How Good Of A Trusted Advisor Are You?
By The Business Solutions Network
Oftentimes, I’ll hear VARs say that they’re a trusted advisor to their retail customers. That might be the case. However, I want to plant the seed today and ask you if you’re really doing all you can to advise your customers. You may be trusted, no doubt, but are you doing the absolute best job possible advising your customers about the latest technologies, business-enhancing solutions, threats, and opportunities?
This week, Business Solutions held its first Retail IT VAR of the Future Conference in Las Vegas. The education during the two-day event included many successful VARs and ISVs who shared many of the keys to their success. What I heard overwhelmingly from the panelists was that they’ve taken the role of trusted advisor to a new level.
Take, for instance, the topic of payment’s security. Our panelists, who’ve had success upgrading their customers to EMV and have used the topic as a springboard to other sales with their customers, explained that they make payment security an important part of their business. The PCI DSS 3.0 requirements that become a requirement in June? They’ve read, studied, and understand them. Have you or someone in your organization? While all the panelists admit that EMV has been confusing, none have taken a passive role waiting for their payment company or ISV to come to them. They’ve sought answers and have been benefitting financially.
Another topic we covered at the Retail IT VAR of the Future event was customer experience and engagement. According to surveys, this is one of the highest priority investment categories among retailers. With that in mind, how much emphasis are you placing on it? For tier-1 and -2 retailers, options such as SAP, Oracle, and Netsuite exist. As you move down to the retailers with which VARs typically work, customer engagement solutions are around, but VARs need to do some work piecing them together. This is another area where we saw our panelists taking the time and effort to truly be trusted advisors. With customer experience, there’s no magic bullet or single solution to install and forget. Customer experience and engagement requires VARs to be engaged with their retailer customers at a level deeper than ever. You must understand how each retailer operates, how they fit into their competitive landscape, what goals they want to accomplish from an engagement level, and then piece together the best solution to help them achieve those goals.
Perhaps at one point in time you really were a trusted advisor. That doesn't mean that you are one today.When retail technology was simpler, it was easier (not easy, mind you) to be a trusted advisor. Today, many of the challenges that retailers face aren’t overcome by slapping in a piece of hardware and turning it on. You need to get closer to your retailers than you ever have. You need to understand the latest technologies and their capabilities. You need to be dedicated to following and understanding the trends affecting the retail world. The complexity of today’s solutions — and potential benefits to retailers — demand it.