Finding Value in Technology Advisors, with Becca Black

Show Notes

On this episode of the IT Matters Podcast, Keith Hawkey and Becca Black discuss the nuances of Technology Advisory. Becca reflects on her journey into the IT world, the significance of authentic relationships, and the importance of effective communication. Tune in for a candid discussion on building connections and achieving success in the IT realm.

Conversation Highlights:
[00:35] Introducing our guest, Becca Black
[02:07] Becca's path to the tech world
[05:55] Transitioning to Opkalla
[08:54] Differences between Technology Advisors and Sales Reps
[12:27] A Day-in-the-Life of a TA
[14:08] Solving problems with our customers
[17:48] Building positive relationships
[21:50] Understanding buying timelines
[25:45] Implementation of solutions
[27:44] Becca's message to IT leaders

Notable Quotes:
"As technology advisors, we try to focus on seeing the world through the end users eyes and understanding the problem from their scope because we are not focused on a particular technology necessarily." Keith Hawkey [11:34]

"It's just incredible how an organization has a heartbeat in the way it operates." Becca Black [27:11]

Connect With Becca Black
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beccaarobertson/

The IT Matters Podcast is about IT matters and matters pertaining to IT.

What is IT Matters | Tech Solutions and Strategies for Every Industry?

Welcome to the Opkalla IT Matters Podcast, where we discuss the important matters within IT as well as the importance of IT across different industries and responsibilities.

About Opkalla:
Opkalla helps their clients navigate the confusion in the technology marketplace and choose the technology solutions that are right for their business. They work alongside IT teams to design, procure, implement and support the most complex IT solutions without an agenda or technology bias. Opkalla was founded around the belief that IT professionals deserve better, and is guided by their core values: trust, transparency and speed. For more information, visit https://opkalla.com/ or follow them on LinkedIn. 

Welcome to the IT Matters Podcast, where we explore why IT matters and matters pertaining to IT.

Welcome to the IT Matters Podcast and I'd like to invite you to our first live recording that is in person.

It's the first time we've done an in person podcast. So I'm really excited. Again, your host, Keith Hawkey, and I'm here with the astute and fabulous Becca Black.

Hey, Keith.

Becca Black is a Technology Advisor at Opkalla.

And today, we're going to spend some time talking about what Technology Advisory is, how it's changing the marketplace, some of the ways to improve the relationships between a buyer of IT technologies and a seller of one, because sometimes they can be tenuous. Before we start, since we are in person, we have something special. Becca, what are you drinking today?

I've got a lovely blonde ale. "Good Morning Vietnam" is the name.

It tastes fresh.

Tastes good.

What does it taste like?

Taste fresh. Yeah, well, you know nothing better than a fresh beer and on a fresh Podcast. I'm drinking, I think it's called Spaten or a Sparta Oktoberfest. So this is straight from Munich, Germany and it is delicious. This will help keep us hydrated for this invigorating conversation. So Becca, tell me about yourself.

Where did you grow up? How'd you, how'd you find yourself into this IT world?

Yeah. I grew up here in Charlotte, actually just a little bit south of here.

Growing up, I was big into horseback riding, animal lover, and always had a dream to become a veterinarian. I went to NC State. I studied zoology, got into some of those organic chemistry classes and high level maths and

Did you take P Chem?

P Chem?

Physical Chemistry I hear that was one of the

I didn't have to do that one.

That's one of the tough ones.

It was like organics and inorganics. Never really did too great, like always passed, but um, somewhere along the way, I decided that the veterinary medicine wasn't the path for me. One of my first big jobs out of college was with an agriculture company. So still doing some of that, like life science type work, a little bit of sales and marketing. And I really decided I wanted something more for my career.

I'd always been someone who really wanted to challenge myself, I was always looking for something new to grow into and so I decided to go back to school and study business in the evenings. I felt like in my role in sales and marketing, I was understanding sales, understanding marketing concepts, but I wasn't really understanding how businesses operated. Like, what was the finance team doing? What was human, human relations doing?

And what were some of my leaders thinking about to operate the business. And through the

And then a star was born. So let me get this program, I went in the evening, so it was with a lot of other working professionals. Every single class had a technology component to it, like a technology segment, all leadership classes, organizational classes and growing up, like of course, computers were part of our education, you know. When I was little, you know, fourth grade, we were doing keyboarding already and through college course, had access to all that but never was really tech savvy.

I was pretty intimidated by technology, I thought it was this like mystery thing. But while I was in school, it started to really intrigue me.

And there was actually a local CIO in my class. And as we're getting towards the end of the program, I was looking for a career move and I started speaking with him. And it's funny because he was like, you know, Becca, you, you don't have to be good at technology to, to be in technology, you have to just be like a good person and do what you say you're gonna do, and you'll do well. And he introduced me to a local company doing some security services, resell, we were a big Cisco Partner. So yeah, that's how I found myself in the the technology space.

straight. You're taking organic chemistry and decided this was not challenging enough. I want to go into IT Sales. Oh, I just want to make sure I've got the through line there.

