Just as online shopping and review sites have changed the way we buy at home, the technology buyer’s journey has also seen massive change. The shift from products to services, new ways technologies are sold and delivered to the market, and the focus on customer experience are having a profound impact on both buyers and sellers. Channel success requires we re-examine the buyer’s journey.
I did just that with Jason Bystrak, VP of the Cloud Business Unit at D&H Distributing and member of CompTIA’s Channel Advisory Board. Jason shares the work he and the Advisory Board completed on the buyer’s journey and the role of the channel (partners, distributors, and vendors) in that journey.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The technology buyer’s journey can be broken into four main stages. Each stage presents an opportunity for the partner, distributor, and vendor to influence the buying decision.
Stage 1: Marketing
- With the way that people are learning about technology, having a strong online presence is more important than ever
- Vendors and partners need to focus on “how do you educate them” not “how do you sell to them”
- Distributors can help in this phase by running educational events and pulling together market data for the vendor and partner to leverage
Stage 2: Sales
- There are 7 steps to the sales process phase: assessment, evaluation, positive review, contracting, negotiation, quoting and then acceptance
- Vendors need to provide adequate training for the channel to execute each of these 7 steps
- Distributors should be echoing that training and providing a multi-vendor experience for partners to offer a complete solution
Stage 3: Technical
- The technical phase should be focused on the implementation from start to finish and making sure that everything that was promised is delivered
- Distributors can help their partners by integrating with the common managed service provider platforms
- Partners, distributors, and vendors should all be asking “how do we integrate our products to make it easier to implement and manage?”
Stage 4: Customer Success
- The 3 steps within customer success are support, billing/paying, and adoption
- The role of the vendor is making sure that throughout the service consumption they’re able to provide partners with key performance indicators as to what’s being used and how
- Vendors should also be sharing use cases and trends to help their partners drive deeper adoption
