Show Me A POS Salesperson Who Listens And I'll Show You A Successful POS VAR
By The Business Solutions Network
I've been thinking a lot lately about the future of the point of sale (POS) VAR. When our kids look back on this time period, I'm convinced these years will stand out in the history of retail solutions providers as one of those time periods of considerable transition, evolution, and probably a little chaos. The fact is, there's a lot going on in the world of retail technology and your customers are probably asking you about things you might not be entirely comfortable talking about.
The worst thing a salesperson can do is scoff/minimize/poo-poo/ignore these customer questions. Today's successful POS salesperson needs to be listening to customer requests. Understanding their problems. Desperately searching for the solutions to those problems, regardless of what the technological solution is. Weak salespeople will try to shoehorn a customer into their line card with disregard for how well the problem is solved (if at all). If you're thinking only of which existing solutions you offer that you can sell to your customers, you're in big trouble.
Building real solutions is what sets POS VARs apart from the independent ISOs/agents who are coming from the payment processing world into your space. Building solutions is what allows a simple surveillance system to become a powerful loss prevention system with POS transactional data overlaid onto video.
A comment from a recent blog post (Are You Tired Of Your Customers Asking About iPads?) drove a lot of this home to me:
To answer your question, no, I am not tired of my customers asking about iPads. They are clearly looking for a solution and are demonstrating an interest in exploring new technologies. That is a great starting point for a conversation.
If you aren't listening, you won't be able to have that conversation that could lead to your next big sale. Those who listen to their customers will be the VARs that evolve with the technology and thrive while their competition flounders.