Yeah, there were I mean, challenging myself was the theme. But yeah, you got it.

So you found yourself in IT sales and then you ran across a couple of lads that started a company named Opkalla. We actually both work for Opkalla. And how did you transition over to Opkalla? What were you guys doing then? How did that story begin?

Yeah. So it was the middle of 2020. You know, the world was changed. At that point, we're still kind of in lockdown mode. And I found myself on the market. And through mutual connections, I met the guys that had started Opkalla. They were working through a little bit different channel that was really interesting to me. They, of course, were in startup mode and I knew that I had the capability and aptitude to really help build a culture, I was really excited about getting in on the ground floor of something. You know, maybe it was a little bit risky, but I kind of dove right in with them. The model was was interesting to me. And I knew there was something there, and they were really hungry. And I got the sense they weren't gonna let this thing fail either.

Yeah, so I jumped on board. And at that time, in 2020, I feel like a lot of our conversations were around cost optimizing, like, some businesses were struggling with revenues, and they were looking to IT to cut costs, to make their business more operationally profitable.

And we kind of grew and adapted from there. I mean, I think that the name of the company, Opkalla, is for operational efficiencies. That has always been the theme. And as we go into our our customers to try to determine how we can help them, we just bring that like, sense of flexibility and nimbleness to react to what they need and just do the hard work that's needed to get them their outcomes. So it's been the same kind of mission but of course, over the years, different needs have popped up to help grow in different directions.

Yeah, the technology sphere, you know, IT technology, operational technology, it is so fast, so quick with its growth. And you have to be nimble and adaptive from the user standpoint, from a customer, one of our customers standpoint. If you're running an organization, you have to stay abreast of new technologies, you have to understand the nuances of the stack that you're working with today. What is, what is the day in the life, actually how about this? What is the difference between a technology advisor and a sales representative? What you might view as a sales representative from an OEM or, or a partner?

How are those differentiated?

Like what's different about a technology advisor and that experience?

Yeah, I think there's a lot of things that are different. And you know, in our world as technology advisors, there's very much a role for the OEM sales rep. We still need them to operate well, and as good advisors. But I think one of the big differentiators for a sales rep for an OEM, they're motivated to find a new customer and sell a product or service and bring them on board, for the most part, and then move on to the next. Whereas as technology advisors, our investment is really in building a relationship so that we can help our customers across their technology stack, be it infrastructure, software, you know, down to professional services, potentially or managed services. Yeah, I think the motivations for the advisor is to build a level of trust and understanding of the customer's environment to really help solution the right technology for their needs, versus an OEM rep generally, is just looking for a sale and move on to the next. Do you agree?

Yeah, I tend to agree. A lot of it has to do with the way the organization is set up. The OEM account executive, their primary role is to be very zealous about the technology their company is developing. And a lot of it's exciting technology. So organizations, sales organizations within the big box retailers, largely try to get their sales organization extremely excited. And hopefully, that comes across on sales calls and presentations that this is the hot stuff. This is going to solve the client's problems. But what that doesn't lend itself to occasionally is, account executives seeing the world through the eyes of an end user. And that's I think one of the major differentiators is, as technology advisors, we try to focus on seeing the world through the end users eyes and understanding the problem from their scope because we are not focused on a particular technology necessarily. Our goal is to understand the marketplace and build custom solutions to solve end users problems from their viewpoint. So that's the major difference, I think there's a role for both. It's good that we have very active I know, I know, some wonderful account executives for some companies that we've all heard of. But sometimes an end user, sometimes director of IT or a CIO or IT manager, they're looking for more of a part. And that's where a technology advisor, I think tries to fill that void. What is, what is the day in the life? I'm sure that we have some people asking what is the day in the life of Becca Black? So tell us.

Yeah, um, a day in my life, it varies, you know, from day to day, like I was joking with my husband the other night that I feel like I have 60 balls in the air right now, like just different, different activities, different needs from from different clients. But, you know, lots of meetings, quarterbacking between my clients, and vendors. So I spend a lot of time gathering requirements from my customers, and then translating that to interviews with vendors to really help my clients like avoid the first couple like painful discovery calls. Like, let me just get to the root of it with these vendors, and really feel it out for myself if they are the right fit, based on what I know about my customers.

So doing a lot of that, and also preparing vendors to have good calls with customers. I think one of the things I focus on in my activities is how do I save my clients time and make every call they have more meaningful?

That's the one thing that anyone leading an IT organization, organization typically has is lots and lots of time, just time floating around everywhere. There's lots of hammocks in the IT world.

