Logicalis plots growth path after sales reorg
New UK boss Mark Starkey clues us in on three-year plan to double profits after creating vendor-led sales force
Logicalis' recently appointed UK leader has laid out his five-point growth and development plan for the business following a restructure of the company's sales force.
Mark Starkey took over from outgoing country chief Tom Kelly on 1 March, the opening day of the integrator's 2014 fiscal year. At that time a reorganisation also came into effect which saw the UK sales operation split into two halves.
About 50 per cent of the integrator's sales team are now focused on large named accounts, typically involving big deals and multi-year services engagements. The other half - dubbed growth accounts - will address smaller, more transactional deals and is grouped into teams around Logicalis' four major partners: HP; Cisco; IBM; and NetApp.
Closely aligned with this is a three-year plan for the business, which is split into five stated objectives, the foremost of which is to deliver outstanding customer satisfaction. Second on the list is to remain or become the number one or number two UK partner with each of its quartet of strategic partners.
To that end the sales rejig is designed to encourage vendor-focused sales heads to become technology experts and win more new business from customers with specific technology needs, rather than simply focusing on existing relationships and business defined by narrower geographic or market boundaries.
Starkey (pictured) told CRN it there is plenty of room for both consultative, services-focused sales staff and those addressing more traditional product transaction deals.
"Some people won't change [and become more services-focused] and nor would we want them to - it is about having the right mix in the team," he said. "But we are all about solution selling and focusing on business outcomes. I have a huge level of excitement in terms of some of the market opportunities out there."
The third item on the plan of action is to double EBIT in the next three years, in no small part by driving the product/services revenue split from 65/35 to 60/40. Logicalis also wants to become "one of the best employers" in the industry, said Starkey. The final item on the list is to improve business processes.
Overseeing the VAR's Cisco business is Toby Gold, who outlined that video is a big growth area. Logicalis followed Cisco's lead by acquiring Tandberg-specialised reseller Direct Visual two years ago, and Gold claimed Logicalis' size and expertise has allowed its new addition to flourish.
"We have given them scale and the ability to turn [their offerings] into proper managed services," he said. "The cross-sell has been very effective and our ability to exploit those skills by industrialising the solutions works very well."