What’s the most important Office 365 benefit for end users? The majority of people would probably say business-class email. Well, they’re not wrong—after all there are many great reasons to move business email to the cloud.
But this perception can sometimes affect how MSPs pitch Office 365 to potential customers. Of course, migrating email to the cloud from on premises is a great way to start a conversation—but what if your customer isn’t interested in that feature? Do you just accept defeat and move on? Or are there other angles you can try out?
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Every business has its own individual challenges. To resell Office 365 successfully, you need to assess your clients’ needs so you can present the best solutions to them.
Here are some general questions you can ask to get a feel for your client’s business processes:
- Which productivity tools do you use? How? Why? Are you happy with them?
- Do you have any licences to renew? Who is your provider?
- Are migration and support included? Are updates included?
- Do you have a solution for data storage?
- How many employees do you have? Do you have any growth plans?
Based on the answers you get to these questions, you’ll get a feel for whether you should pitch one or all of the following features:
Office 365 benefit 1: How to pitch apps across devices
Questions to ask the prospect
- What do you currently use to create documents?
- What is user experience across devices? Fidelity and features?
- How do you work on documents together?
Things to listen for
- We’re happy using older versions of Office.
- Our teams experience problems caused by a lack of document fidelity and consistent features across devices.
- We share and edit docs via email or post to internal file share.
Your pitch
With Office 365, you get the latest Microsoft Office apps across devices. Online or offline, from your desk or on the go, you’re able to create professional documents with seamless fidelity. Edit documents at the same time as your colleagues—and because files are automatically saved online, you’ll always have the latest version, wherever you go.
How to answer common concerns
The free solution we are currently using is good enough. Free solutions don’t have the features businesses need to improve productivity and professionalism. If they did, all businesses would be productive.
We’ve already got Office. Office 365 gives you the latest Office features and storage, email, meetings and collaboration tools. And it’s always up to date—no future versions to purchase, and your IT staff can manage it centrally across users.
Office 365 is too expensive. With Office 365, you get Office apps plus all the productivity and collaboration tools you need in one solution. It costs less than individual solutions and is much more secure and easier to manage.
Office 365 benefit 2: How to pitch secure file storage & team sites
Questions to ask the prospect
- How do you currently store and share business docs and data?
- How do workers access files remotely? Across devices?
- How are files secured when sharing and accessing remotely?
- How do you share files and work together with customers, suppliers, and partners?
Things to listen for
- We use free online storage or internal file share.
- Our workers are unable to access anything remotely.
- We can’t set user or file/folder-level permissions. Not sure about security.
- Email docs back and forth. Post to internal file share.
- Email docs back and forth. Can’t give secure access to internal sites/share.
Your pitch
With OneDrive for Business in Office 365, users get 1TB of secure storage and can store, share, and collaborate on files in real-time. User-, file-, and folder-level permissions let you securely share and edit docs internally and externally. It’s very easy to work offline and across devices with automatic file sync.
With SharePoint Online in Office 365, you can create secure team or project sites to store, organize, and share information. Use newsfeeds, communities, and groups to stay connected. Easily manage projects, teams, and lists, and work together in real time across devices.
How to answer common concerns
The free solution we are currently using is good enough. With free solutions, your data is at risk. You need business-grade security if you truly value your organization’s assets.
We have concerns about putting our data in the cloud. Office 365 comes with built-in enterprise-grade security, privacy, and data controls. Your data are stored in secure Microsoft data centers with continuous backup and redundancy.
SharePoint is unnecessarily complex; we can’t get our head round it. SharePoint Online has a simple user interface with intuitive controls that make it easy to create and manage sites.
Office 365 benefit 3: How to pitch unlimited online meetings
Questions to ask the prospect
- What do you use for HD video and audio meetings?
- How do you join and run meetings remotely and across devices?
- What do you use for IM, doc sharing/ editing, polls, and Q&A during meetings?
- How do your external contacts (like customers) join meetings?
- How do you hold online trainings and webinars?
Things to listen for
- We don’t currently have a solution. Inconsistent experience. Complicated dial-ins; no one-click joining.
- We don’t have IM or doc sharing/editing.
- We don’t currently have any attendee engagement features. Customers have to sign up. Inconsistent experiences.
- We can’t have more than 15 attendees in one meeting.
Your pitch
With Microsoft Teams in Office 365, you get unlimited online meetings for up to 250 attendees with HD audio and video, IM, and collaboration capabilities.
Easily schedule meetings and join with one click from anywhere, across devices. Attendees just need internet access. Share documents, your screen and programs. Instant message, record meetings and calls, and distribute polls and Q&As.
Teams integrates with Office apps for real-time co-authoring during meetings. IM, screen share, talk, or video chat right from your documents.
How to answer common concerns
I don’t think we need a meeting solution. If you meet with customers and have remote workers, Microsoft Teams provides the meeting and collaboration tools that businesses of any size need to improve productivity, professionalism, and service.
Why not Google Hangouts? Skype for Business was created for businesses, not consumers. It’s more secure and has advanced features that businesses like yours need. Google currently limits the number of attendees and doesn’t integrate with Office apps.
While email is certainly a great Office 365 benefit, there are many other important features for end-users. This means Office 365 resellers like you need to take advantage of this when pitching the solution—if you don’t, you might just miss out on closing a deal. With this information under your belt, you should be well prepared for the first part of your Office 365 sales pitch.
Want more helpful documents and templates like this? Check out the SherWeb Office 365 Sales Enablement Toolkit.
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