Sales and Marketing Awards - Finalist Q&A with Tanaz Gould Chief Revenue Officer at Trustmarque

Tanaz Gould talks being finalists at this year's Sales and Marketing Awards

Why do you think awards like the Sales & Marketing Awards matter?

They highlight the creativity, the hard work, and the teamwork that keep the UK IT channel thriving. It's also an amazing opportunity to celebrate the achievements of people like Richard Calvert, Ludmilla Pereira, and our Healthcare Team at Trustmarque, who’ve earned so much recognition this year.

What would winning this award mean to your company?

It would be a fantastic way to honour the outstanding work of our teams, like the Healthcare Team’s incredible success with NHS Lanarkshire’s infrastructure project, and the individual contributors shown by Richard and Ludmilla. Winning this award would be a tremendous honour, motivating us to push boundaries and achieve even more as a team.

What would you say is your company’s proudest achievement over the past year?

Definitely being known as the optimisation partner in the channel, as Simon Williams told CRN earlier this year. We have navigated a significant transformation over the last few years, but we continue to bring advanced technologies and services to our customers.

Businesses put a lot into new technology, but sometimes the results just don’t live up to the hype. That’s where we come in. Our goal is to bridge that gap and make sure our customers see real, meaningful results from their investments.

What have been the biggest challenges of 2025 so far and how have you overcome them?

2025 has been full of challenges like market ups and downs and changing customer needs. We’ve tackled those by staying flexible, learning new skills, and working better as a team. The Trustmarque Sales Team Charter has been key, keeping us focused and clear on how we work together to do our best. We also launched Catalyst, our first sales training programme to support our sales manager community. By empowering them to coach and lead, Catalyst becomes a journey of ongoing development, driving excellence and continuous improvement across our entire sales community.

How have your people helped with that?

At Trustmarque, our people have been instrumental in driving progress through Catalyst, our bespoke sales training programme. Catalyst empowers our sales professionals to achieve more for our customers, this includes workshops and virtual sessions led by internal leaders like our CEO, Simon Williams, as well as access to the Inspir’em platform.

How do you think the channel has changed over the past year and what changes do you think it still needs to make?

The channel has become a lot more flexible, focusing on adapting to changes, pushing digital transformation, and really putting

g customers first. It’s all about investing in diversity, staying sustainable, and boosting digital skills.

What do you see as the main opportunities for the channel in the coming year?

We’ve strengthened our ties with the NHS during the NHS England transition, focusing on our NHS Smart Spend initiative to improve quality, boost productivity, and drive digital transformation across health and social care. On top of that, I’m incredibly proud of how far we’ve come in addressing the gender pay gap. Among the CRN top 10 VARs, our progress has been outstanding, showing that we’re not only talking the talk but truly making a difference.

How do you plan to capitalise on those opportunities?

We’ll continue investing in our people, technology, and partnerships. The Sales Team Charter is shaping our culture and ensure we live those standards every day. By supporting individuals like Richard and Ludmilla and fostering high-performing teams like Healthcare, we’ll remain on the front foot for our customers.

We can’t escape generative AI and its impact on modern business, while cloud-native solutions are becoming the backbone of operations. This year we launched an AI Centre of Excellence to blend deep industry knowledge with cutting-edge AI tools. Our cybersecurity practice is taking centre stage as customer protect their digital assets after the cyber headlines so far this year.