News in the Channel - issue #22

DISTOLOGY

join us for a huge part of the journey, some for a short part, but they can all make changes to the business.” But for Hayley, recruitment isn’t just a clinical process, it is finding people with the right characteristics to succeed in a role. “I think people are too het up on the preconceived notion that you've got to have done certain roles before you jump into them, or you've got to have been the best salesperson to be a great sales leader,” she says. “That's bullshit, because the worst sales leaders have been amazing salespeople. The reason is most good salespeople are selfish by nature because they're trucking to their target and can't pull back and see the bigger picture. But those that are better at leadership are probably not the best individual salespeople. “It's not always the case, of course. But we often have preconceived notions of how things should be and put too many restrictions on who should be promoted or how departments should work. Often people don't push themselves or challenge the norm for fear of failure. We want to change that. “We haven’t failed every time we've restructured the sales team, but we've learned a lot on every occasion. And those lessons mean that you get to better people and better structures quicker.” Hayley adds that Distology is private equity- backed, which gives the company the scope to take more risks and be agile with the aim of growing faster. “I believe the best is yet to come for the business because we've learned so much,” she says. “There's so much more value we can add. “It is all about the people because the most restrictive thing for me personally as a leader and an owner of the business is to not have the team around you that can do the job without you. You always want to try and make yourself redundant. It took me years to embrace that concept, but now I do. It's about me having that vision and helping the team believe in something and that they can craft it themselves.” Focus To this end, the sales team has also been reviewed and, from what was a flat structure, has been split into three distinct focuses. “There is a vendor alignment with a solution sales component, a partner management function and business development, which retains the hunter component to continue to grow the partner base but also having an end

user component,” explains Sarah. “Sitting in distribution, our vendors are crucial, and we've got to ensure we're servicing them correctly, but we also need an end user perspective, otherwise our team will only be able to develop to a certain level. They must be able to understand not just a partner value proposition, but an end user value proposition.” Apprentices Distology is also looking to diversify its team and attract new people into the business through apprenticeships. Three apprentices have joined recently, one going into the finance team and the other two into sales. This is in part down to Hayley’s philosophy to bring people into the business and the sector from different backgrounds and removing that preconceived idea of what someone in tech should or shouldn't look like or what they should and shouldn't have done in education or previous career, explains Sarah. “We give our apprentices exposure to different parts of the business and roles,” says Sarah. “For instance, end user sales is not for everybody, but they might want to look down the partner management route or even come into marketing. We're not pigeonholing people as soon as they come into the business.” Sarah adds there are well-known graduate schemes out there. “But these can be very restrictive, with the assessment days they have and having had to have attended university. We're removing that, which I think is important. We are a young team. For instance, our social media lead creates brilliant content based on trending TikTok videos. I don't have a clue. But that's fine, because the team do, and they know what works. We're talking to a real mixed audience – so for the young people among our partners, we want to advocate that fun side of the business. “It doesn't all have to be techy and corporate. Of course, we've got all the technical components and we pride ourselves on making the complex simple but I encourage the team and give them the autonomy to try different things to get traction with our audience. “The social component is massive and it's what gets talked about by new people to the industry who we interview. When people are coming into or wanting to step into tech, we want them to think, ‘oh, it does seem exciting’ when they look at, say, our LinkedIn.

Sarah Geary COO

distology.com

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It doesn't all have to be techy and corporate. Of course, we've got all the technical components, but I encourage the team and give them the autonomy to try things to get traction with our audience.

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