How to achieve sales success for connectivity managed services

Bimal Modha, Sales Director at Highlight provides his guidance on how the channel can achieve sales success.

The selling process has had to adapt considerably over the past 18 months. Whilst gross margin and new revenues have always been important, there is now greater concern over client churn. This means the channel should look to drive longer-term contracts with their end customers, as well as promote and develop a far more proactive approach to managing their client relationships.

If a reseller has sales either on hold or at a reduced rate – the focus must be placed on retention and renewal of existing customer bases.  By building a better understanding of how your customers are operating, sales directors can gain up-to-date insights into how a customer’s business is coping, where circuits are running hot, where there have been brownouts, or where applications are failing  – to facilitate upgrades or change discussions.

This means salespeople need to fully embrace all the tools at their disposal. They need to become far more multi-faceted, making effective use of MS Team, Search Engine Marketing and LinkedIn and using the intelligence and insight to drive informed discussions with potential prospects.

The role of the Sales Director is also changing into something more akin to coaching and motivating and keeping their team’s morale above the waterline. If team members are still working from home, it can take its toll on mental health, so creating interesting ways to have daily contact across all workers, offering greater support and encouragement are fundamental.