Case: Data-driven Sales for Managed Service Provider Global VoiceLink

Data as a sales tool

Marko's team uses the data they get from Applixure in their everyday customer work – both in new sales and account management. He has found that the data-driven approach makes it easier to discuss development needs with customers and increases customers' confidence in his recommendations. Marko explains:

"Numbers bring confidence. You can use data to show customers why certain things should be done. And you can also show with the data that you have done the work that has been agreed on."

New customer acquisition: winning cases with visibility

Marko shared how he's made use of data to win new customers. He described the situation where he's meeting with a prospect for the first time and asks them his typical discovery-phase questions when it's become clear that the prospect does not know in what kind of shape their PC environment is.

In these cases, Marko has recommended that Global VoiceLink shed some light on the situation by installing Applixure on all computers, allowing data to collect for a couple of weeks, and then sitting down together to take a look. Marko describes the typical reaction when the prospect sees what's going on in their environment for the first time:

"There is a 'wow' feeling that comes over the customer - they have never seen what's been going on in their IT environment. The view in Applixure opens their eyes."

Once the prospect has had their eyes opened and can see the areas which need improvement, the decision to start working with Global VoiceLink to make those improvements has been easy to make.

Accessible data collection, analysis, and insights

Using data in Sales is not unfamiliar to Marko: in the past, they used data too. Marko describes it like this:

“In the old model, collecting information about a computer environment was a laborious process: we had to pull data from several sources and then process it further to put it into a useable format. A month later, the information was out of date and the whole exercise had to be repeated."

Digging up the data meant asking the technical team to pull data on a customer environment, then spending hours analyzing the data to tease out the insights, and finally pulling it together into a presentable format. As you can imagine, this was a very time-consuming process. And often, the salesperson would still feel more comfortable having a tech team member sit in on the customer meeting just in case there were questions about the data. Today, Marko and his team use Applixure - so there is no need for manual digging and analysis. Marko summarizes:

“The beauty of a tool like Applixure is that it does the work for us and the data is always up-to-date.”

Applixure delivers insights by pointing out hardware, software, and usage issues that Global VoiceLink should look at. And, because Applixure presents the data in an easy-to-understand graphical format, Marko does not even need to create those presentations as he did in the past: he logs into Applixure during the customer meeting and shares his findings directly from there.
Easy access to well-structured data and insights has saved Marko and his team, and the technical team lots of time and effort. They can no longer imagine life without the visibility it brings. Marko explains:

"Applixure is a bit like a mobile phone: once you take it into use, you will never want to give it up."

How Sales has changed with the data-driven approach

Access to easy-to-use data has changed how Global VoiceLink Sales work. Here are a few of the ways:

Data enables proactive customer environment management

Global VoiceLink's technical team uses the data in Applixure to manage customer environments proactively. Their proactive approach means they have fewer issues reported and are easier to handle because Service Desk has visibility into what is going on with each computer and its software. Generally, if updates are done proactively and in a timely fashion, everything goes smoothly. Marko explains the difference that this proactive model makes:

"We have a 10-person team. We would waste so much time if we worked in a 'firefighting' model – waiting for users to report issues and reacting to them. We would spend our time answering calls from users whose computers are not working or are crashing, and we'd be running around trying to fix things."

“In our proactive model, Applixure provides us with the data to see where updates are needed and where issues are – before they are ever reported. So, we never end up in 'firefighting' mode."

Data Helps Service Desk too

Though Global VoiceLink's proactive approach to managing their customer environments means fewer issues, there will always be issues whenever computers and software are involved. That's when Service Desk steps in. Global VoiceLink's Service Desk also uses the visibility that Applixure offers to make their life easier. When they get a call from a customer, they can look at that computer's data to help them resolve the case quickly.

For example, if someone calls and says that their battery life is poor, the Service Desk can see in Applixure that yes, in fact, its performance is only 60% of what a new one is and then order that uses a new battery.

Rewind to History brings visibility and saves time

Appliuxre's Rewind to History feature helps Service Desk troubleshoot as it shows a computer's change history for up to 1 year back. So, if someone contacts the Service Desk and complains that their computer keeps crashing, Service Desk can see all the things going on in that computer. Without Applixure, they'd need to interview the user to tease out the relevant information – so having the data saves them time and enables them to make the correct diagnosis more efficiently.

Marko's advice:

Marko has been thrilled with his team's data-driven way of working and continues to develop his own and his team's abilities. When asked what his advice to others who are managing computer and software environments, Marko shared this insight:

"Ask yourself this: can you afford not to take a look at a solution like Applixure? Data is king today, and if you know how to use it, you will have a competitive advantage. And if your competition is using a tool like Applixure and you are not, then you are making life difficult for your business."