The dearth of the (decent) IT salesman
If you were to empty out your pockets and bags at this very moment, I’d hazard a guess you’ll have two or three electronic devices to hand. I’d predict these items are smart phones, tablets and laptops.
Such devices are now essential and the market is ever increasing. What makes us choose a certain tablet over a competitor’s is how the device is sold to us by a human. Put simply, behind every sale is a person.
The psychology of why a sale is made is fascinating. Legendary sales gurus Spencer Johnson and Larry Wilson wrote in The One Minute Sales Person that ‘people buy for their reasons, not ours’ and that ‘people buy trust and service’.
The problem, of course, is that there are still many less-than-ethical IT sales people out there skimping on the trust and service. Targets and the pressure to seal the deal have increased, as the economic times get tougher.
The customer wants to be respected and made to feel very important – at all times. Below is how to develop key facets of selling successfully.
In order to make your sale successful, it’s essential you talk and communicate clearly. In fact, research from Harvard University has found that the best skill for a successful life is the ability to talk to each other. If you’re in sales, don’t baffle your prospective customer with technical language if they look like they want to run a mile during your pitch! Keep it simple.
Also, please listen to your prospect! Sales teams are guilty of talking fast, in a fairly scripted manner. If your audience has a question, let them ask it, as it’ll demonstrate you’re a good listener and can think on your feet.
Modern sales teams need to remember to connect on a human level. Take a few minutes to discuss your contact’s personal interests and hobbies, as this will help build solid working relationships. If you only connect on a cold, business level, you’re in danger of losing the sale due to losing the person.
As a seller, be sure to communicate the real and accurate value your product will add. In the training and certification scenario, provide case studies and evidence on how a new program will support productivity, moral and profitability in the workplace.
Overall, drawing from my experience, business is serious, but people often are not. Show your friendly and human side during a pitch; wean yourself off of your PowerPoint dependency and make the person-to-person sale. Good luck!
IT skills gap: J’accuse technology
An often-overlooked factor relating to the current IT skills gap is technological advances in the workplace. It’s not the case that staff lack the drive or intelligence to combat this shortage. It’s more a case that new technology requires new skills to ensure better business efficiency.
There are two main reasons why we’re seeing such advances in the workplace.
Firstly, we’re now creating vast amounts of data that needs to be managed carefully. New technology is helping with this– namely Business Process Automation and Communications Enabled Business Processes – but staff need the tools to operate such new platforms.
Secondly, the primary audience in the technology space has shifted to the consumer. Until recently, corporate needs drove the development of new technology. Today, technology has become much more affordable and design practices are focused on the end user experience – the consumer.
As these new business technologies are implemented to appease customers, corporate training needs have had to change. This represents a new challenge to managers to find the time and resources to implement training across the enterprise. Naturally, such a new program of learning must not curb productivity.
The positive outcome to this challenge is that new training and certification programmes can boost performance. In fact Global Knowledge found that 92% of companies observe increases in staff effectiveness after becoming certified. So, with the headache of implementing new technologies at least comes productivity through learning.
This headache can be put off until later. Enterprises that adopt later in a new technology cycle will not have a need for skills in the early stages of a growing trend. Therefore, budget planning for training resources can put aside until Q3 or Q4 for example.
But my advice is don’t put off implementing training until it’s too late – or worse than that, avoid doing it at all. Staff will become frustrated or demotivated and could get up and walk – perhaps to join your competitors who were savvy enough to embrace new training and certification courses.
In the future, technology will no doubt continue to make the skills gap greater. Whilst this can be viewed as a worrying fact of business life, it’s also a positive situation - an opportunity to empower staff through training. It all depends if you see yourself as either a glass half empty or half full type of person. It’s over to you to decide.
Middle East visit part two: IT skills becoming as valued as oil refining
The second part of my recent Middle East trip focused on Kuwait and Dubai. It was fair to say that my colleagues and I were a tad nervous about visiting Kuwait. We’d heard a lot of contradicting stories about the country, and other Gulf States, due to its past, but we chose to keep an open mind.
I’m glad we did. We landed late in the evening and were surprised by the modern and friendly feel to the place. Apart from the chaos at the airport, it was a refreshing country. Most of the centre of the city has been rebuilt in the last decade and the people were so friendly.
We were picked up at our hotel by our partner, Lifelong, who arranged all the meetings for the day. Our first meeting was with the Public Authority for Applied Education & Training (PAAET), with discussions focusing on a CTT+ pilot, which is now live. The meeting went well. There was a funny moment in the car when Bassel, our driver and Business Development Manager for Lifelong, confirmed he thought a full roll out would happen. I do like an optimistic sales person, but a more cautious approach was adopted by us!
For the second meeting we visited the Institute of Banking Studies (IBS), an influential body responsible for training in all of Kuwait’s banks. IBS train 4,000 students annually, so we were pleased our discussions on how to empower IBS to deliver relevant training programs were well received.
