Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 57

C llab rati n
TODAY and TOMORROW
Amelia Vrabel
business development manager,
Cloud/UCC
AVI-SPL
The process of learning to engage,
build relationships and strengthen
partnerships using a plethora of UCC tools - in particular,
video - was largely accelerated since the pandemic began
in March 2020. Personally, I became much more comfortable
on camera, and this allowed me to " meet " with people all over
the country, whereas, in the past, it would have taken many
days of travel to set up these meetings and begin these discussions.
I now use video for nearly every meeting. It's much
easier to connect and reconnect more regularly, as well as
accelerate activities and projects. Often, I'm amazed at some
of the friendships and partnerships I've been able to build
with people I've never met in person, and I'm grateful that all
these tools are available and continue to evolve to make the
world a smaller place.
Michelle Loret
pro AV senior account manager
ADI Global Distribution
I've worked remotely for over a decade,
but that was never the case for my
clients. Now, almost 70% have a hybrid-work
schedule, and many of the design engineers work
remotely or for companies multiple states away. Initial meetings
by videoconference, once a rarity, are ubiquitous and
comfortable. The adoption has been a godsend. From travel
budgets to human resources, the efficiency and cost savings
are reflected in the results. Some clients even prefer it.
The last three years have irrevocably changed business as
we know it. Although I am a big proponent of in-person human
interaction, technology wins the day. And now, it allows
my clients and me to succeed in business with previously
unthinkable methods. It's a win for us and our industry.
Neil Posnansky
regional operations manager
AVI-SPL
The major change in conducting business
is the significant decrease in
in-person meetings. Most business is
now conducted via video. People are no longer at the office
full time. Customers and team members may be located
commercialintegrator.com
throughout the world. Video is helpful and efficient. Team
members are face to face via video. You can speak with more
people in a day via video versus traveling from office to office.
People are quite comfortable with video. They seem to want to
hold a call versus getting together in person.
Gabe Moronta
head of growth and
customer experience
Visla
I haven't made any significant changes
in how I interact with customers. That's
mainly because I was already a remote-based employee for a
few years and doing what I knew needed to be done, as I saw
the writing on the wall. But more specifically, when I did have
the need to go meet with a customer face to face, it was the
perfect opportunity to train the customer in the tools that I
was advising/consulting on.
The saying " Eating your own dog food " comes to mind.
The irony of people in this particular subsector of the technology
business is that too many are not willing to use the
tools they're selling. If that's the case, why should any client
want to, either? It becomes a project for bragging rights at
that point. " I closed an X-amount-of-dollars project " looks
nice on your résumé, but it does little to help the customers.
We are at a crossroads for technology, where it is significantly
easier to find out when someone is blowing
smoke versus when they actually care about the potential
partnership. The question shouldn't be what changes you
have made; instead, it should be why you haven't made any
significant changes.
Dominic Kent
freelance content strategist
and copywriter
Unified Comms
and Contact Center
Our last contributor, Dominic Kent, takes
top honors for the most to-the-point response (and the one
that is closest to my personal experience). He did give his
permission for his response to be used verbatim.
I don't think I'm the right person to comment in that case.
I work async and have always used messenger apps as my
primary communication method. There hasn't really been any
change for me, as I was an early adopter.
Mark Okern is sales engineer, enterprise, with Splunk.
MARCH 2023 Commercial Integrator 57
http://www.commercialintegrator.com
Commercial Integrator March 2023

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