And they have no problem working around the clock.

Yeah, they really do.

Our customers work really hard. I see that. And we work really hard too, we try to kind of complement that. I do get to take my clients out to lunch from time to time, which is enjoyable. And then I'm constantly building relationships with not only the network of IT professionals in Charlotte, but also the network of vendors and partners. So that I am well positioned to make the right introductions when the time is is needed and really understand the marketplace on the ground level, as well as kind of big picture.

Yeah, no, I think you're right on. So with finite time, an IT leader can't, if they spend all their time building networks of engineers that know very particular subjects, and they spend all their time understanding the marketplace, they're not going to be able to manage when the network goes down, they're not going to be able to implement new technologies manage a team.

You know, a lot of times they're, you know, that they've less time to build strategic plans. And they're mostly in the weeds solving, you know, fighting fires, by fighting shadow IT that's pervasive today.

Yeah, being a good leader. I feel like they don't have time to sit and lead their team and develop their team. I think thetalent is such a big topic in our space right now with such a shortage. So you have to be the kind of leader who people want to follow and stick with and you can't just do that, like, I mean, people are naturally good leaders, but the best leaders, like spend a lot of time focused on that too. And so yeah, like, Where does someone like us come alongside and kind of fill in the gaps of work that they don't have time for?

Yeah. Yeah, that's true. And but a lot of the times, we run into this as well is, there's an IT leader that's been burned in relationships.

There's an IT leader that has built relationships with, with particular sales representation and there's a lot of churn and they never feel like they have someone that they can rely on because there's always a new face. There's, you know, sometimes these relationships can be tenuous, but both organizations need the same thing in a way. You have companies that are developing technology, and then you have companies that are looking to consume technology and implement it to improve their, you know, their technology stack and their competitiveness, ultimately. So, you know, what are some ways in your mind that, it's nice to have a technology advisor at your hand, but let's say that you don't have one today and you have a bunch of relationships with OEMs? Sometimes I feel that the human side of things is always the best way to view a relationship. You know, everyone, everyone has deadlines everyone has, has tasks that their companies are putting upon them to complete. But the end of the day, we're all human. And, you know, sometimes these relationships can can be kind of tenuous, do you have any advice for an IT leader that might want to improve their relationships with account representatives?

Yeah, I definitely think this is a place to stop, for IT leaders, IT buyers to stop and think. You know, something I always think about, when I'm speaking with them, it's like, the decisions we're advising on can or could kind of like make or break their job, or make or break their company's performance. So there's a lot of pressure to make the right decisions. And you have to trust the person that you're working with to help you do that. Like I get that very much that all the decisions we help with, have a lot of weight to them, because it's someone's livelihood, it's that IT manager's livelihood, it's the director's livelihood, whoever it is. I think building the relationship, of course it's on both sides, like being transparent where you can about your priorities and your timelines can be hugely effective in building that relationship. So you don't have to divulge your entire company's security stack and infrastructure on day one, you know, like, like, take the time to build the trust of that sales rep so that you do feel comfortable sharing that, so that you've come to the right kind of solution together. I think that's huge, I think for an IT leader to take some time and understand the motivations for the the sales rep because, I mean, hopefully it is a partnership and hopefully it's a relationship that you can continue to grow or at a bare minimum if something goes wrong with the product, the solution service like that sales rep is a good person to call to help turn things back around. So like having a good relationship through that process is important. And then it also can lead to more favorable negotiations and it can lead to get getting you more value out of what you're selling because, or out of what you're purchasing, because that sales rep knows exactly how much discount they can apply and they know exactly how fast they can get you to the top of that project queue. You know, they have a lot of power in their organizations or, you know, the chain of command above them, does at least. And if you can respond to emails in a timely fashion and divulge the types of, of information that they need around the timelines, and maybe budget, it just helps build that relationship and make for better outcomes.

Yeah, you're exactly right. There's so many situations where these relationships can go sideways.

And like you said earlier that the decisions that this IT leaders making, may break or not break that person's job. They might not have a job after a decision is made or not made in their favor. And I think that when you're on calls with some account managers from from the OEM side, you can feel the pressure, you can feel the stress they're under. They're very much looking for, when is this going to close? When, when are we going to be able to sign a contract because my jobs on the line and, and that's the nature of their business, they're very driven by quarters, quarterly earnings, they're largely publicly traded companies.

It's on both sides, too, though, you know, the sales rep, is not going to make quota potentially not going to make their money. The IT leader could pick the wrong technology that breaks and doesn't do good for their business and in both scenarios, could be in a bad place.

