Beyond UC: The Shift to High-Value CX & ESP Solutions for Resellers

The Challenge for Resellers

The Unified Communications (UC) market is changing. Once a high-margin business, UC is becoming increasingly commoditised, with price-driven decisions dominating the market.

For resellers, the challenge is clear:

UC margins are shrinking, making it harder to sustain profitability.
Customers often choose Teams, Webex, or Zoom before engaging a reseller, limiting influence over platform decisions.
Selling UC alone no longer delivers the differentiation or value that customers expect.

However, where there’s a challenge, there’s also an opportunity. The real growth for resellers lies beyond the UC platform itself—in customer engagement, compliance, AI, and contact centre solutions that drive business value and increase reseller margins.

Why the UC Platform Matters, but Shouldn’t Define the Reseller Strategy

Resellers must have at least one or two UC platforms in their portfolio. However, the real value isn’t in selling the platform—it’s in what comes next.

🔹 The UC decision is often made by the customer before engaging a reseller.

🔹 Platform choice is increasingly a price-based decision, limiting differentiation.

🔹 The real opportunity is in helping customers enhance their communication ecosystem, regardless of platform choice.

This means that, rather than focusing on which UC platform a customer chooses, resellers should focus on how they can add value to it through an Enhanced Solution Portfolio (ESP).

📌 Key takeaway: Resellers don’t need to ‘win’ the UC platform battle—they need a strategy that makes them essential no matter what platform the customer chooses.

Building an ESP Reference Architecture: A Platform-Agnostic Approach

The biggest risk for resellers is being tied too closely to a single platform. A better approach is to build a reference architecture of value-added solutions that work across multiple UC platforms, such as:

✔️ PSTN & Voice Services – Enabling reliable external calling, compliant SIP trunking, and global connectivity.

✔️ Call Recording & Compliance – Secure, AI-powered recording for regulated industries.

✔️ Contact Centre & CX Solutions – Moving beyond basic UC to AI-driven customer engagement and omnichannel support.

✔️ Security & Analytics – Proactive monitoring, fraud detection, and UC security enhancements.

By offering solutions that layer onto Teams, Webex, Zoom, or other platforms, resellers:

Ensure they can sell, deliver, and support customers regardless of platform choice.
Differentiate based on expertise and business outcomes, not just technology.
Increase customer loyalty by delivering ongoing value beyond UC.

📌 Key takeaway: Resellers should have a structured ESP portfolio that can be delivered and supported across multiple UC platforms, ensuring flexibility and long-term value.

ESP as a Managed Service: The Recurring Revenue Opportunity

The Enhanced Solution Portfolio isn’t just about selling standalone products—it’s about delivering managed services that provide:

✔️ Higher-value, recurring revenue streams.

✔️ Deeper customer relationships through ongoing engagement.

✔️ Increased stickiness, making it harder for competitors to displace them.

🔹 Example: Instead of just selling a compliance recording solution, a reseller could offer a managed compliance service, handling storage, retrieval, and audits on behalf of the customer.

🔹 Example: Instead of selling SIP trunking, a reseller could bundle PSTN access with security, call analytics, and fraud prevention, adding value beyond basic connectivity.

📌 Key takeaway: The most successful resellers aren’t just selling technology, they’re providing managed services that solve real business problems.

The Sales Shift: From Transactional to Solution-Based Selling

Selling the ESP requires a different sales approach compared to selling telephony or UC:

❌ Transactional UC Sales – Focused on seats, licenses, and one-time sales.

✅ Solution-Oriented ESP Sales – Driven by customer pain points, ROI, and business outcomes.

Sales teams must shift from:

🚀 “What platform do you use?” → “How do you want to engage your customers?”

🚀 “How many users do you need?” → “What’s your biggest customer engagement challenge?”

This transition requires education and enablement, which is why CloudBoost supports resellers with:

Sales enablement tools to help resellers sell solutions more effectively.
Free AI-powered sales assistants to guide conversations and provide insights.
- Register for free to receive CloudBoost’s AI-generated weekly newsletter and get access to our Ask-the-Expert sales support tool
- Contact us to learn more about EngageIQ, our bespoke ESP co-pilot
Training and partner programs to build expertise in ESP solutions.

📌 Key takeaway: Resellers who master solution-based selling will unlock higher-value sales, greater customer engagement, and long-term success in CX and ESP.

Taking Action: How Resellers Can Start Today

Resellers looking to transition beyond UC and into higher-margin ESP can start by:

1️⃣ Identifying gaps in their portfolio – Do they have a strong offering for compliance, security, or CX?

2️⃣ Exploring partnerships – Finding ESP vendors that work across multiple UC platforms.

3️⃣ Reviewing their current customer base – Which clients would benefit from the Enhanced Solutions Portfolio?

4️⃣ Developing a managed services strategy – Where can they add recurring revenue through support, integration, or management?

5️⃣ Investing in enablement – Training sales teams to shift from UC to solution selling.

🚀 The opportunity is there. The question is, will you take it?

Final Thoughts: The Future is Beyond UC

UC platforms will always be an important part of the reseller business, but the real growth opportunity lies in ESP, customer engagement, and managed services.

By building a reference architecture, embracing solution-based selling, and focusing on long-term customer value, resellers can:

✔️ Escape UC margin pressure.

✔️ Increase revenue through high-value solutions.

✔️ Position themselves as essential business partners.