Stories by no byline

You want to sell? Then listen

With around a decade of experience in the technology world, she has spent about half of it looking after IBM’s channel partners as a business partner manager.

It's not about the targets

Simon Scott has been sales for longer than he cares to remember. He is now the director of Supply Chains at Acquire – when he’s not watching the Olympics.

Believe what you say and say what you believe in

John Way is one of the original owners of Rainbow Information Systems and Think! IT. He has worked in the IT industry since 1994 in management and sales roles. Way now manages the IT and telephony sales team at Think! IT and is responsible for maintaining the overall excellence of sales service.

Campbell Forlong's journey from retail to distribution

Sales couldn’t have been further from Campbell Forlong’s mind when he started work straight out of school, cleaning shelves in a small refrigeration company. “I was lucky to have a boss that based his sales technique on relationship. I watched him like a hawk. They taught me to sell everything from toasters to commercial cool rooms," he says.

'You can't beat raw talent' says Craig McEwan

Craig McEwan started his career straight out of high school in 1986 with Imagineering Micro Distributors on a cadetship to learn the IT distribution trade. He started in the warehouse and within six months became warehouse supervisor. From there he moved into a purchasing role and within a couple of years had moved to customer services. By the late 1980s he was a telemarketing representative with his own set of accounts and budget. From there he moved to MEC distributors as an account manager until returning to Tech Pacific in 1994 (Tech Pacific and Imagineering merged in 1991) as a product manager.

Rhys Taylor and the importance of celebrating success

Rhys Taylor joined Connector Systems in February 2011 as a business development manager based in Auckland. Rhys has 20 years of experience in the IT industry. At Connector Systems, Rhys is responsible for growing the reseller business with a focus on SonicWall partners, but he also works across other key brands such as Motorola and Brocade.

Willems started as an IT technician but found sales to be his true passion

Express Data’s Gerard Willems was preparing for life as an IT technician after earning an NZ certificate in Electrical Engineering. But he admits he wasn’t a natural at the “technical stuff”, so his boss at the time offered him a role selling Amstrad and Commodore Computers. Not long after that, he started his first IT distribution sales role as account manager with Melco Sales (now BDT) and in February 2000 Gerard started the Express Data Christchurch branch. For the last three years he has been the nationwide Microsoft BDM at Express Data.

Good relationships are key in sales, says Simon Nicol

Simon Nicol has been in the IT industry for around 23 years. He worked at Dove Electronics for almost 10 years, five of those in Christchurch then he transferred to Wellington as branch/sales manager for the next five, before moving back to Christchurch and joining Renaissance. He was made redundant from Renaissance when the company dropped named brands. He then picked up a 6 month contract at Datacom.

In salesmanship, knowledge is key, says Stephen Dykes

Stephen Dykes is the director (“Boss of Everything”) at Redstripe IT systems in Wellington. He is 36, has a young family, a Bachelor of Technology in manufacturing and industrial technology, from Massey University. His previous job was at Tyco in Wellington as an IT helpdesk manager and system administrator. Redstripe has been operating in sales since 2004 and specialises in IT sales, service and ongoing support maintenance agreements for small to medium sized business.

StorageCraft schedules webinars

Data recovery solutions provider StorageCraft will offer 15 online training sessions for ANZ resellers and users from early February to late March.