Exclusive Networks' new sales boss targets more sole-supplier deals

Richard Carpenter joins Exclusive from Comstor, bringing 20 years distribution experience to the team

Exclusive Networks' new sales director UK and Ireland, Richard Carpenter, is aiming to grow the number of exclusive deals the distributor has with vendors, which he claims will help it focus more on its partner development.

Carpenter (pictured) started at the distributor two weeks ago and has worked in distribution for around twenty years, including at Avnet, Ingram Micro, and Wick Hill. His most recent role was commercial and marketing director at Comstor.

He said: "When I was at Wick Hill, Exclusive were seen as the big brothers of security distribution and were very squarely the main competition. What attracted me here was Graham Jones, the managing director. The vision and the way they are moving the business forward was just really attractive to me."

Carpenter is the first UK sales director at Exclusive in around a year, which he puts down to having "solid" sales managers at each location.

"I don't think there has been a sales director in place for around a year," he explained. "The main accounts have been run by sales managers, as we have some really solid sales managers. I think it was because we have had good sales management in place, there hasn't been an urgency."

Around 60 per cent of Exclusive's vendor deals are exclusive, with the distie just adding Gemalto to the exclusive list this month.

"The Gemalto exclusive deal was a big sign for me that it was a good place to be. For them to have the confidence to go exclusive with one organisation showed me it was the place to be. I've been brought in to bolster the sales. The main goal is to double sales every two years," he added.

"We look to grow [our exclusive vendors] all the time. This enables us to grow the resellers business, because we are not worried about keeping Arrow at bay etc so we can focus on the resellers' business development."

As well as growing the number of exclusive vendors in its portfolio, Carpenter is looking to add more reseller partners. However he said this will be focused on the new vendors they are bringing in, not just based on margins it can gain.

He said: "We have got good engagement with partners. What we are absolutely not looking to do is pillage the base. I've seen distributors moving into the country a lot recently, and what we are not looking to do is go out and take deals at a margin base. That is not what we do."