‘Customers are changing, so our salespeople need to change’ - TD SYNNEX’s Phil Brown talks multi-year sales transformation

The sales leader tells CRN all about the distie’s experiments with AI-powered sales training and shifting client demands of the sales force

TD SYNNEX UK has outlined the first year of a sweeping overhaul of its sales organisation, as the distributor looks to standardise customer experience, modernise training and boost performance across its UK business.

The programme began life as an SMB-focused initiative but quickly expanded.

“We kicked off an SMB sales transformation program, which quite quickly became sales transformation across the whole company,” VP of sales UK&I Phil Brown tells CRN, fourteen months into the role.

The scope broadened as the team began to examine not only how the distributor sells, but how customers want to buy.

“Customers are changing, so our salespeople need to change,” Brown says. “Some customers want to trade with us digitally, some on the phone, and some want a combination of both.”

Ensuring that every team can deliver consistently across those touchpoints has been one of the central objectives.

“We need to make sure that we show up to a customer as one TD SYNNEX, with consistency across the sales organisation.”

One sales organisation, not many

A major strand of the work is focused on role clarity and mobility across different teams.

Brown says the company aligned job titles, descriptions and expectations across the sales organisation to make it easier to recruit, onboard and develop talent.

“We looked at all elements of the sales organisation, such as roles, recruitment, onboarding, training, to give colleagues the right skills and support.”

That also extends to how TD SYNNEX interacts with customers.

The company has been surveying partners directly to understand how they prefer to communicate.

This was a practical shift aimed at improving response times and smoothing engagement across email, Teams, phone and digital platforms.

AI enters the training stack

One of the most eye-catching changes has come in sales training, where TD SYNNEX has introduced AI-powered role-play modules developed centrally in Europe.

“We’re quite proud of some innovative training we’ve done incorporating AI,” Brown says. “They get the chance to interact with an AI avatar, which gives them feedback they can act on.”

The idea is to give sellers a low-pressure environment to practise conversations and refine techniques, which Brown himself notes can be intimidating in traditional classroom role-play.

“We’re trying to offer training that works for everybody, whether they prefer classroom role-play, LinkedIn Learning, or AI-based practice.”

The training stack now includes internal courses, vendor-led sessions, LinkedIn Learning modules and the new AI platform, with all activity logged centrally.

“It’s important for us to log all training in one place so managers can see where gaps are and what needs to happen next.”

Early reactions to the avatar-based sessions have been encouraging.

“Feedback on the AI training is good. Delivering the concept is positive, but delivering the reality takes a bit of time,” Brown admits, adding that adoption is gaining speed across the first cohort.

Measuring impact

While the AI rollout is still in progress, Brown says success measures range from growth and customer satisfaction to talent retention.

“We’re retaining our best talent, linking training to performance management, and making sure we’re growing ahead of the market.”

He adds that remuneration has also been under review throughout the programme: “We review remuneration constantly to make sure it’s relevant in the market and relevant to performance.”

Brown is clear that while the first year went “at pace”, TD SYNNEX is treating this as a multi-year programme rather than a one-off clean-up effort.

“This is year one. We plan to continue this into next year and look at the next stage of where we can develop and invest.”

Much of the transformation, Brown says, stems from the fresh perspective he brought into the role after stepping in as sales VP in late 2023.

“A lot of this was driven by my view on where we had gaps in the sales organisation and where we could improve.”

He stresses the work is already paying off. “It’s a really positive story for us. The focus we’re putting into the sales organisation is a huge factor in why we won Distributor of the Year again.”

Brown says he hopes to revisit the progress in the coming months as more cohorts complete the new training and year-two initiatives begin.