Earlier this week I took the opportunity to sit down with our Business Development Manager Dagne Grass and talk about the first sales enablement for the Baltics that she did at the end of May this year. It was a great experience that gave me pride in Atea becoming recognized in the Baltics as a service provider. It’s a very heartwarming feeling to be working with your home market.
Can you please tell me why the first Baltic sales enablement is such a great accomplishment for Atea Global Services?
The Baltic market has never really been ready for our services. In the past, our solutions have been either too modern or too expensive, but now with new and large companies opening subsidiaries here, we can see that the interest has switched more towards advanced solutions, not the financially most reachable ones. And we are moving with them by being ready to offer these modern solutions and sees the new opportunities.
So, what is a sales enablement?
Sales enablement is a training for customer-facing employees, like sales representatives, consultants, solution sales, pre-sales, and others. In these trainings, we usually start with understanding the market – the type and size of the customers, the different needs that they have, and how these customers get to Atea. Then we do a customized enablement that takes about 3h where we focus on all the services that we offer and afterward look at actual cases. As this was the first enablement that we did in the Baltics, we did a high-level overview for about an hour and then took some time to talk with the public and private sector sales leads.
What would you say is the benefit of these enablements for the people attending?
Firstly it’s the understanding that in most cases you don’t have to look too far for solutions as we deliver excellent services here in Atea. And the next one is the notion that for salespeople selling services is more exciting and engaging than selling software or hardware.
What more could you tell us about this specific sales enablement?
This was the first ever sales enablement that we did in the Baltics, and it took place in Vilnius, Lithuania during the end of May with about 30 to 40 people attending. Also, this enablement was part of a more extensive presentation, we had people talking about the market tendencies in Lithuania, or Atea Baltics colleagues sharing our experience with our first Baltics customer and also myself introducing everyone with AGS services.
Why Vilnius?
Lithuania is the largest “Atea country” in Atea Baltics, and also at this point, Lithuania has the most opportunities with many large, potential customers having their headquarters there.
What added business value do you see coming out from this initiative?
There is a lot of potential in the Baltics, and with Atea Baltics being invited to participate in more and more tenders it’s an
excellent opportunity for Atea to expand in the region also as a service and solution provider. And of course, what I see is that the people who attended this enablement when talking to customers or when being asked different questions will have the information about our services and that we potentially can collaborate on these leads.
It’s been about two weeks since you had the sales enablement, I know it’s early to say, but has there been any interest from local customers regarding managed services?
Actually, yes! We have been talking quite a lot about Service Desk, which today is the most popular service of interest for Baltic customers. But I think that after the summer we could see customer interest in other services as well.
Why would you say that Service Desk is the service that appeals to the Baltic customers?
Although this is the time when the market is starting to mature for services, I don’t think that it has yet reached the point where it’s at in the Nordics. So we are still talking about the classical IT services, and Service Desk is one of the most traditional ones.
How, in your opinion, Baltic customers could benefit from our other services?
Definitely or experience in the Nordics. The Nordic market is the most technically advanced and working in this market you get the experience that you couldn’t get in any other markets. Also, our background working with different verticals and segments. And of course, the fact that we are also located in the Baltics so I would call it a match made in heaven – having the Nordic experience that is located locally.
Why do you think it took so long to approach the Baltic market and for us to see an interest in managed services?
I think that the market was just not ready. It has been only in the last years that the local branches of the large international companies have separated from their mother companies and now are fully capable of making their own decision in the IT field. As well if we are talking about the public sector, it is tough to compare the buying capability of the public sector in the Nordics and Baltics.
What are your hopes for future collaboration with Atea Baltics?
Firstly it’s to finalize the existing Service Desk cases with positive results and secondly it is to start collaborating on digital workplace solutions.
If you are also interested in a local sales enablement be sure to contact your respective AGS contacts – Dagne Grass (dagne.grass@atea.com) for Denmark, Nam Pham (nam.pham@atea.no) for Norway, Jimmy Bjorkman (jimmy.bjorkman@atea.com) for Sweden and Harri Becker (harri.becker@atea.com) for Finland, or send us a message through https://ateaglobal.com/contact-us/
– Daniela Rubule, Marketing Manager at Atea Global Services
Earlier this week I took the opportunity to sit down with our Business Development Manager Dagne Grass and talk about the first sales enablement for the Baltics that she did at the end of May this year. It was a great experience that gave me pride in Atea becoming recognized in the Baltics as a service provider. It’s a very heartwarming feeling to be working with your home market.
