MARKET REPORT Analytics
“Telesales can still function and still works but with people not in their offices we need to be laser
focused on getting to the right person.” Paul Gibbs, Sales Director - MyPhones
Selling through a crisis
Sales teams throughout the Channel are currently facing some of the biggest challenges they have ever come
up against. In this feature we take a look at the state of sales in the Channel as companies strategise to get
themselves through the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
After the urry of activity
we saw in March many
companies reported
record sales on the back
of remote working technology
and the accompanying
peripherals. As things have
started to get quiet, we have
seen salespeople being moved
into furlough and others take
di erent roles within smaller
organisations. I asked some
prominent people in sales
what they are seeing across the
market.
Simon Whatley, Director of
Sales Operations at Tollring
commented “It’s impossible to
talk about selling to businesses
in 2020 without mentioning
coronavirus. e global
pandemic although unforeseen
and highly damaging to the
economy, has also provided a
common point of interest to
build closer relationships with
customers and to understand
their business challenges and
drivers.
While the things we know
about channel selling haven’t
changed – partners have to
understand their customers,
educate and add value – there
does seem to be an increased
need for collaboration and
transparency. It seems that
shared understanding, and
human connection, matters
more when you’re playing for
keeps: reducing churn and
satisfying customers as much as,
if not more than, focusing on
new sales.”
Matthew Worboys, Business
Development Director -
Channel at Gamma said “Order
volumes have remained strong
however we are aware that
this has been helped by a few
a number of large seat order
where the current situation has
been a catalyst to drive new
working practises. e market
looks to remain volatile for the
next 12 months.
For Gamma, we are focused
on continuing to develop
new services to broaden our
portfolio to ensure we are
meeting the changing needs of
business.
Currently end user
con dence is low and whilst
these businesses experience
order volumes that are minimal
the concept of expenditure on
comms services is on the back
burner.
A exible approach will
be key during the COVID
situation, Gamma has
recognised that we need to
change the goal posts in order
to best support partners and
the COVID Support Package
Gamma has developed does just
that.”
Selling through a crisis
ere is a famous Winston
Churchill quote, “Never let a
good crisis go to waste”, is there
an opportunity here for partners
to rewrite their plans and come
out stronger?
Marcus Cauchi, Sales Trainer
at Sandler says “ ere is a great
opportunity to take market
share from the competition. e
reality is businesses still have to
keep running and ve trillion
dollars is owing through the
global economy every day.
When people are saying no
one is buying, what they really
mean is no one is buying from
them.
I don’t subscribe to
COVID-19 being anything
more than the mythical summer
dip that most organisations
are facing. Yes, if you are in
hospitality or running an airline
things are tough for you, but
if you are in any form of SaaS
technology, IoT, robotics AI,
RPA or anything like that you
should be hammering it. We are
seeing a 300 per cent increase
in accessibility rates to decision
makers right now. Pretty much
everyone is available and if you
are smart you can use tools like
LinkedIn, Refract and Gong.
With the ability to record calls
you can treat every call as a
learning opportunity.”
Paul Gibbs, Sales Director
at MyPhones commented, “It
is about how we interact with
the end user that is changing.
With the widespread adoption
of UCaaS applications at end
user level it’s about how we,
as channel salespeople, adapt
and change so that we become
the best at engagement when
using these tools. We need to
be asking ourselves have we
developed best practice models
for when our sales teams give
virtual presentations, are we
‘drinking our own champagne’
to ensure we can show the
end user the application in its
fullness and what tools are we
sending out when it comes
to proposals etc as presenting
a word document doesn’t
translate well across video and
screen share?“
Building the pipeline
As Marcus Cauchi points out,
there is ve trillion dollars
following through the global
economy every day and so
people are out there still buying.
I asked the market if there is
still an opportunity to build a
pipeline during this time?
Paul Gibbs, Sales Director at MyPhones
30 | Comms Business Magazine | June 2020 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
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