For more than 30 years, mcrIT has been providing responsive, reliable and effective IT services for a wide range of Australian businesses. The company source and manage technology solutions that boost performance and solve problems while reducing downtime for their customers.
After having completed the Sales Play On-Ramp program, we sat down with mcrIT Senior Account Manager Kaveh Ghezel to talk about his experience.
Here's what he had to say.
What were you challenged with before starting the program?
Before embarking on the Sales Play On-Ramp™ program, mcrIT needed a way to formalise our processes and elevate the conversations we were having with our customers. I had previously held a role at University of Sydney for 11 years – so I also needed a way to renew and refocus the way I would sell mcrIT services.
We were looking forward to getting access to some tools that we could put a process around to create that structure we needed.
What was your initial reaction after looking into it a little further?
The Sales Play On-Ramp program was recommended to me, so I knew it must be something worthwhile looking at. I just wanted to get started and didn’t look into it in too much detail before getting started.
I just like to get started and find out along the way – which is what I did!
Any hesitations before starting?
I knew this program was what mcrIT needed, but we were in the middle of quite a busy time. Balancing workload is always a consideration when you commit to a course like this – but the flexibility around momentum catch-ups and online meetings made it easy for me to keep moving forward.
I knew that even if I had to skip a 1:1 coaching session, I knew that there would be another one – so having that flexibility I knew would really help me complete the course. While it did end up taking me longer than expected, it didn’t feel as though I was getting left behind, and it was easy to refocus and dive back in when I needed to.
Tell us about your journey, any surprises?
I enjoyed the program more and more as I went along.
I felt as though the beginning was really getting us back to basics. I’d done all that work before for a long time, but as I worked through the course, the units became more and more focused and that’s when I really started having those lightbulb moments.
I think the most enjoyable part was elevating our conversations to reflect those lightbulb moments. The program really taught me to have a certain look at what we were selling, flip it, take a step back and reflect on what the customer really needs. Then, understand what the outcome should to be.
I was surprised at the flow-on effect that those conversations had, too. Because we were able to focus on what they really needed, and reduce the number of peripheral activities – we were able to go and win more work with them with that left over budget. This meant that our value as a provider to them just keep growing.
What are the biggest impacts you seen on the business?
I’ve started using what I’ve learned every day in sales pitches, and it has given my customer conversations a real boost. Talking about professional services from a value or outcome position can be tricky, but I’ve been able to elevate those conversations, and get the customer to come along the journey with me.
They now understand what mcrIT is trying to achieve for them, and what that mutually beneficial relationship looks like in the future.
It has helped us identify their needs, focus on them and then define what that customer journey looks like together.
What impact do you think the program has had on your Microsoft relationship?
Microsoft sales have just been going through the roof in the last 12 months, which has been great. But we’ve noticed particularly that Microsoft Teams Voice is becoming hot property lately, and this program is perfect for that. We were able to talk about what value the product would give our customers, what they would be able to achieve with the functionality and the real benefits they would see. Then, it was easy to explore the flow on effect of all those things put together and create a roadmap for what the future would look like across their suite.
We’re getting great results from Teams Voice for our customers which is really exciting.
To any Microsoft Partner that needs to refocus sales effort or their Sales Play to be impactful to your customer – this program is for you. Once you have these tools and the process behind them, your conversations will be night and day different – and your customers will keep coming back for more.
