Travel agents can teach the channel about sales

Ian Millward says the sales process is similar across industries in that customers will benefit from more choice

Sales isn't just dumping a load of kit outside somebody's door, taking the money and running away with it. Nor is it about providing quotes and fulfilling orders. Instead, sales should be about educating your customer, developing a relationship and seeing the service you provide through to the point where it is delivering true value to him or her.

Things have changed a lot during my 17 years in the technology industry, but I still feel that when you look at how other industries go about the sales process, it has an awful lot to learn.

I used to work in the travel industry and I think the IT sales channel could learn a thing or two from it about increasing customer choice, which ultimately can lead to a better customer experience.

In recent years, the travel industry has been extremely good at deconstructing the sales process and moved on somewhat from the traditional model of pre-packaged holidays. It has given consumers more choice and helped people make the right decisions to suit their own needs.

When I say "deconstruction", I am talking about the fact that it is far easier for holidaymakers to build their own holiday nowadays. And the travel industry cannot take all the credit for this; information is now far easier to come by, for a start.

A knowledgeable traveller – such as myself, who thinks he knows it all – would rather book flights, accommodation, activities and everything else independently to get the best experience. Thankfully, I have that option.

For some people, the traditional package holiday model is ideal. They don't want the hassle of arranging everything, and travel operators have been forced to raise the bar.

This is the direction in which IT vendors and resellers should be heading and, in some cases, they already are. Buying IT is becoming a little like buying a holiday.

Businesses are within their rights to expect flexibility from their IT providers. They do not want a packaged solution where they will pay for services they are unlikely to use or gain value.

The art of tailoring for the specific needs of your customer is quite trendy in the technology industry now. Just as holidaymakers want more differentiation, and not to be forced to choose between a self-catering versus an all-inclusive option, enterprises are looking for hybrid cloud and colocation with varying levels of support.

Furthermore, outsourcing IT is a big leap for some organisations. They not only want to know that their infrastructure is high quality, but also that their data and equipment is secure, supported and in expert hands.

Again, the travel analogy is relevant. If you have a bad experience with a certain travel operator or at a certain resort, you won't go back and you won't recommend it. Sometimes IT deployments are not as seamless as they should be and employees find it difficult to adapt. It's up to your provider to walk you through that process and if the solution isn't right, they should work alongside their customer to get it right.

There is a huge opportunity for vendors and partners that take customer service seriously. It's not enough to just be on hand to fix problems. IT companies should be challenging themselves to go above and beyond for their customers by getting the solution just right.

Of course, vendors and partners need to see a return on investment – business is business, after all. However, getting customer service right and empowering your customer to make better decisions makes good business sense and, compared to other industries, there are still improvements to be made.

Ian Millward is head of channel sales at Node4