Next up, arguably one of the most important meetings of the trip – a visit to the Central Authority for IT (CAIT). This organisation is responsible for all government IT tenders. CAIT is a big supporter of CompTIA’s programs, so we were delighted to come away from the meeting with plans to hold joint events and an agreement to improve marketing to our partners. All in all, a very productive meeting.
Our final Kuwait visit saw us take in the Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST). The campus for this university is a new building and very impressive. It is more like one of Google’s offices than a university. It hosts 3000 students and has been a traditional university but now recognises the need to include international vendor exams for its students. With security being the hot topic there, my colleague Mark Plunkett gave an excellent presentation of what CompITA can offer. The outcome: GUST were blown away (sorry!) and will join our CAPP program and start using CompTIA Project +. Great results. Next stop, Dubai…
Etisalat is one of the largest telecoms providers in Dubai, commanding annual revenues of $8b. More importantly, they are a CompTIA partner. A positive meeting yielded many benefits for us. They are planning an event to promote their CompTIA partner status to their customers and I have agreed to speak at their next event on the 16th May. Additionally, Etisalat are scheduling CompTIA courses and promoting them to their internal and external clients; we agreed to assist where possible.
Our next meeting was with one of the more colorful characters in the region, Samer, who runs Vision training in Kuwait. He has some very interesting discussions going on with the Kuwaiti army and the University of Kuwait. He is also working with our friends at CAIT. The Kuwaiti army is very positive about having their people certified and are strong advocates of CompTIA, A+, N+ and Sec+. Another positive meeting for us.
Finally, our last meeting with REI was probably the funniest. This is a new prospect looking to join our program and our contact proceeded to tell us all about his challenges in hosting CompTIA courses. He then went on to tell us why he should join the program, as if justifying to himself! The outcome was that he is going to join the CAPP program and host our training in Abu Dhabi. Result!
Apart from very beneficial meetings, the time we spent networking was very rewarding. It was becoming apparent as we spoke to more and more customers, partners and prospects that the IT profession was starting to be talked about as being as important as the oil industry in the region. The key to developing such professionals, according to those we spoke to, was recognised training and certifications. We worked hard during our Middle East visit, but the reward was hearing how CompTIA is well respected and seen as leading the way in skilling up the workforce for the IT industry to grow in the region.
Middle East visit part one: riots, Bahrain and Oman
My recent visit to the Middle East to meet CompTIA partners - and to review how IT training and certification is managed - proved to be very informative and enjoyable.
On our arrival in Bahrain we learnt that there had been riots. We were naturally a little worried, but persevered. We met up with Frank Moralis, Managing Director of the National Institute of Technology (NIT), and training partner.
Frank is enthusiastic about his work and set up several meetings for us. We met with the Royal University for Women. This was a successful appointment, leading to us agreeing to support an awareness day for the University. This event will aim to demonstrate the clear benefits of careers in IT for women.
Next up was the University of Bahrain, with over 2,500 students currently studying IT at the campus. CompTIA’s output is very much embedded into its curriculum, but both parties agreed that we need ongoing collaboration to promote exams. A challenge we’re looking forward to tackle together.
Following this meeting, it was time to meet with one of our oldest partners – the Bahrain Training Institute (BTI). We agreed on activity that will increase their CompTIA offering, ensuring we stay one step ahead of the competition. Next up, Oman…
Our first meeting was with the Ministry of Education (MoE). The Ministry has certified a lot of their internal staff and our discussions centred on the introduction of Security + and Cloud Essentials. We discussed the culture of why students are reluctant to take exams - it is the fear of failure. We hope to roll out further programs and initiatives in the future that will help address this issue. The sort of positive challenge we embrace.
Meetings with Polygot and New Horizons followed. The outcome was future support pledged to create awareness of what we do for the former, and further development work agreed for the latter. Next up, talks with our partner Khimji, who represents brands such as Proctor and Gamble and Rolex. A productive meeting led to a promise of an appointment with the Ministry of Manpower.
Our third day in Oman saw us visiting the Information Technology Authority (ITA). The role of the ITA is delivering best practice across all aspects of government IT. A very productive meeting led to a future meeting with MOE (see above) to discuss its IT educational curriculum. Our involvement with ITA will hopefully allow us to shape industry collaboration, training and certification in Oman in the future. A real positive meeting here – as well as the highlight of the trip for me.
Following ITA, we visited the Ministry of Health (MoH) with our partners Polyglot. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss our HIT certification and its benefits to MoH’s activity. The outcome: agreement to construct a certification program, starting with A+. This was a great meeting and many thanks to Polyglot for facilitating the meeting.
Our final meeting in Oman saw us visit our partner, the International Information Technology co. LLC (IITC). The organisation covers markets including telecoms, marine, petroleum and of course IT. They have a rich history and claim to have brought Microsoft to Oman! IITC also commented on the ‘fear of failure’ exam culture, so we need to work with them to develop awareness campaigns to address this issue. Again, this was a challenge, but a positive one for the future. IITC are a great partner and we look forward to a very productive relationship.
Be sure to check out my second Middle East blog, coming soon, where I visit Kuwait and Dubai, and find out that the IT industry is matching the oil industry in terms of importance and kudos.