How to Sell an Asterisk IPPBX solution, a sales person's guide

Ok, now after a long long time, I have decided to finally get something moving here. It's just been too long since I had the time and opportunity to write. We are looking at a Sales person's guide into selling Asterisk IPPBX, either for an office solution, call centre solution or specific components.

Firstly, we will concentrate on just a simple office solution, now this is further expanded into 2 to 3 categories.

a. Basic - With normal office requirements

b. Advance - With high availability and back end integration

c. Customized - With multiple locations, high availability and integration

Very likely, you will be confronted with 2 different scenario's. 1st scenario would be the easiest, a green field approach. All you need to do is understand the following information from your client:

1. Total amount of users

2. Total amount of incoming lines (analog or PRI)

3. Are there SIP trunks to low cost providers (pay attention to this as some of them will require specific codes for SIP trunks)

4. Features

Will all this basic information, now you would be able to cook up a really attractive proposal for your client.

An IMPORTANT point to remember: Do not cut down on hardware specifications to bring down the costs, as this will result in unwanted quality issues which will be time consuming and difficult to identify.