On The Record With Robert Cohen & Ingram Micro's Justin Crotty 27 August, 2009 By Robert M. Cohen

Name: Justin Crotty Company: Ingram Micro Title: VP Services North America BIO: Justin Crotty serves as Vice President Services North America for Ingram Micro. Leading the services sales division and Seismic at Ingram Micro, Crotty is responsible for the development, sale, and growth of Ingram Micro's services portfolio including managed services, warranty maintenance services, and professional IT labor based services. Previously, Crotty served as Vice President Channel Marketing North America. In this role he was responsible for the growth and development strategies surrounding Ingram Micro's market-facing channel programs and customer communities and was responsible for developing marketing strategies and campaigns to drive services revenues. Crotty joined Ingram Micro in July 2001.Prior to Ingram Micro, Crotty has held engineering, sales, and management positions in the high tech and communications sectors. Crotty began his career as a network systems engineer with IBM. Crotty currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the San Diego/Orange County California chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Crotty holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Massachusetts and an MBA from Bentley College in Waltham, MA. Personal Favorites: Movie: Heat - I love the way there's no real good guy or bad guy. They are all somewhat alike. Book: Shantaram, By Gregory David Roberts Music Group/Singer: Fleetwood Mac. Song: No one song really stands out Sport (play): baseball Sport (watch): football. I would love to play in the NFL Food: Sushi Drink: Beer Car: Ferrari Super Hero: Batman Villain: Terminator & he was a villain in the first Terminator movie City: San Diego IT company: Ingram Micro & of course Charity: National Multiple Sclerosis Society and Greyhound Rescue Family activity: Beach Favorite gadget: iPod

I met Justin at the recent CompTIA Breakaway event in Las Vegas, where we sat down and talked about the channel.

Robert: What are the major problems currently facing VARs?

Justin: Certainly not technology. Most VARs are fabulous at putting technology solutions together. The problems most VARs face are largely due to a lack of business skills, especially in sales and marketing.

VARs rely on Vendors to help them define their value. These VARs expect the Vendor to create branding, solutions, demand generation, etc. And, they want to sell hardware to end users.

Robert: With the shrinking margins and lower overall cost of hardware, does this model still work?

Justin: It doesn't. That's the point here, for most VARs they cannot get the volume high enough to allow them to make a living selling hardware.

Robert: And &

Justin: And, they have to move into selling services. The problem is that with services Vendor support is more dubious and most VARs are not prepared and don't have all the skills or business knowledge in house that is required to market and sell services.

Right now everyone is blaming the economy and thus the credit problems for low sales. Truth is credit is a minor problem for the IT channel right now. The real big issue is that many VARs out there do not have the necessary sales and marketing skills. The really successful VARs and MSPs (managed services providers) are really successful because they know how to provide the technology and they take the responsibility for their sales and marketing and know how to drive their business.

Robert: I agree fully that most VARs don't have the knowledge necessary to sell and market services. But it goes beyond this. The industry and the SMBs expect VARs to recommend, sell, service and support IT-centric business solutions. Do you think the average VAR has the necessary knowledge to do this?

Justin: Yes, they can build technology solutions that can address business problems, but to close the deal, you must be able to articulate the solution to the End User as to the value of the solution. Many business owners don't know where they have issues, much less how they can use technology and IT services to address them. They don't understand the benefits a better IT solution provides.

Robert: How are Distributors helping VARs recommend and sell business solutions?

Justin: We do a pretty good job of training and helping our partners with creating business solutions. However, distributors need to do a better job helping VARs with selling and marketing these business solutions.

The crux of the problem is that sales people are not paid or trained to help VARs address these issues. The industry still has this mentality of giving VARs a fish, rather than teaching VARs how to fish. Then, when they don't succeed we all wonder why.

At the end of the day, we all need to do a better job of teaching our VAR partners how to sell business solutions - and that's where we are focusing a lot of our efforts today. Helping VARs sell and market their brand, their solutions to the right End Users.

Robert: How do you think Dell will do with VARs?

