Jason Bystrak: The Role of the Channel in the Technology Buyer’s Journey

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 […]

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. 

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. 

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 

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From a culture standpoint, these line of business leaders that are often involved with the decisions, they don't want to be sold to. You really need to focus on how you educate them rather than how to sell to them. @jbystrak
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It's no longer about the technology or the bells and whistles, it's about the business outcome. @jbystrak
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The role of the vendor is making sure that throughout the service consumption, they're able to provide key performance indicators for their specific products as to what's being used. @jbystrak
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LINKS & RESOURCES

Follow Jason on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Learn more about D&H.
Learn more about CompTIA and how you can get involved.
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