A Touch of Class
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
When it comes to presenting yourself as a business, image is everything. The professional services market has
been steadily growing in the UK as partners look to highly specialised companies to help them in a number of
areas. For smaller partners looking to scale up, train-up, or simply white label an equipment installer, third party
professionals could be the answer
Installation and maintenance
Engineering talent is notoriously di cult to
hold onto as a reseller. Firstly, a well-quali ed
engineer is expensive to hire (£50 – £70k) and
maintain. ere is then a continual barrage
of courses they must keep up to date with
in order to gain accreditations for various
vendors, it’s a cycle which never ends.
It is also incredibly time consuming to go
through an accreditation process. After adding
up the number of engineers that need to
attend training days or take specialist courses
and then factor in the time engineers are o
the road then suddenly you have to work
around not having your engineering capability
for a certain amount of time each year, which
again brings more costs.
e market for third party professional
engineering has ourished as a result. It takes
nancial pressure away from partners but also
gives them access to highly quali ed engineers
which they can white label in order to 1) get
the job done to a certain standard and 2)
CHOOSING WISELY
• Channel Only – Weed out the potential
confl icts early on. Make sure you don’t
just research the company you want to
use but also any subsidiaries or ‘related’
businesses which may classed as a
competitor. You don’t want to hand over a
customer only to see them walk away with
another company.
• Trust - Being able to trust a third party with
your reputation is essential but remember
this is a two way relationship and as an
engineer you are only ever as good as your
last job. Make your expectations clear from
the get-go and remember… the odd bump in
the road is to be expected.
• Flexible - Every partner is different and
approaches business in a different way.
A professional service provider should be
able to fi t into that model whatever that
may entail. If they say they can’t and tell
you to run things differently, consider all
your options… including moving on.
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appear a much larger organisation.
ese days a professional services company
won’t just take care of the installation and
maintenance, they can even be used at the
pre-sales stage too. Need a deal clincher? Why
not bring your engineering resource into your
next deal to provide a smooth demonstration?
Aside from seeing your closing rate shoot up
resellers may require help with the project
management side of things too.
Being technical specialists there is often
support and advice on the costing for elements
of a proposal. e amount of equipment
which is quoted for, but not needed, is
staggering! is could be equipment, software
or licensing which may be unnecessary and
can run into the tens of thousands of pounds
of saving in any one job.
Professional services organisations sound
like the golden bullet right? Well, it depends.
E ectively you are leaving your company’s
reputation in the hands of an unknown
(at rst anyway). It is crucial to do a bit of
homework on those companies that claim
they can do all of the above for you as if it
is done in the wrong way more harm than
good could come of it. Don’t be too sceptical
though, it’s in the interests of a third party
professional services rm to do their absolute
best for you. After all, a long trusting
relationship is going to be more fruitful than a
short term disaster.
ED SAYS…
Whether it be engineering resource, fi nancial planning or training… listen to
what your trusted professional service partners have to say. They generally
know what they are talking about and live and breathe their discipline. I
often ask people what they would do differently if they could go back and
build their business again, one of the most common answers I get is ‘I would
outsource as much as I possibly could’. Sit down, do the maths (factor in
convenience and time saved) and ask yourself… could I do a better job, save
money, generate more revenue? If the answer is yes, then pick up the phone.
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