Justin: TBD. They have to build a track record because they have a history of bad behavior when it comes to the VAR world. What I can say is that they have brought in a depth of channel DNA into their organization that know how to execute according to a channel strategy. If they are straight forward and execute on their plan, they will build brand loyalty within the channel. If they do not execute on their plan, they will stay under a cloud of distrust.

Robert: Is Greg Davis the right man for the job?

Justin: What he has done in the last two years has been very successful. By meeting with VARs and taking the arrows, VARs are starting to feel that he is trustworthy. The competition between their internal sales people and the VARs will be where the rubber meets the road. The reality is that VARs have to protect themselves against Dell just like they have to do against any other vendor. The best way for VARs to do this is by continuing to build strong customer relationships.

Robert: How do VARs change their model?

Justin: The riff raff will fail. VARs need to do something. They have to get into managed services. VARs tend to over-evaluate every new model and all new tools and analyze away any risk. The tools are not the service, they are merely technology used to help them build their value proposition. They need to pick a tool and get out there.

VARs need to put together a service that they think their customers need. Then, they should go to their best customers and ask them to try it out. Cutting their teeth with someone who will allow them to try it out makes the process much easier. Focus. VAR need to assign someone from their company to be the managed services person whose sole role is managed services.

Robert: What will a typical VAR look like in three years?

Justin: Most of them will be running a hybrid shop offering hardware, software and services. The younger guys building from scratch will focus more strongly on managed services and anything else that provides them with recurring revenue. The mystery will fade around SaaS. Bundled solutions will become more common. Hardware and T&M services will never entirely go away.

Robert: Where will P2P Groups fit in?

Justin: These groups are great and very useful to help them understand issues, learn and understand. However, VARs have to be careful and take the time to understand the leader's objectives and motivation. If there are suddenly a lot of requirements, then that can hinder hinder the VAR. VARs have to make sure the P2P leader is on the same page as the VAR is.

Robert Cohen, a passionate and enthusiastic channel advocate, is the founder of the ChannelLine Advisory Council as well as president and business editor of Integrated mar.com, publishers of Channel Advisor, eChannelLine and ConnectIT. Since 1980 he has worked with 350 IT vendors, distributors and resellers in developing and implementing strategic go-to-market programs, using a variety of direct, channel and hybrid models. Integrated mar.com, in conjunction with Robert has created the Trusted Business Advisor program. Robert can be reached at 1-800-465-2059 or by email at rcohen@integratedmar.com.


Previous Trusted Business Advisor articles by this author:
08/27/09 On The Record With Robert Cohen & Autotask's Bob Godgart
08/27/09 Solving the business dilemma for That Computer Guy
08/14/09 On The Record With Robert Cohen & Cisco's Dave O'Callaghan
08/14/09 Keeping the IT industry in touch via social marketing
08/14/09 On The Record With Robert Cohen & Westcon's Anthony Daley
07/30/09 On The Record With Robert Cohen & N-Able Technologies'Gavin Garbutt
07/30/09 On The Record With Robert Cohen & Dell's Greg Davis
07/23/09 On The Record With Robert Cohen & McAfee's New VP of Channel Operations Fernando Quintero
07/23/09 On The Record With Robert Cohen & D&H's Co-President, Dan Schwab
07/08/09 On The Record With Robert Cohen & Tech Data's Joseph Quaglia
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06/25/09 On The Record With Robert Cohen & Synnex' Bob Stegner
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05/21/09 On-The-Record with Robert Cohen & Keith Bradley, President Ingram Micro North America
05/15/09 On-The-Record With Robert Cohen & Gary Gillam, Xerox's VP, North American Resellers, Channel Operations
05/15/09 On-The-Record: Robert Cohen with Synnex Canada CEO Jim Estill
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03/11/09 Part III: Vendors Wanting To Penetrate The SMB market Need That "TBA Computer Guy".
03/04/09 That "Computer Guy" is what we call a Trusted Business Advisor (Part II)
02/25/09 Reaching SMBs through their 'Computer Guy' (Part I)
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