How to Sell a Premise VoIP PBX vs Hosted PBX
When it comes to VoIP PBX systems, channel partners have to choose between selling a premise based solution or one that is hosted in the cloud.
The arguments for and against each is solution are varied, but for those use to selling a hardware based PBX system, there’s no denying that more and more customers are becoming interested in hosted solutions.
At Yeastar, we work with thousands of channel partners each year who find themselves selling our line of VoIP PBX systems against other VAR’s selling hosted (or the providers themselves).
Armed with these experiences, we’ve sat down to construct a bullet-proof way for you to sell against hosted VoIP PBX systems offered by your competitors.
Based on the touch points these competitive resellers will use with your customers to convince them hosted is the way to go, the following can become an effective weapon in your sales arsenal.
Cost - A hosted PBX is more affordable than a premise system
The first area hosted PBX VAR’s love to champion is cost. While it is true that with a cloud PBX there is no upfront costs outside of the handsets, over the long term, a cloud PBX can cost your customers a lot more than a premise based solution.
With the aggressive price points on the new S-Series, Yeastar partners can easily show how a modest upfront investment will save them thousands in recurring monthly fees over the life of the service agreement.
Customization – A hosted PBX has all the features and functions you need
Hosted PBX VARs often point to the variety of features and functions available with their service.
Unfortunately, they rarely point out that these are the same features available to everyone - it’s difficult to truly customize a specific instance because each hosted PBX is using the same underlying software.
Changing it for one customer would mean also making it available for everyone. This means in practice, hosted VARs can’t do much to customize the PBX specific to the client beyond a basic adding or removal of features from the user interface.
Those channel partners that are reselling the new Yeastar S-Series have much more flexibility. Thanks to the new App Store and UI, Yeastar channel partners can highly customize the base system for the exact specifications of the customer.
Future Proof – A hosted PBX future proofs your organization
You will often hear about “no more rip and replace” when considering a hosted PBX solution.
Preying on the pain caused by PBXes of the past, hosted VoIP VARs often point out that their subscription based model allows an organization to future proof, because they’re always developing and implementing new features.
Need to a new user? That’s easy too. A few clicks and bam, you’ve got a bigger system without having to buy a new box.
Well a lot has changed since the early days of VoIP, lead by Yeastar’s S-Series. With the Yeastar S-Series modular design and field upgradeability, channel partners can easily expand the capacity and improve performance without having to replace the entire system.
Simply swap-out a wide variety of modules and bam you’ve got a bigger system without having to buy a new box.
Scalability - A hosted PBX is more scalable than premise systems
Similar to their futureproof argument, hosted VoIP companies and their VARs often brag about the ease of scalability their systems provide.
You’ve heard it “In just a few clicks you can…”
The reality is that S-Series premise based VoIP PBX systems from Yeastar are just as scalable. With a robust build quality featuring industry leading components and a modular design, channel partners can easily scale a single SSeries system as their client grows.
Rip and replace really is a thing of the past.
Security - A hosted PBX system is more secure than premise systems
You don’t have a military grade hosting facility, right?
Well, you don’t have a dedicated IT person on staff.
Did you know, hackers are everywhere!?
While all three of these may be true for your customers, that doesn’t necessarily mean that a hosted PBX system is any more secure than one you could have running in your IT closet (or under your desk).
The reality is that hosted PBX providers and systems ARE susceptible to the same sort of attacks, hacks and hurdles that premise VoIP PBX systems are concerned about if not more.
Why? Scale! It doesn’t always make sense to attack or hack into one small company when you can spend the same time going after a hosted PBX provider and gain access to thousands of systems!
This not to say the cloud is not safe, but to demonstrate that both hosted and on-premise VoIP PBX systems need to properly address security concerns.
On-premise or hosted - The debate continues
As you can see, when it comes VoIP PBX systems, hosted is NOT the clear cut winner.
While hosted PBX providers and channel partners will continue to evangelize the benefits of their solution, in almost every situation an on-premise solution, like S-Series, will provide everything a customer needs.
Don’t shy away from the competition and on premise VoIP PBX systems, win with Yeastar today.