Have You Been in Jim’s Dilemma?

“Here are the top five providers that can service your company’s locations with a hosted VoIP phone system, per the requirements we discussed. I’ve also included all of their pricing and features to compare,” I said as I displayed a dizzyingly detailed spreadsheet in front of Jim, the IT Director of a mid-size company.

“All of the pricing and features look similar so which one is the best provider, Mike?”Jim asked. “I talked to a friend of mine who runs the IT department for another company and although his situation is a little different than mine, he said he’s had good luck with Provider X. Is that who you think we should use?

In this moment, I am asking myself several questions… all of which have me stumped. And all of which Jim is also asking himself.

1. Have I (the salesperson) personally purchased, implemented and managed a VoIP phone system with each of the hundreds of service providers available, so that I have an educated opinion on who is truly the best?

2. Do I truly understand what it’s like to be an IT Director, like Jim?

3.  As a salesperson who SELLS these VoIP service providers and doesn’t BUY providers, is my perspective different?

4. Is Jim’s friend’s opinion better than that of a salesperson?

5. Can one person’s experience be an isolated experience and somewhat unreliable?

6. Does Jim have the time to find and speak with a large number of his peers, working for similar companies, who have used these specific providers, so that he can get a bunch of intelligent and honest opinions?

So what does Jim do? His neck is on the line.

Just buy on price? Throw a dart? Go with the advice from me or his friend and keep his fingers crossed?

As the salesperson in this role, this situation happens to me all of the time and I feel bad that I cannot effectively help Jim. But this doesn’t just happen when I’m proposing VoIP. It also happens when someone like Jim is shopping for MPLS, Fiber Internet, Public Cloud, DR, Colo… and every other telecom and cloud service we sell, from hundreds of service providers.

It happens so much that our team at AeroCom put our heads together and found a solution. Go to our home page and feel free to write a review on any one of our products. For every review you write, we will donate one dollar to the Mckenna Claire Foundation to help fight pediatric brain cancer.

About the Author
Mike Smith is the Founder and President of AeroCom and has been helping companies with telecom and cloud services since 1999. He has been the recipient of numerous business telecommunications industry awards and in 2011, he was honored as one of the top 40 business people in Orange County, CA., under 40 years old. Follow Mike on LinkedIn, Twitter or SpiceWorks.