Vology: Sales Strategy and Leadership to Drive Revenue Growth

Technology companies struggle to overcome product commoditization and price driven sales. The challenge was particularly acute for Vology, a technology distribution firm serving customers who can often acquire the same product elsewhere. Vology faced the added challenge of integrating operations from several acquisitions.

Vology’s president John O’Shea said he hired Scott “to help us with our sales strategy and leadership, and to find new ways to accelerate our growth.” Together, John and Scott worked to clarify an approach that would enable the business to differentiate itself by offering clients more value with services. Services that included installing, maintaining, and supporting the technology equipment they bought.

Because success would depend on the sales team’s actions in the field, Scott and John worked with sales management to impart the new strategy throughout the organization. It had to factor into everyday decisions, such as which accounts and products to prioritize.

While the ultimate measures of sales success are revenue and profit, Scott and John also identified earlier indicators, such as reaching key milestones in the sales process. They helped sales management develop teams capable of going beyond communicating competitive advantages to create value in the sales process.

Vology continues its transformation, taking on new markets, refining its service offerings, and in some cases, a new approach to customer management. “It’s an ongoing effort to evolve and grow,” said Vology’s John O’Shea.

These efforts have placed Vology on the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest growing private companies several times. The business has more than doubled revenues in the last three years. Vology has also become one of the largest distributors of elite technology manufacturers like Citrix, Juniper, and Brocade. In the last year, Scott’s effort contributed to double-digit sales growth of services attached to product sales across the business, resulting in significant gross margin improvements. John Shea noted, “Scott provided valuable insights, and has been instrumental in helping us to implement new approaches to scale our business for growth.”