We’re eCloud Managed Solutions, and we recently selected AVANT to be our exclusive distribution partner — largely because of the way AVANT handles sales enablement. Simply put, AVANT provides resources that no other company can match.
For instance, AVANT provides monthly BattleBriefings, which are live broadcasts offering technical training, provider briefings and sales enablement strategies. As has become by habit on the second Thursday of the month, this January 12th I joined AVANT’s BattleBriefing, this time it was on Capturing SD-WAN Opportunities. As usual, the topic resonated because SD-WAN is a newer technology with a rapidly expanding market and AVANT has been at the forefront of the channel helping partners like me to identify and capitalize on such opportunities.
Here are my thoughts on the experience:
The BattleBriefing provided a comprehensive overview of the SD-WAN landscape. For instance, it taught me all about the leading providers that are active in the SD-WAN space, as well as how they differentiate their services. I learned where SD-WAN services thrive, and where they don’t — which will ultimately save a great deal of time and ensure I give sound advice to customers.
This is very important, as you can easily lose credibility with a customer if you mention several providers and then one fails to show up in the quoting and presentation process. You really need to be on top of your game when selling enterprise technology services.
Trust me: AVANT’s BattleBriefings will get you up to speed. They’re extremely relevant, and timely. The BattleBriefing gave me a clear understanding of the market size, and highlighted the tremendous opportunity that exists for partners. Armed with this information, the eCloud team can now make a concerted effort to talk to our customers and present SD-WAN as an alternative and an enabler to the ever-growing cloud and SaaS market.
What really made the BattleBriefing worth it, though, were the panelists. The BattleBriefing featured the best of the best in the industry together on one panel, guided by a moderator who has been in the trenches selling SD-WAN and who is aware of the market and its trends. The panelists explained exactly how to position their services to customers. The BattleBriefing even provided specific SD-WAN use cases, which supplemented my own thoughts and ideas on how to use SD-WAN in an enterprise environment. So I was even able to do some brainstorming while I watched which helped me hit the ground running after the event was over.
Here’s the cool part: BattleBriefings aren’t like most training presentations, which end and go away. After each BattleBriefing, AVANT will arm you with a video recording to view at your leisure, as well as specific content on each provider and marketing enablement tools like Conversation Starter emails and detailed instructions on how to build a funnel for the technology, product, or service discussed in the presentation.
Ultimately, this level of support is unprecedented in the Master Community, and it’s helped me a great deal. So if you’re looking to gain a leg up on the competition, I suggest you join me on the February 9th BattleBriefing on SD-Wan pitch practice, where I’m looking forward to learning learn practical tactics to accelerate the SD-WAN funnel I started building thanks to last month’s BattleBriefing, as well as how to handle customer objections, tips for qualifying SD-WAN prospects and more.
I can say unequivocally that AVANT’s enablement tools, experience, and vendor relationships have made an impact to our business at eCloud Managed Solutions, and I think it would be worth 20 minutes of your time to talk to an AVANT channel manager about how they could do the same for yours.