Know more; sell more!

[StevenHagler]

When asked if I would contribute to this blog, I jumped at the chance.  I have had the privilege of working closely with the channel community for over 15 years and I am continually impressed with the wealth of knowledge around our joint customers and the industry as a whole that you bring to the table.  There has never been a doubt in my mind that together, we make a stronger team offering solutions that address true business outcomes for customers.

Some of you know who I am; for those of you that don’t, let me take 30 seconds to share a bit about me.

My 30  second elevator pitch

I started out in the field at HP 30 years ago, and apart from a 2-year stint with SAP, I have spent my entire career with Hewlett Packard Enterprise.  Prior to my current role leading the Global Sales and Partner Enablement organization, I lead HP’s Moonshot business for the Americas region.  My channel passion came from a multitude of roles in the Americas leading Distribution Sales nationally, Channel Strategy regionally, and Reseller Sales for Central US.

How I can help you

I’m sure some of you are asking “so what” or how can Steven help me?

In my current role leading sales enablement for both direct sellers and you, our indirect sellers, ensuring that both groups have the skills and capabilities to drive increased revenues and margins is a key focus.  Now that these efforts have been consolidated within my organization, I am asking that everyone involved continuously look at ways to leverage our programs and assets internally and externally.  The goal is to ensure that you are getting more value from HPE enablement efforts and getting that value simultaneously with our internal sales teams.

I’m also a strong believer that we need to communicate the value of your sales and technical certifications not just to customers but to our own direct sellers, too. It’s something that you’ve voiced, and I am championing the effort on your behalf. To that end, we’ve now started to roll out strategies and communications on how certifications from HPE help individuals, partner organizations, the HPE sales teams and ultimately our customers.

Why lifelong learning matters

I’ve always believed that lifelong learning matters, but since taking on my role, I’ve adopted the motto of “know more; sell more”. I can’t say this is an original idea; however, it really synthesizes my philosophy. I’m sure you’re noticing that your customers are more sophisticated and knowledgeable than they were just 10, 15 years ago. In those days, the seller was the smartest person related to IT solutions in the room. Customers now have access to a lot more information, and as sellers, we need to be ahead of them.

To do that and sell more successfully, sellers have to be constantly learning about new and evolving technology and to refresh our sales skills up to and including getting certified. Research from IDC tells us that an individual with a professional certification and three years of experience has 60% more capability than those with experience alone.¹

Personally, I get to sit in on numerous enablement events which help my own learning and I also heavily use curated news feeds and a few e-magazines such as HPE Matter (a digital magazine from HPE where the brightest minds in business share their perspectives on a technology-driven world).

There are many ways you can improve your knowledge and skills. I’m not going to plug all the learning available from the Partner Ready Certification & Learning program, but I am going to encourage you to make a commitment and set aside time to learn something new about the technology you sell. Our recent efforts to provide new capabilities, solutions, and approaches through HPE’s Transformation Areas is a great place to start.  These enablement efforts and programs coupled with ongoing networking with colleagues inside and outside of HPE are helping sellers change their conversations with customers more towards business outcomes and ultimately driving higher value to these customers and more revenue/margin/commissions for both the channel and HPE.

Let’s connect

The newly combined Sales and Partner Enablement team are looking at ways to get our channel and direct sellers on the same page with the story our customers want to hear from us. I believe what we are looking at is big and bold; I’m looking forward to sharing this vision and more thoughts with you via this blog and other communications. I would love to learn from you what you would like to hear from me, so please share your thoughts in the comments section on topic areas you would like me to cover. I also invite you to follow and connect with me on Twitter.

Know more; sell more!!

Steven

 ¹-IDC Infographic 2037, Jan 2016

Steven Hagler
Vice President of Global Field and Partner Enablement
Hewlett Packard Enterprise

 @StevenAHagler
 Steven-Hagler-9290b31/