Sales Conundrum

[Mark Adams]

I have a client that we picked up for MSP services last year. For the past 6 mos we have been talking about us taking over their phone system, which is VOIP service with Polycom phones.

I went and met with them yesterday and they showed me the invoice from the current provider and I was shocked. They are paying $130 a month, which includes a DSL connection, unlimited extensions, unlimited minutes. The only thing extra is they get a seperate invoice for long distance (average about $5 a month).

We even called the sales guy and confirmed that all minutes are included in that price, and they could have "1000 extensions" and the price will be the same. The client is about to add 5 extensions and the sales guy confirmed that the invoice will stay the same.

I'm not even sure how this is possible? Can anyone think of a way to compete with that and make money?

 

[VoIPTools]

Depends on the size of the 3CX (simultaneous calls). Net2Phone has unlimited trunks for a very reasonable price. Get the partner pricing for a single trunk from them then multiply by the number of trunks. That gets you your fixed cost. Then you have to figure out whether it is worth your time. Also consider what the current providers support policies are. Maybe you can compete by offering more services at a slightly higher price.

 

[Mark Adams]

So if I gave them a 8 channel Standard license, costs would be:

$25 /month license
$25 /month hosting
$45 /month /5000 minutes

$95 a month US=$118.75 CAD$.

So I could make $12. Not to mention they are including a DSL circuit in there as well (client has fibre for their data network)

I am just really surprised that they are able to offer that so cheap.

 

[cobaltit]

You can't win them all and trying to compete on cost on the VoIP side may come back to bite you on the MSP side. I'd just say normally switching would be a no-brainer but you guys have great pricing right now so you recommend they just stay with that provider and to keep you in mind in the future.

 

[Mark Adams]

That's exactly what I did, but I am just really surprised that they can offer the service so cheap. I asked what happens when they break, do they provide service?

She said that hasn't happened yet, and the phones have been there for at least 1.5 yrs so the service can't be that bad either.

 

[cobaltit]

That is better than any pricing I've heard of. Hopefully that provider doesn't start offering service around here!