Selling via Services

TSIA recently shared an article that traces the shift in how buyers get the information they need to inform purchasing decisions. What used to stem entirely from sales gradually moved to a mix that includes marketing and sales. Now, we’re starting to see yet another change, where sales, marketing and — for the first time — services drives purchasing decisions.

Steve Frost does a great job of laying out this shift with the below graphic.

As he points out, the services team, may be the first contact a customer has with your company. “It becomes the job of services to not only inform and help the customer, but to also tee up the sales team to sell value-add services or enterprise-wide licenses — in other words, the traditional role of marketing. Services, sales, and marketing must all work together to inform the customer and make sure the initial adoption of the technology leads to bigger and better things for both the customer and the seller.”

When companies think about selling software, they’re not always thinking about a professional services layer- but they should be. One of the biggest mistakes we see is the lack of an organized approach to offer the services that will support the customer’s fastest time to value. With the continued migration to cloud-based technology, the continued need arises for shorter-term, project based work — which currently falls between the traditional professional services mode.

Services drive adoption and retention, provided a scalable commerce strategy is in place. With WorkRails, for the first time, we are making it easier not only to anticipate the needs for software services, but to sell and deliver them.

To find out more about how WorkRails can help your company drive adoption and engagement of services, contact us at Info@workrails.com