IP Convergence: Beyond VoIP, Beyond Cost Savings

I moved to London 18 months ago to head up GC’s business in the UK/EMEA. We have a deep managed services network in the UK for enterprise, government and carrier customers and a good carrier capability in Europe where we also round out our global enterprise offers with local support.

Various colleagues have been at me to blog for a while, but I opted not to for all the usual reasons: too busy, lots out there already, my team hears from me enough already as it is, etc.  Needless to say, I was finally worn down.

In my role now and prior to this when I was CMO at GC, I spent lots of time with customers from all industries. The other day I was with a CEO of a mid-size UK services company and we were discussing our current contract, our desire to extend it and his desire to do so for less money and more functionality - the normal “value” driven discussion - which actually went well. As we were talking about how to accomplish this in tangible ways, he mentioned a few examples of real, value-add things both we, as well as our competitors, had done for him in the past.  …One in particular from our team was a 3 or 4 day new offer turnaround for a new customer he had landed, which was applauded by his client, that actually helped him seal the deal. I thought he might push for more things like this expedited offer…and of course bring in the lower price aspect…but then he said something that was a little different than the normal “more for less” mantra.  He started by saying, “I may be naïve but I can't let this opportunity pass, given this is a contracts discussion, and you are our current supplier (big smile) that wants to extend your contract with us.” Then he went on to say “that everyone always spends so much time on the details” and “we know his business better than he did”… ( which I highly doubt!) … and as we work to extend our contract he wanted us to look for chances to …“surprise him” and to “innovate”.  Now this was not a techie CEO, quite the opposite.  This was a seasoned GM and solicitor (lawyer) by training and I believe he meant what he said. He wanted to be pleasantly surprised by us…He wanted us to innovate.

His was an interesting request. We don’t get requests or chances like this every day…(not many service providers do) and it was good to hear. So much of the “R” has been removed from  “R&D” in our industry that innovation with people, offers and customer knowledge really is becoming a huge ground for adding value to clients…and in many respects is the best way to do it for customers quickly - and for less! The trick of course for us as service providers, is to have a customer recognize your innovation, and treat this as material to your offer…so that you do get a break on the “more for less” request.

More often than not, customers ask for this but have a hard time putting a value on it. I think that is our issue, not the customers to resolve and convey.  We need to remind them what innovation is, in their terms…and do this repeatedly - not just as a one shot deal. Now there are lots of clients who say they want innovation, and lower price too (who wouldn’t, right?), but when push comes to shove, they go for the lower price.  In the case of this client, however, we had done it in the past, and he clearly expected it in the future. He also clearly valued that and wanted a new level of more.  More for less? I guess we will see as we close in on our contract extension with this client. But at least our team know what he wants and have a basis to work from…and I am optimistic we will surprise him!