Yeah, or do it too soon. Right. So yeah, make a decision too soon. I think you will always get this on a call where you'll have the account executive that's looking for, where are they going to put this opportunity on their side in the pipeline? Like, where does this fit? You know, is it going to be this quarter or next year? And I think on both sides of the equation, it's probably best to set an expectation that is beyond where you think it actually will. So if you tell an account executive that you think that you might be able to move forward with this decision, you know, next quarter, go ahead and say two quarters from now. But you know, set the expectation further out and that way, you have more time to do your analysis and do your qualification of technologies as an IT leader. At the same time, the account executive is talking to their leadership, and they've set a blow out timeline, that we can always move quicker on if we want to. Yeah, and in that way, I think both parties benefit from this. Yeah. Do you agree?

Or do you see differently?

I mean, I think as a buyer, you kind of know how decisions are made at your organization, and how quick or not quick, you can make a decision. I think, of course, a lot comes into play. And there's so many caveats before deciding, but I'm not sure I would coach more than a month out like, like buffering more than that. I think, more importantly, it's communication of when those timelines change. Hey, I told the sales rep that this was going to be an end of the year thing but in my budget meeting, I learned that, like, we got to push it off to next year. Like, think about it and, and just send that quick note, like, Hey, this is actually gonna get pushed off.

Yeah, and you don't even need to say why necessarily. No, just the communication of because, like, there's a million emails in our inbox, right. And I think a lot of times when it comes to sales representations, like the need to address and build and foster that relationship gets deprioritized. But a quick note of, Hey, have this meeting.

Sorry, we'll talk later, but it's gonna get pushed out.

That's a lot of times enough.

And they'll say, okay, great, thanks. Thanks for the communication. And then when you do get around to you needing this technology, they will go to bat for you. Yeah, and get those discounts and get you prioritize and get you. You know, they have a cadre of sales engineers and a cadre of implementation teams and they know who the best is.

They know who the better ones are, and sometimes they have relationships where they can bring the best people on, and know that they're going to implement at a pace and a fidelity that is beneficial to the decision maker.

You're exactly right. Lately, for me, it's been also project managers, the right project managers getting assigned. That's huge. And my salesperson knowing, hey, this project manager is super organized, has their stuff together. Because the whole technology evaluation is a major process in and of itself that we're deeply involved with. And almost equally as involved in this delivery of projects, because that's where really, the magic happens or, you know, that's where you really see the organization partnered with,

Whether there's going to be value derived from a technology decision or not, a lot of times comes down to how it was implemented. You might spend a lot of money on the best technology that was poorly implemented and not realize the residuals from that technology, not realize the results.

And I try to coach our IT buyers to ask more questions or I even probe the vendors for more questions about how they delivered. What is day one support look like? What's their customer success look like? Like, am I going to call into a 1-800 number? Or do I have a person I can email?

Where are they located? That's a big one. Yeah.

So thinking about the next step ahead, not just a short term gain of winning a customer or winning a deal?

Yeah. Yeah, just it's the human element. And we're all we're all people, at the end of the day that have needs and have families and have other lives that have things going on where we are trying to make the best impact possible for our organizations, and realizing kind of where everyone's coming from.

Yeah. As my network grows and expands, I'm just amazed by how many different parties are involved internal and external, to make an organization thrive. And it's just incredible how like, you know, an organization has a heartbeat in the way it operates, and then finding the synergies with organizations to bring around them to make it all work. It's just a cool thing to see and experience and be part of.

Yeah. And you have a lot of success stories that can back that theory up, as well.

Yeah, I've been blessed to be part of a lot of awesome technology transformations.

Yeah, right, transformational technology, digital transformation. Yeah. So in closing, Becca, what kind of advice if you had a message to disseminate to every IT leader out there today, this could be, this could be about the topic we spoke about today, it could be about something else that you just think needs, it's an underrepresented message. If there's a billboard or maybe probably more appropriately, as it pops up on everyone's LinkedIn profile. What message would you tell the IT leader today, to allow them to bring the most impact to their organization, in 2024.

Build good relationships. I think that's the simple way to put it.

There's a lot of things that go into that, like good communication, trustworthiness, transparency, but relationships are at the core of it, I would say. And discover organizations around you in your network and your sphere, that are going to market in a way that complements the way your business does and grow together. Like build together, and you'll be successful.

I think that's a great way to close the podcast.

Thank you so much for being a guest.

Yeah! Thanks for having me. This is fun.

Awesome. Cheers, cheers. Where can people find you Becca if they want to learn more?

Like on my social media, on LinkedIn. You can always feel free to email me [e-mail]. Call me.

I'd be happy to talk more about technology anytime.

Awesome. Well, we're sure we could all use more Becca Black in our lives. Thank you for joining in today to the IT Matters Podcast. We'll see you next time.

Thanks for listening.

The IT Matters podcast is produced by Opkalla, an IT advisory firm that helps businesses navigate the vast and complex IT marketplace. Learn more about Opkalla at opkalla.com.