6 Tips for Selling CPaaS Solutions
The very nature of CPaaS solutions being low-code presents easy money-making opportunities for partners, experts say.
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Ramy Riad, head of innovation strategy messaging for Webex CPaaS solutions, believes that when selling CPaaS, partners should shift from a generic customer experience strategy to a more tailored approach, one that focuses on “the unique problems their clients face in their existing communication processes.”
“The solution lies in showcasing the capabilities of CPaaS technology for orchestrating digital messaging solutions across various channels [omnichannel]. To achieve this, channel partners should establish a close relationship with their CPaaS vendor, tapping into their subject matter experts to drive the sales process. The key is to emphasize co-creation, actively involving customers in developing innovative and transformative programs that utilize CPaaS to its fullest potential,” Riad told Channel Futures.
Doing so, he claims, will ensure any offered CPaaS solutions get tailored to specific pain points and requirements of that business.
“This blatantly results in more impactful by-products and successful outcomes,” Riad conveyed.
Here is where many folks get it wrong: targeting content, marketing efforts, and even solutions to the imprecise consumer. Placing these elements in order is pivotal, states Riad.
“The typical CPaaS buyer tends to have a background in IT or works within a contact center environment. Nonetheless, partners must expand their horizons and reach out to organizations they may not have initially considered. The realm of professionals that can benefit from CPaaS goes beyond the typical buyer.”
“CPaaS vendors often provide sales enablement training, in-person and online, that explains to partners who the target buyers are across many lines of business departments and why, and explains how to conduct discovery workshops with customers to uncover business problems that can be solved via proactive outbound communications.”
Channel partners have long known that their propositions must be unique [if they want] to benefit from recurring revenue, upselling and other opportunities.
“Channel partners need to add value on top of CPaaS platforms to differentiate and add value to end customers,” Riad said.
Solving this, he says, means that channel partners have to offer commercial models for extra commercial value or quality of service options. They also have to extend what he calls a range of vertical-focused propositions, giving in to customer choice.
Because of the low/no-code nature of CPaaS solutions, Riad notes that this vastly reduces the effort and complexity for partners in building communication services with customers, presenting effortless possibilities for the channel.
Vendors retain the responsibility to enact enablement programs and ensure partners gain the necessary knowledge and expertise on “how to use the CPaaS platforms to create and iterate new communication services for their customers.” And, he adds, partners should invest in training to become CPaaS experts to complement their existing CX (customer experience) portfolios and functionalities.
Because of the low/no-code nature of CPaaS solutions, Riad notes that this vastly reduces the effort and complexity for partners in building communication services with customers, presenting effortless possibilities for the channel.
Vendors retain the responsibility to enact enablement programs and ensure partners gain the necessary knowledge and expertise on “how to use the CPaaS platforms to create and iterate new communication services for their customers.” And, he adds, partners should invest in training to become CPaaS experts to complement their existing CX (customer experience) portfolios and functionalities.
In theory, implementing CPaaS solutions is a relatively straightforward and modular process.
After all, that is the idea of communications platform as a service — the ability to build a custom communications solution using tools that resemble Legos. That way, non-developers and real-life developers can take advantage of the technology.
Cisco’s Ramy Riad
That doesn’t mean that doing so comes without its own set of occasional complications. And for those in the partner community, that could imply plenty of things.
Ramy Riad, head of the innovation messaging strategy for Webex CPaaS solutions at Cisco, sat down with Channel Futures to discuss the implications for the channel partner community. Here’s what we learned about selling CPaaS solutions in various situations.
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