News in the Channel - issue #22

DISTOLOGY

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“They can see us being silly, but know we have the technical expertise to back it up. A huge portion of our industry is not technical. We have technical teams for that very reason. We need to draw on everyone's strengths and emphasise it's okay to say you don't understand.” Hayley adds that it is important to not put up any hurdles to people at entry points to the sector. “People will hear the word ‘tech’ and especially girls at the age of 11 will often shut off from anything technical because they think ‘I can't process that,’” she says. “But there is so much more to the sector than tech. “Yes, the salary is high, yes, it is an aspirational industry. I want it to be something to really strive for. But by the same token, I don't want to put up hurdles to get involved in what is a fast growth industry.” SDR as a service Agility is also about offering new and different services to customers. While IT security remains Distology’s focus, the company also maintains its end user focus by having the capability to offer services such as sales development representatives as a service (SDRaaS). “We've seen great traction for SDRaaS in the Benelux countries,” says Sarah. “We're always focusing on return on investment with our vendors and this service will allow us to assist our vendors end to end – marketing to partners and creating leads for them. “Let's be honest, telemarketing is expensive because of the sheer resource that it requires. Whereas for us in-house, because it would be in conjunction with a dedicated portfolio

vendor, they will have a level of understanding of the customer business anyway. This will increase that speed to market, which again will only add to the value. “It's something that vendors could look to bundle with complementary technology on the portfolio and offering that is only going to increase that stickiness into customers. The plan is that that demand will only continue to grow, and we can grow the team accordingly." Hayley adds that this is part of Distology being as agile as possible and it will be driven by customer demand. “If we see a commercial reason to do it, we'll do it,” she says. Future This attitude sums up Distology, and Hayley’s vision to maintain the company’s fast growth. To achieve this, she says there are plenty of value levers that can be pulled. “We want to be as end-to-end as possible for our vendors and partners until our partners become fully enabled and they can be a lot more proactive themselves,” she says. “But we want to make sure that whatever we do is high quality. It's not just doing it for the sake of it. I want to make sure we get it right and do it well and that everything is of high value and is synonymous to the values that we represent.” Hayley adds that she won’t rule out new investment or mergers and acquisitions in the future. “We will do what we need to do to generate enough firepower to achieve what we need to for the benefit of the channel, our vendors and our partners, and to help future- proof the business,” she says.

We want to be as end-to-end as possible for our vendors and partners until our partners become fully enabled and they can be a lot more proactive themselves.

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