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DISTRIBUTION
“The new structure is designed to
make us a more attractive partner
to new vendors and new resellers,”
said Marketing Director Nigel Morris.
“In essence, what we’re doing is
reshaping and right-sizing to provide
our customers with a combination
of dedicated account managers with
specific areas of product expertise.”
The VAR team created in January of this
year will be expanded with new recruits
taking up positions within the pre-sales
function and as account managers. This
team will support any reseller through
all stages of the sales process, including
pre-sales configuration and architectural
support, with the resellers themselves and
their end user customers.
Beta has created two new sales teams
– Major Accounts and Premier – who will
work with a number of customers across the
entire product range. Both include dedicated
enterprise and technology specialists.
“Bringing enterprise and technology
opportunities to this customer base will be a
big part of their role,” said Morris.
Underpinning the entire sales operation
is a Technology Solutions Business
Development team, which has also
increased in size.
Morris said that in the past 18 months
headcount in Beta overall has increased
from 60 to 100, with ten new positions
created since June.
“In the past six months, we’ve secured
three new distribution agreements with
Falconstor, Overland/Tandberg and Exablox,
and earlier this year Samsung appointed
Beta as a 1st tier distributor for their
print products. We’ve been successful in
attracting new vendors based on the wide
and varied nature of our customer base
and our ability to provide them with new
customers,” he said.
“In the same vein, having the
distribution rights to new brands makes us
an appealing partner to more resellers. So
we’re scaling up to ensure we’ve got the
right infrastructure in place to manage that
new business and, most importantly, to
provide consistently high levels of service to
all our partners”
Trade-only
Beta maintains a strictly ‘trade-only’
business model, which it regards as a
cornerstone of its success. “This generates a
level of trust with our resellers, evidenced by
the fact that three-quarters of the deliveries
we make are direct to end users on behalf
of resellers,” explained Morris.
In addition, the disti has broadened its
product portfolio in response to a changing
market. Morris singles storage as one area
of real opportunity for dealers in which Beta
is well placed to help.
“Google CEO Eric Schmidt said we
create as much information in two days
now as we did from the dawn of man
through to 2003,” said Morris. “Where do
you store that information is a question
dealers should be asking their customers.
We firmly believe that for resellers looking
to secure a new revenue stream, storage
products are where they should be
focussing.”
He added: “The last three years have
seen a significant shift in our product
shares. Storage-based products have grown
from 9% to 30%, while the consumables
product range has reduced from 70% to
just over 50%, although consumables
revenues have still increased.”
Morris said that unlike MPS, where
dealers may have an in-house capability and
therefore be less reliant on their distributor,
with storage you really do need a disti
Beta Distribution has enjoyed consistent sales
revenue growth over the last eight years.
The firm is on track to hit the £200 million mark
this financial year and is reshaping its pre- and
post-sales structure to support its channel
technology, enterprise and storage proposition.
New sales structure
for Beta
on-board to help win the business. “That’s
where our VAR team comes in. Typically the
sales cycle can be long and in some cases
complicated, but once you’ve landed one
deal, the rest will follow,” he said.
A large proportion of Beta’s growth
– turnover for FY15/16 is projected to
grow by £40 million to £200 million –
has come from the new technology and
enterprise products it offers. Further growth
is expected to come from its new sales
approach.
“If we stick with what we’re currently
doing, we will see 10-15% growth year-
on-year. But we expect it will be much
higher than that. We have opened up
our first European operation in Holland,
supported by a fully stocked warehouse,
and anticipated revenues in the first full
year of trading are
€
30m from a standing
start,” said Morris.
He added: “Bringing on new vendors
and expanding into other technology areas
means that we have resellers and VARs
doing business with us now that wouldn’t
have done so 12 months ago. Our new
sales structure will not only re-affirm to
existing vendors and customers that we are
serious about becoming a major player in
this space, but will also make those who
have yet to experience Beta take another
look at what we can do for their business.”
With storage
you really do
need a disti
on board to
help win the
business
Nigel Moris, marketing director,
Beta Distribution
