Manage Your Customer's Experience

VARs that struggle the most to survive are the ones that turn their product offerings into commodity sales. The VARs that avoid this trap are the ones that take ownership of what Tim Sanders, director of Yahoo's in-house think tank and author of The New York Times bestseller Love Is The Killer App, calls managing the customer experience.

Over the past few months, I met with a couple of VARs that have perfected the art of managing their customers' experiences. I met Calvin Cooke, CEO of Brainstorm Networks, at a Tech Data TechSelect event about a year and a half ago in Chicago. At the time, Cooke was ramping up his business to become a Cisco Systems convergence and network security VAR. A year later, I met with Cooke at Cisco's annual Partner Summit in Vancouver, British Columbia. He told me that he is tripling his sales this year.

At a recent Catalyst Telecom Convergence Conference, I met Bob Coughlin, president and CEO of $80 million Cross Telecom. Cross Telecom is an Avaya reseller that focuses on integrated voice, data, messaging, CRM (customer relationship management)/call center, data networking, and wireless products, services, and solutions. The company expects to double its sales from $80 million to $160 million in 2005. In addition to their rapid growth, Brainstorm Networks and Cross Telecom have some very important business practices in common.

Don't Talk Solutions Until You Know Your Customer's Needs
Besides the fact that both VARs sell VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) solutions, the two VARs share a similar philosophy on how to sell their solutions. "The first thing we do is help customers lose that 'deer in the headlights look,'" says Cooke. This entails conducting a two- to seven-day network evaluation and getting a thorough understanding of the customer's technology, its business pain points, and the kinds of solutions it needs. Within the past year, Cooke boosted his ability to alleviate customers' technology and industry compliance fears by partnering with an attorney who specializes in information security compliance and policy issues. According to Cooke, and evidenced in his company's growth, becoming a VAR that offers more than just products at a cheaper price is the key to avoiding cutthroat commodity sales deals. Read more about Brainstorm Networks' success story on page 52.

Cross Telecom has taken similar measures to differentiate it from its competitors. "Recently we hired a CTO to help us understand our customers' broader needs," says Coughlin. "One initiative we worked on over the past year is developing partnerships with complementary businesses." For example, software developers that specialize in customized applications, such as call center applications with reporting capabilities, are one type of partnership Cross Telecom formed over the past year. Partnerships enable the VAR to form deeper relationships with customers by being the single source for all of its customers' IT needs.

Compare Brainstorm Networks' and Cross Telecom's strategies with the traditional selling strategy. Traditionally, VARs sat down with a potential client, plopped a piece of hardware onto the table, and launched into a 30-minute monologue about what their products can do for the customers.

Put yourself in the customer's position and consider which selling strategy your company uses. Are you too quick to launch into a scripted selling pitch? Or, do you take the time to show that you care and understand the customer's business needs? By taking ownership of the customer's experience and meeting more of their business needs, you can distinguish yourself from the box movers of the world and avoid turning your business into a commodity.