Businesses using cloud computing must 're-skill their sales team'

The sales team is the "gateway to customers" and they must be retrained if it is to succeed when selling business management software in the cloud, it has been said.

Gary Steele, the chief executive of Proofpoint, said that cloud services sell ongoing subscriptions and not perpetual licenses to packaged software or hardware appliances, meaning that "an entirely different skill set is required to sell services rather than products".

He argued that sales teams will instead have to focus on communicating different sets of values with a major emphasis on business credentials, quality of service, cost of ownership and the consistent quality of ongoing customer support, as opposed to features and functionality.

Mr Steele also noted the shift to selling cloud-based solutions and the ramifications for sales management, highlighting that it is harder to compensate a team if they are "accustomed to big bonuses and commissions based on the large upfront fees paid in perpetual license and appliance-based deals".

Recently, Darren Dutton, business director at Marketing.co.uk, said that more organisations harnessing business management software will turn their attention to social media circles.

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