How developing partnerships with your customers leads to mutual success

How strong are your relationships with your clients? Many companies overlook the possibility to get to know their clients, a process that can lead to finding new and different ways to expand their business relationship.

"Our success comes through relationships and partnerships," says Bart Beatty, director of Sales and Business Development for Simplify Inc. "Our business allows us to solution-sell. That's in the extreme important because we offer so many options and products that we have the ability to give the customer the right solution - to not be hamstrung to one product or carrier. Our solution-oriented partnering empowers them to make informed, fiscally responsible decisions that best fit their needs."

The fourth and final step is ongoing support, or lifecycle management. Afterwards the innovation is done, the decision is made and the implementation is complete, we continue to support them with lifecycle management. This includes performing the day-to-day tasks, in essence being an extension of their team and helping them manage their telecom business, which allows them to focus on their other projects or duties.

Often, a customer comes in with his or her mind dead-set on a particular direction; like switching to Voice over Internet Protocol. However after reviewing the deep dive analytics and realizing that may not be the best fit for his or her current environment, the customer's vision may take another direction.

Having the trust of the customer is so important for a consultant, especially while the strategy phase. Broadly speaking, a telecom carrier representative doesn't offer the breadth of products a customer may want. No matter how good that carrier rep or team is, they can only do so much. By providing a universal account team to fill in the gaps for the customer, we give them one point of contact for all their business.

Bart Beatty is director of Sales and Business Development for Simplify Inc. Reach him at bart.beatty@simplifycorp.com or 292-7510.