TOO MUCH OF A FREE THING

3CX recently announced that they will begin offering a free annual license for up to 50 extensions to new customers. Businesses of this size account for over 95% market – how are you to compete with that offer and sell to these businesses?

“To an End User this may seem great (though the truth is free things run out and then the support is nowhere to be found). But if you are the 3CX dealer… Where is the trust? Where is the integrity? Where is the Reseller Channel? To many people these things are still as important as the bottom-line.” (From the story of a former 3CX dealer in Atlanta.)

As a committed participant in the reseller channel, Bicom Systems would never attempt to sell directly to your customers. Likewise we never publish prices on our website – so as not to compromise your ability to earn a higher margin.

ADDITIONAL READING:
Blog Post: Why We Don’t Publish Our Prices

YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS

There is little more frustrating than losing customers or leads after putting so much time and effort into winning them over. But losing them to your own provider takes the cake.

John Tinning, former 3CX dealer in the UK, tells of an upsetting call he received toward the end of his time with 3CX:

“I received a phone call from an individual at 3CX who informed me that if I did not take the accreditation test and meet their sales targets I would not be able to support my customers. When I asked ‘how will they know?’ the reply was ‘we will call them and inform them’.”

What was 3CX doing with his customers’ phone numbers in the first place?

“To activate your 3CX maintenance contract you are obliged to provide full end user details, including contact details” explains Stephen Corrigan, former 3CX VP of Sales and General Manager. But even he questions “Why? These are YOUR customers, not the manufacturer’s. Working with your customers is what pays your bills and adds value to your business.”

Bicom Systems values our partnerships (you are partners, not dealers) and would never require you to register end user details for any purpose – they are YOUR customers.

ADDITIONAL READING:
Blog Post: Resellers, Dealers, Partners – What’s the Difference?

YOUR BRAND IS YOUR BRAND

The Reseller Channel and the concept of partnership are deeply undermined when a vendor is not White Label. It is difficult to market and sell a product that has someone else’s brand plastered all over it. Losing customers that go straight to the source is too much of a risk.

“At that point Arif realized he was losing customers. Not to competition as would be expected, but to 3CX itself. How could this be? The problem begins with the fact that 3CX is not White Label. They put their name and brand on his product. Customers could clearly see that he was offering a 3CX solution.” (From the story of a former 3CX dealer in Atlanta.)

Selling a White Label solution means building your own brand, your own following, your own business. No egos to stroke or quotas to meet.

“The inability to brand the 3CX product with your own brand image is akin to acting as a sales agent for 3CX, building value in the 3CX brand, not yours.” says Stephen Corrigan, former 3CX VP of Sales and General Manager, “Surely it should be the other way around?”

ADDITIONAL READING:
Blog Post: The Benefits of a White Label Provider

THE FUTURE IS IN THE CLOUD

You may not be ready to throw out your premise system quite yet, and that is okay. But certainly, your provider should have that option prepared by now. After all, the facts are undeniable:

According to research from MarketsandMarkets, the global Hosted PBX Market is expected to double from $4.73 billion in 2018 to $9.5 billion by 2023, growing at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 14.9%.

Is 3CX poised to capitalize on that trend? Is their so-called “Cloud Platform” going to withstand the competition from true Hosted PBX solutions?

Stephen Corrigan, former 3CX VP of Sales and General Manager recalls “My aim was to provide our channel partners with a fully managed Cloud infrastructure upon which our partners could build their sales and business. Unfortunately this approach was not accepted. Ultimately 3CX were not willing to make the investment necessary for our partners to compete successfully in this new space.”

Whatever your position in the hosted vs premise debate, there is no denying that the Cloud is here and it is here to stay.

ADDITIONAL READING:
Free eBook: 7 Reasons You & Your Customers Should Switch to Hosted

A REAL MULTI-TENANT PLATFORM

On-premise solutions can be pieced together to form a Multi-Tenant-look-alike, but the only real Multi-Tenant solution is found in a hosted model. Makeshift MT solutions are complicated, costly, and a bit of a headache – all things that MT is designed to avoid.

Selling a true Multi-Tenant platform is easy, cost-effective, and customer-friendly. Multi-Tenancy lends itself to competitive prices, fosters scalability, and supports the ability to forge long-lasting partnerships.

ADDITIONAL READING:
Blog Post: The Benefits of Multi-Tenancy

A STARTLING TREND

As mentioned above, one of the real dangers of staying with 3CX is that they will poach your direct customers. It is common knowledge that companies do this as a last knee-jerk reaction when they have nothing left to sustain themselves. Just look at Avaya or MS 365 Direct or a handful of others to see how their channel sales collapsed.

Failure to quickly adjust to meet contemporary market demands is another concerning trend. We keep seeing this pattern of legacy and on-premise providers either shutting down, going through financial trouble, or ultimately doing a major overhaul and switching to the cloud. But our concern goes beyond that. Everyone is abuzz about the cloud, but technology is certainly not going to stop innovating now. The cloud is the top technology of today – what about tomorrow?

Do you want to be caught in this trend when the inevitable collapse comes? There is time to break free.

ADDITIONAL READING:
Blog Post: A History of Self-Destruction in the Telco Business

HERE TODAY, GONE TOMORROW

Like a rug pulled out from under your feet, 3CX has been gradually ending support for popular hardware like Grandstream and Yealink telephones.

The last straw for John Tinning, former 3CX dealer in the UK, was the withdrawal of support for the Yealink T22P. He supports an accounting firm with two offices filled with that phone – how could he tell his customer to throw out perfectly good devices and purchase new ones?

The Yealink T22P is just one of many devices on 3CX’s ever-growing list of “End of Life” devices (www.3cx.com/sip-phones). Granted, Yealink has stopped updating the firmware on some of these phones, but that is no reason not to continue working with them and their present firmware.

ADDITIONAL READING:
Bicom Systems Supported UADs

WHO IS THE COMPETITION ANYWAY

“Worse yet, all of your competitors are listed publicly on the 3CX website,” says Stephen Corrigan, Former 3CX VP of Sales and General Manager. “So when you introduce 3CX into the opportunities that you have worked hard to nurture, what is the first thing they are going to do? Research a bit more about 3CX and uncover your competitors on their website. This is not a smart move!”

Healthy and fair competition is what makes our industry thrive, but surely you have enough to combat without 3CX publishing a list of all your competing dealers. Who are you competing against and who is supporting you? The line looks blurry from here.

We reiterate our commitment to partnership and desire to see our partners thrive. Bicom Systems would never put a list of your competitors on our website. We support each partner to reach its full potential.

ADDITIONAL READING:
Blog Post: Resellers, Dealers, Partners – What’s the Difference?