Q&A: Data Select MD George McPherson

How has the event gone?
It’s gone well. There was a lot to take in. We have corporate, B2B and retail accounts within the club and the day has been structured for each. We always want to keep it fresh and relevant so the time dealers spend with us is valuable.

How important is the club to the success of Data Select?
It was very important to do it; we saw the need. It was unique when we set it up, and we had a hardcore number of accounts that we went after in the first place.

We don’t want 200 dealers in the club; that’s not what it’s all about. We knew the size of certain accounts that would appreciate what this club could do for them. We started small and grew it.

How has the club grown?
We started with 15 accounts. We have 70 today, so it has grown very well and we still have a few spaces we would like to fill.

But it’s not just what we did two years ago, it’s what we are going to do with it in the future. We said to our dealer partners then that this isn’t going to be a one-off. The momentum has been strong, and the bottom line is people would stop coming if it was no longer relevant.

Where does Data Select stand in the UK distribution market?
We are number one – based upon UK business. We are very UK-centric. And that tells in the fact your magazine voted us number one, two years running. That means a lot.

The UK market is very segmented – there are distributors that are airtime-centric, distributors that are device-centric; we are absolutely device-centric and application-centric.

We don’t clash with any of the dealers we work with. We don’t offer competitive airtime deals or anything like that. We are out to help their businesses.

And being number one is great so long as we make money. We have done a number of things to strengthen our offers in the market.

We won distribution for Vodafone-branded devices for the indirect dealer channel four months ago, and so we have started to work with 100 or more dealers that Vodafone has worked with directly. 

A large percentage were already dealing with us, but we also gained new accounts.
 
You are putting special focus on fewer accounts with the Platinum Club. Can you talk about strategy in this respect?
You can’t spread yourself too thinly. You have to concentrate on the accounts that can really use the kind of information made available to them via the Platinum Club – those that have actually got the depth to use it properly.

We couldn’t possibly do what we have done today with 200 accounts – it simply wouldn’t be possible.

Full article in Mobile News issue 450 (October 19, 2009).

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