Understanding the SMB: Is it Price?Understanding the SMB: Is it Price?

Many people cited needs, but solutions that addressed those needs were shot down as "too expensive."

I just attended two days of meeting with other resellers from around the country, and the feedback from their customers is telling. In past posts I've stated that SMBs must have communications glue, demand value and be price sensitive. Cost concerns that SMBs raise with their vendors echoed around the room through two days of discussions. What was really weird were that many people cited needs, but solutions that addressed those needs were shot down as "too expensive."

Plant managers, non-factory businesses and architects demand lowered cabling costs--using single cable to the desktop--but customers reject service disruption to phones and loss of data connectivity. Some resellers won't run single drops to the desktops while others will, and yet customers insist on connectivity but reject higher costs for more wire and LAN switch ports.

This is akin to what we've run into head-on when customers are presented with LAN infrastructure that offers redundancy if a switch in a stack fails at any closet--the links between all closets and stacks remain operational--but the added price point is "too high" according to some customers.

Customers switch to hosted PBX services and then want to execute a change to a premise solution (PBX), but risk losing their station (desk phones) investment and worse, losing the really cool features the IT guys say the company must have even though the hosted service quality is unacceptable:

* View connectivity status of any +20 locations
* Instant messaging with anyone/any phone on the network
* One number to reach anyone
* Hosted email, SharePoint and supporting apps

Several resellers discussed the HD video needs of their clients, but customers flat out rejected solutions that provide service that is compatible with iPhones, Droids, iPads, various manufacturers of video conferencing gear and Lync--citing the service as being "too expensive."

Resellers from other parts of the US (i.e., other than our East Coast region) stated that their initial SIP trunk efforts were in vain and because of the drop in PRI costs to $200-$230 per month, customers are signing up for PRI and using PRIs for SIP channels instead because of improved service and voice quality.

Then, hosted SIP phones must re-register with their providers' platform, and when that doesn't happen fast enough because of broadband issues with cable providers, customers are bailing from their host, moving to another host or eventually back to a premise solution.

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