StorageTek Augments Channel Sales Efforts With New Telemarketing

The sales center, based here, employs 85 inside sales executives who work the phones looking for new business opportunities. But those reps aren't merely making cold calls, said Mike Hasler, director of the company's North American TeleWeb program.

"They perform a true sales role over the phone. It's the same work as normal field reps. They do callbacks with information, they have sales quotas and so on. They look very similar to other sales executives," Hasler said. "The channel is a big part of this service. We're committed to partners, to bringing more leads and business to our partners. For areas where we're not strong but where partners have a presence, we'll use TeleWeb to develop leads for them."

The new telemarketing force uses what Hasler calls a "closed-loop" system for channel lead generation. "Once we identify a lead, we make sure our sales execs are forwarded to the right solution provider," he said. "Executives will work with the channel to bring the sale to fruition."

TeleWeb has not resulted in cuts in StorageTek's sales force; nor has the company any plans to cut back on that staff, Hasler said. Instead, the vendor collaborated with MarketBridge, a professional services form specializing in multichannel sales and marketing, to engage Innovatia, a knowledge services and contact center solutions provider, to provide the TeleWeb staff.