Tech Data Refines Go-To-Market Strategy

Announced Thursday at Tech Data's annual Vendor Summit, the reorganization is intended to create six SBUs that will function more like self-contained companies with their own sales and marketing capabilities. Each SBU will become the conduit through which Tech Data will market more than 11 different types of overall programs on behalf of vendors.

Those six SBUs--to be dedicated to Components, Document Imaging, Digital Environments, Point-of-Sale/Data Capture, Supplies and Telephony--were selected because they represent major growth areas for Tech Data, said Elio Levy, senior vice president of U.S sales.

Underneath those SBUs, the company will have dedicated programs focused on technology areas such as Mobile, Licensing, Storage and Security, Color Imaging, Printers, Presentation Solutions and Networking. Each will also have programs for market segments such as Latin America, Government and Vertical Markets. The company's Tech Select program for creating alliances among its customers will be among these programs. Current SBUs that will be demoted to program status are Mobile, Licensing and Enterprise.

In addition, Tech Select on Nov. 1 will launch an Emerging Vendor Opportunity program, with its own dedicated manager, Levy said. That program initially will include 32 small vendors that Tech Data views as having significant promise, yet have not attracted the level of attention they require to grow.

The reorganization is part of overall reinvention of how Tech Data takes products to market. By the end of this year, Tech Data will have profiled at least 90 percent of its customers as part of a companywide effort to drive demand through the channel. The company will use the data it mines from solution providers under a new TD Demand initiative to help vendors drive additional sales of related products, services and warranties.

Brian Gibson, Tech Data director of marketing services, said profiles created using data-mining tools will be updated every quarter. As part of this effort, Tech Data will retrain its sales engineers and vendor product representatives to focus on closing sales, rather than on just advising customers. "We want to get these people focused on proactive selling," Levy said.

Tech Data also plans to significantly upgrade its Web search engine by adding better support for context relevance, while increasing its targeted marketing capabilities through audio Webcasts and instant messaging.

According to Nestor Cano, Tech Data president of worldwide operations, the company is in the midst of re-engineering its U.S. operations to mirror the demand driver model used in Europe.

"We want to do a much better job influencing demand," Cano said. "With our culture we can only focus on one or two things and do them really well. In the last few years, that focus has been on cost. But with the economy changing, the time has now come for us to focus on demand generation."