Selling as a Business Advisor

 “May the dreams of your past be the reality of your future,” remains one of my favorite quotes of all time. The author is unknown, but it truly summarizes the wishes of most 12 year olds. While I’m still waiting for my own personal jet pack to be delivered, new and  innovative technologies are introduced to the masses each and every day. Imagine running into a time traveler from 1970, visiting  the local electronics store for the first time in 2010. There are a host of things he wouldn’t recognize, including; smart phones (what, no rotary dial), MP3 players, all personal computers, video games and compact discs. We’ve really come a long way with technology (despite my jet pack disappointment).

The VAR community has eveolved in a similar manner, with incremental product and service innovation leading the way. Even the names have changed over the past few years, with most channel companies preferring the term “solution provider” or “technology consultant” over their “reseller” title of yesteryear. We're ready for the new millenium, right?

Not quite. Despite this extreme industry makeover, some industry pundits suggest that the IT channel is not keeping pace when it comes to making the sales transition. Point product sales still command a substantial focus in the IT channel. Complex solution selling requires a radically different approach, with a focus on the customers longer term business needs than the parts they need to keep computers operational. How do you make that transition in your sales team?

“With the introduction of managed services, SaaS and HaaS; delivering a business or technology end-to-end solution has become easier for many providers,” according to Tricia Wurts, president of Wurts & Associates, Inc. “The challenge is to ensure you are changing your sales approach, transitioning the process to solve the customers' business issues rather than directly addressing the technology.”

Wurts will moderate a panel discussion on this topic next Wednesday at CompTIA Breakaway in San Antonio; joined by a team of experienced and well-respected consultative sales experts.  Attendees to this open session will learn how to create business consultants from their technical sales staff, how to identify the employees who can make that move, and the skill sets you may need to address with new hires. The expert panel will discuss accepted best practices and lessons they learned from transitioning sales teams to this approach (or that partners shared with them).

Consultative Selling: Evolving from Technical Salespeople to Business Advisors panelists include:

• Bob Penland, CTO of TruMethods, LLC


• Oli Thordarson, CEO of Alvaka Networks, Inc.


• Dan Wensley, VP of Partner Development for Level Platforms

We’ll be blogging details of this session and many more from San Antonio next week, but there is still time for you to be there live (if you aren’t already attending). Check out the details here.