The Blurring Line Between Tech And Sales

John Doe Technician at VAR X knows his stuff. He knows speeds and feeds, how to deploy a server farm and troubleshoot a network. He knows intimately the products that comprise that network--every nook and cranny and feature set. But can he sell the VAR's solutions to end users? And, more important, can he convince the C suite--the top-level execs that make purchasing decisions--that VAR X's offerings are the ones to spend their money on?

That skillset "double-shot" doesn't come easy in the channel. Yet it's one that'll behoove VARs to cull from the workforce if they plan to move beyond box-pushing and successfully embrace a solutions/services business model.

Katherine Spencer Lee, executive director at Robert Half Technology, a staffing firm based in Menlo Park, Calif., says the tech-sales divide stems from a lack of experience. "Back in the day, people who knew COBOL and Basic were expected to sit in a cube and code all day," she says. "Today, the requirements of technical people are very different. They're expected to communicate well, both verbally and in writing, and customers are a lot more technically savvy than they used to be."

While the tech-sales disconnect is nothing new, VARs, no longer content to let techies be just technical, have stepped up sales training for their IT gurus.

According to the Benchmark Profitability Database, an ongoing research project by the Institute for Partner EducationDevelopment (IPED is part of the CMP Channel Group, which publishes VARBusiness), technical personnel at VARs receive 5.4 days of sales training per quarter, on the average. That's about the same amount of training as their sales counterparts and only two-and-a-half days fewer in training than techies get on tech topics.

"When I started doing this, techies were real heads-down types of people whose social skills weren't expected to be super sharp," says Christa Baker, regional recruiting manager for the Northeast professional division of Manpower, a Milwaukee-based staffing firm that focuses on IT and engineering. "Now they're being pushed to interface with clients. Everyone's really drilling down on soft skills, because that's what's going to take them to the next level."

Ultimately, VARs need to do more than design and deploy creative solutions. They need to sell their wares with gusto.

In keeping with the soft-skills trend, project management has rocketed its way up the top-10 list of most-sought-after skillsets by channel players.

"It's a good idea today for people to go after some of the project management certifications," says Ed Shaw, executive vice president of Starpoint Solutions, a solution provider based in New York. "There are a lot of folks who have been doing this a long time. They have the skillsets but not the certification, and that puts them at a disadvantage in this market, where it's sometimes hard to make a distinction among the candidates profiled in a mound of resumes."

Dan Schneider, senior vice president of product services at Lewis Center, Ohio-based Sarcom, puts project management high on the company's hiring agenda as well.

NEXT: Tech skills that are in demand.

Of course, all of this is not to say that technical expertise is any less important today than it was five years ago. Not by a long shot. In the technical arena, VARs need to do two things: stay abreast of which technologies are cooking in the market, and be sure to include those on their menu of solutions.

"Application and Web development are really big right now," Lee says. "There's .Net, Ajax, Java and XML. The two drivers are the spread of mobile-device usage and the Web 2.0 movement. Everybody wants to deliver content on cellphones, PDAs and laptops. As for Web 2.0, the key is deploying podcasts, wikis and mash-ups as affordably as possible."

Everyone needs people competent in those skillsets, so the competition is fierce, Shaw says. "We're all jumping on the same bandwagon and looking for the same people," he says. "And the push now is to buy and retain people, not keep contractors on the payroll indefinitely."

Starpoint uses the .Net platform as a vehicle for self-service deployments--all the rage in a slew of verticals, including financial services, retail and health care. For investment firms, the VAR has been developing performance and attribution systems, too, which enable financial services companies to analyze their portfolios.

Another area of expertise that's in high demand nowadays, according to Robert Half, is network and desktop administration. "Companies are looking for Unix and Linux system admins," Lee says. "They also want people who know Cisco and Check Point [Software Technologies], and those with firewall and VPN know-how."

Speaking of security--a still-sizzling niche in most vertical markets, where government regulation is de rigueur--Prevalent Networks puts a premium on people well-versed in secure network design, integration and support.

"Our mantra is 'info anywhere, security everywhere,'" says Jonathan Dambrot, managing director at the Warren, N.J.-based VAR. "Compliance automation is driving companies to Webify their applications and deploy solutions around a service-oriented architecture. Those outward-facing Web and database architectures open up new vulnerabilities."

With all that business intelligence coming from every direction, the need for database administration is more pronounced.

"We have quite a few clients asking us to fill spots with people who know Oracle databases," Baker says. "Believe it or not, there are still some big, clunky databases out there too--some insurance companies on mainframes--but the newer database platforms are pretty popular."

Meanwhile, the old standbys--Microsoft certifications, for example--continue to carry a lot of weight in the IT arena.

Robert Half's Lee says that Microsoft just recently streamlined its certification portfolio, distilling a bevy of credentials into three areas: Architect (Microsoft Certified Architect, or MCA), Professional (Certified IT Professional and Certified Professional Developer) and Technology, a new set that includes areas like Vista, .Net and BizTalk Server 2006.

"The software vendor's goal," Lee says, "is to provide professionals with a more relevant, flexible and cost-effective way to showcase their skills."

But no matter which skills solution providers seek, the magic formula for tapping talent consists of creativity and persistence.

"To address the challenging staffing situation, we try to be ahead of the curve," Shaw says. "We try to predict where things are going and what our clients will want down the line."

Adds Lee, "Companies have to ask: Are we taking advantage of the user-group communities to find good people? Are we training existing staff? Are we exploring all of our options?"