A big message for partners at this week’s Ingram Micro Trust X Alliance Invitational in Phoenix was solving customers’ problems rather than selling technology.

During his keynote, Sanjib Sahoo, Ingram Micro‘s executive vice president and chief digital officer, addressed solving customers’ problems and effective digital transformation.

This is the first in-person Trust X Alliance event since before the pandemic. Trust X includes more than 350 solution providers, Ingram Micro and technology vendors.

Ingram Micro is adding Trust X Alliance sales leaders globally, including a new North America communities leader, to guide further growth in the months ahead. The distributor appointed Darren Gottesmann to executive director of sales for the United States. He’s been with Ingram Micro for more than 19 years and most recently was executive director of SMB sales.

This summer, Ingram Micro is piloting its new Xvantage platform for channel partners, and Ingram Micro employees and suppliers, in the United States and Germany. Ingram Micro will then roll out Xvantage globally during the remainder of 2022 and throughout 2023.

Solving Problems Brings New Solutions

The spirit of continuously understanding customers’ problems and challenges is the key to partners’ growth and success moving forward, Sahoo said.

Ingram Micro’s Sanjib Sahoo

“It makes our partners bring new solutions to our customers,” he said. “And it creates stickiness to the customers because technology will change and come, but your spirit of solving problems, learning new things and bringing that together for the customers — that idea and knowledge set is the value. It creates that true trust between the partner and the customer that, ‘OK, we have a trusted partner to solve our problems for our value creation of the company.’ That’s when you create that stickiness. That’s when you create that true partnership, and then technology follows.”

That changes from a one-time transaction to fulfill technology to an “actually sticky scenario” where you continuously create value, Sahoo said.

Scroll through our slideshow above for more from Ingram Micro Trust X Alliance Invitational.