One step ahead

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Vijayan Raman, Emtech.

The downturn has forced resellers in the Middle East to take stock of their businesses - and most importantly the sales tactics they use to win new customers. Leading VARs in the region explain how they have been transitioning their sales teams to succeed in the market place and meet the changing needs of the end-user.

Times have changed so rapidly and almost uncontrollably that the Middle East IT channel has had to have its wits about it to merely to stand still in terms of revenue performance, let alone make progress.

The sight of customers retreating and budgets being slashed means resellers with strong and flexible sales team have quickly emerged as the favourites to bring in new clients and protect their positions.

Sales-savvy solutions providers have been revising and retuning their frontline project teams during the downturn - and contrary to popular belief that hasn't necessarily meant scaling back the workforce.

"Rather than downsizing, we're focusing on increasing the service delivery mechanism, especially with our post-sales team," explained SM Hussaini, general manager at Bahrain-based Almoayyed Computers, one of countless infrastructure solutions providers that has been exploring ways to scale up its higher-margin services business in recent months.

That is not to say salespeople at VARs such as Almoayyed aren't feeling the pressure. They continue to be measured on bottom line performance although Hussaini insists this approach is matched by the maturation and evolution of both the services it is offering and the customers it is targeting.

"Before the crisis, many of our clients were looking at addressing projects and were busy fulfilling the need of the hour, meaning that there was a solid pressure just to get new technology," he said. "They are now in a position to allow us to actually optimise what they already have. They are in a position to look into proof-of-concepts (POCs) and now our POCs have increased quite substantially on virtualisation and consolidation."

Vijayan Raman, managing director at UAE-based systems integrator Emtech Group, also claims his company has done everything in its power to avoid staff redundancies. In fact, sales resources appear to be the last thing it wants to cut back.

"I actually want to add more people," he revealed, pointing out that he has hired two sales representatives in recent months. "Earlier the customer was coming with a need and a budget. Now, our sales staff have to spend more quality time with them. Not only does it mean quality of delivery, it is quality of time. They have to create a rapport and understanding," insisted Raman.

Although the personal touch has always been a fundamental component of customer service in the Middle East, it is now paramount to survival for the channel. This has lead to VARs speaking effusively about the importance of ‘relationship managers' - sales staff that understand the need to give customers even greater levels of attention during the current climate.

Deepak Verma, managing director of solutions provider Think Software Services, sees value in employing relationship managers to ensure the customer receives comprehensive pre- and post-sales support.

"We've got six sales guys in the business who obviously manage a certain portfolio of clients - they operate like a relationship manager to the client as well as getting new clients and managing them," said Verma.

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