Ingram Micro ONE Fall 2016: Day 2

Summary of Patrick Hardy’s second day at Ingram Micro ONE Fall 2016.

A Highly Anticipated Speaker: Seth Godin

Seth Godin presented his vision of a marketing strategy focused on trust and customer engagement. Always interesting, he talked about several other subjects, and here is some of his advice:

• ''Like with your future wife, you dated her before you proposed marriage, you should do the same with your customers! Internet help build these connections…''
• ''4 letters that we always hear too much at work: MORE… that leads to more average products for more people...''
• ''The pilot adjusts, from the moment you leave the airport until you arrive, you are off course but the pilot adjusts. You need to do this with your product, with what you do…''
• ''If failure is not an option, neither is success then…''
• ''Whenever you think it's impossible to do it, remind yourself that there are footprints on the moon!''

Ingram Conference and Meeting with the President of Ingram Canada

Patrick attended "Navigating Through the Changing Landscape of Tech" a conference by Scott Zahl, Vice-President and General Manager, Advanced Computing at Ingram Micro. "Build or partner... from what Ingram has to offer, we should partner instead of building’’ sums up his presentation well. Why reinvent the wheel when you can take advantage of the services already offered? At lunch time, he got the opportunity to talk with Ingram Canada's new president, Bill Brandel. Several discussions took place: the improvement of Ingram tools for resellers, special offers from manufacturers for Trust X Alliance members and the role of Ingram representatives in the development of more adapted service offerings for customers.

Trust X Alliance

As GTI is a member of Trust X Alliance, Patrick participated in two sessions related to the group's activities. The first was a conference by Ewan Pidgeon, Creative Director at Agency Ingram Micro. The presentation was quite interesting and gave several tips on how to position the Trust X brand and maximize exposure of members in the community. He then attended the Trust X Alliance Unplugged, a meeting where members gave their opinion on the event’s strengths and weaknesses.

Selling Techniques and New Products

Patrick attented the conference "How to Beat the Budget Objection with Security" given by David Stelzl of Stelzl Visionary Learning Concepts. Mostly a sales pitch for his company's services, the presentation was nevertheless dynamic and very interesting, tackling several selling techniques in order to access corporate decision-makers.   During this second day, he also attended the Showcase Solution. A good opportunity to talk with representatives of several retailers and partners like IBM, VMWare, Microsoft and Lenovo and discover new products.     Here is our conclusion of Ingram Micro ONE Fall 2016 coverage. Subscribe to our blog and follow us on Facebook to stay up to date with IT news and events and don’t forget to visit our new YouTube channel.