Can you please tell me why the first Baltic sales enablement is such a great accomplishment for Atea Global Services?
The Baltic market has never really been ready for our services. In the past, our solutions have been either too modern or too expensive, but now with new and large companies opening subsidiaries here, we can see that the interest has switched more towards advanced solutions, not the financially most reachable ones. And we are moving with them by being ready to offer these modern solutions and sees the new opportunities.
So, what is a sales enablement?
Sales enablement is a training for customer-facing employees, like sales representatives, consultants, solution sales, pre-sales, and others. In these trainings, we usually start with understanding the market – the type and size of the customers, the different needs that they have, and how these customers get to Atea. Then we do a customized enablement that takes about 3h where we focus on all the services that we offer and afterward look at actual cases. As this was the first enablement that we did in the Baltics, we did a high-level overview for about an hour and then took some time to talk with the public and private sector sales leads.
What would you say is the benefit of these enablements for the people attending?
Firstly it’s the understanding that in most cases you don’t have to look too far for solutions as we deliver excellent services here in Atea. And the next one is the notion that for salespeople selling services is more exciting and engaging than selling software or hardware.
What more could you tell us about this specific sales enablement?
This was the first ever sales enablement that we did in the Baltics, and it took place in Vilnius, Lithuania during the end of May with about 30 to 40 people attending. Also, this enablement was part of a more extensive presentation, we had people talking about the market tendencies in Lithuania, or Atea Baltics colleagues sharing our experience with our first Baltics customer and also myself introducing everyone with AGS services.
Why Vilnius?
Lithuania is the largest “Atea country” in Atea Baltics, and also at this point, Lithuania has the most opportunities with many large, potential customers having their headquarters there.
What added business value do you see coming out from this initiative?
There is a lot of potential in the Baltics, and with Atea Baltics being invited to participate in more and more tenders it’s an excellent opportunity for Atea to expand in the region also as a service and solution provider. And of course, what I see is that the people who attended this enablement when talking to customers or when being asked different questions will have the information about our services and that we potentially can collaborate on these leads.
It’s been about two weeks since you had the sales enablement, I know it’s early to say, but has there been any interest from local customers regarding managed services?
Actually, yes! We have been talking quite a lot about Service Desk, which today is the most popular service of interest for Baltic customers. But I think that after the summer we could see customer interest in other services as well.
Why would you say that Service Desk is the service that appeals to the Baltic customers?
Although this is the time when the market is starting to mature for services, I don’t think that it has yet reached the point where it’s at in the Nordics. So we are still talking about the classical IT services, and Service Desk is one of the most traditional ones.
How, in your opinion, Baltic customers could benefit from our other services?
Definitely or experience in the Nordics. The Nordic market is the most technically advanced and working in this market you get the experience that you couldn’t get in any other markets. Also, our background working with different verticals and segments. And of course, the fact that we are also located in the Baltics so I would call it a match made in heaven – having the Nordic experience that is located locally.
Why do you think it took so long to approach the Baltic market and for us to see an interest in managed services?
I think that the market was just not ready. It has been only in the last years that the local branches of the large international companies have separated from their mother companies and now are fully capable of making their own decision in the IT field. As well if we are talking about the public sector, it is tough to compare the buying capability of the public sector in the Nordics and Baltics.
What are your hopes for future collaboration with Atea Baltics?
Firstly it’s to finalize the existing Service Desk cases with positive results and secondly it is to start collaborating on digital workplace solutions.
If you are also interested in a local sales enablement be sure to contact your respective AGS contacts – Dagne Grass (dagne.grass@atea.com) for Denmark, Nam Pham (nam.pham@atea.no) for Norway, Jimmy Bjorkman (jimmy.bjorkman@atea.com) for Sweden and Harri Becker (harri.becker@atea.com) for Finland, or send us a message through https://ateaglobal.com/contact-us/
– Daniela Rubule, Marketing Manager at Atea Global Services