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Playbooks Serve as an Online Sales Toolkit to Help Partners Easily Identify the Technology-Based Solutions Needed to Solve Their Customers' Business Challenges
Avnet Compass '09
DENVER--Avnet Technology Solutions, the solutions distribution leader and an operating group of Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT), introduces its SolutionsPath™ Playbooks. Designed for reseller partners in North America, these online Playbooks serve as comprehensive, time-saving reference guides on how to solve specific customer challenges. These in-depth sales toolkits group offerings from key suppliers into detailed solutions, backed by a library of supporting tools and resources. They are designed to help partners prepare for sales calls, determine what types of solutions are available from suppliers, access services and generate leads to build their pipelines. Approximately 75 playbooks will be available initially, focusing on technology markets such as virtualization, security and storage and vertical solutions for the government and healthcare markets.
"Avnet has invested in development resources to educate our partners on how to sell solutions, and the SolutionsPath Playbooks are the next evolution in our enablement programs," said Colin Blair, director of solutions development, Avnet Technology Solutions, Americas. "They focus on driving demand creation and assisting our partners in determining which technology-based solutions their customers require to overcome their business and IT challenges - all from a view that spans multiple suppliers and services to best meet customer needs."
Solutions plays detail the architecture needed for specific solutions, and reseller partners can also access step-by-step online demonstrations of select technologies used in solutions through Avnet's on-demand demonstration capabilities. The plays fall into two categories:
Solutions Plays: Solutions-focused, supplier-agnostic overviews illustrate "what to sell" through an overview of each market opportunity, its pain points and drivers and an outline of the most effective technologies for solving the end customers' needs.
Supplier Plays: These plays drill a level deeper into the technologies that make up a solution. They include instructions, tools and resources down to a granular level for a better understanding of each supplier offering and how to position the offering.
Plays typically include the following sections:
- The Play: a high-level overview and schematic of the solution play
- Background: a brief introduction that lays out the potential causes of the business or technology pain point
- The Pain: a description of the business or technology problem
- The Solution: a concise description of the solution
- Players: the key suppliers, services and offerings that make up the solution play
- Game Plan: a detailed business plan of the solution play
- Tools: resources that aid in the marketing and selling of the play
- Instant Replay: webinars and podcasts developed for enablement of the play
- Team: Avnet and supplier resources who support the play
- Whiteboard: a broader view of the comprehensive solution play and offering
"Avnet's SolutionsPath Playbooks are helpful resources that let resellers quickly build knowledge of VMware products and see how they fit within an end-to-end virtualization solution," said Brandon Sweeney, vice president, Americas channel sales, VMware. "These ready-built tools will not only accelerate the selling cycles of our partners, but help educate them on emerging virtualization opportunities. By educating our partners with a solutions-driven approach, VMware can extend its reach deeper into the market and drive more demand for its products, all while helping end users address business challenges."
"We're always on the lookout for tools that provide a competitive advantage and also help us accelerate our time to market," said Tony Testolini, vice president of sales, Solutions II. "We've found the SolutionsPath Playbooks in virtualization especially helpful. The playbooks clearly show how we can address our customers' business challenges with a technology solution and explain in an organized, accessible way the elements needed to develop a complete solutions proposal for the problem."
The playbooks are part of Avnet's SolutionsPath Know-How Center, a web portal focused on helping channel partners generate comprehensive solutions sales opportunities. Avnet's SolutionsPath Know-How Center can be accessed at www.ats.avnet.com/know-how, and Avnet SolutionsPath Playbooks are available to Avnet partners at http://www.ats.avnet.com/playbooks.
About Avnet Technology Solutions
Avnet Technology Solutions is an operating group of Phoenix-based Avnet, Inc. As a global technology sales and marketing organization, Avnet Technology Solutions has sales divisions focused on specific customer segments and a select line card strategy enabling an exceptional level of attention to the needs of its customers and suppliers. For fiscal year 2009, the group served customers in more than 30 countries and generated US $7.04 billion in annual revenue. The group's Web site is www.ats.avnet.com.
Avnet, Inc. (NYSE:AVT), a Fortune 500 company, is one of the largest distributors of electronic components, computer products and embedded technology in the world. Avnet accelerates its partners' success by connecting the world's leading technology suppliers with a broad base of more than 100,000 customers and providing cost-effective, value-added services and solutions. For the fiscal year ended June 27, 2009, Avnet generated revenue of $16.23 billion. For more information, visit www.avnet.com.
Contacts
Brodeur Partners, for Avnet
Sonia Bovio, 602-224-4048
sbovio@brodeur.com
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