort into starting the conversation with a potential customer and sales executives can become easily demotivated when another reseller comes in at the last minute and closes the deal," he said.
"This application is a real game-changer for resellers of Avaya products.”
