Despite their continued success, Nimans’ Conferencing Business Manager, Chris Smith, isn’t resting on his laurels, insisting there’s still plenty of work to be done to ensure increasing numbers of dealers understand and benefit from the margin-rich opportunities audio conferencing provides.
“Education of the market remains the key for us,” said Chris. “We’ve made a lot of progress over recent years but we are keen to do even more.
“I believe our success is down to delivering a mix of educational support and general high levels of service and expertise, such as pre sales technical assistance, ensuring resellers can use Polycom products to grow their businesses in the most effective way possible.”
He continued: “But there are still resellers who don’t know or understand where audio conferencing fits into the whole sales cycle and how to sell it to the right end users and tell them about the benefits of professional, crystal clear conversations. There’s the cost and environmental benefits too. A dealer needs to know why they should be selling this product and what we can do to help them in terms of sales incentives and support initiatives.”
Chris says Nimans offer specific tailored solutions for dealers, particularly assistance for their sales staff. “We provide resellers with the knowledge so that when a customer asks them why and what they should buy, they are in a position to offer the best advice.
“It’s about passing on our expertise that they can then use to pass onto to educate their own customers. It’s a two tier education process.”
Passing on this experience and expertise is all part of developing customer confidence in products and the subsequent ability to sell them, as Chris stressed. “If dealers are not comfortable with, or understanding of, any type of product they will shy away from selling it. We enjoy success because we understand the issues they face and come up with solutions with them.”
Turning to Nimans’ continued strong market performance, Chris explained: “I am proud of our achievements. It’s recognition from the industry that we remain number one at delivering our promises and serving the customer. It illustrates the company’s high standards.
“The biggest hurdle we face is that some dealers only focus on their cores business activities. We need to assist them and make it easier for them to sell conferencing. The vast majority of meeting rooms do not have conferencing equipment so there’s a massive opportunity out there. It’s still looked upon in the industry as an emerging market even though conferencing units have been available for many many years. Most businesses now have environmental statements and are becoming much more conscious of ‘green’ issues and how reducing business travel can cut emissions as well as costs. Conferencing is perfect for this.”
There is no room for complacency, as Chris concluded: “It’s an evolving market with so much potential for developing new ways to help resellers and I’ll be pushing every step of the way to build on our joint success.”