Article

The Easy Button: Why cloud services should encompass both service and convenience

by Steve Terp
President, Concerto Cloud Services,

Clouds and skyI have had the pleasure of recruiting and hiring hundreds of new team members in my career and it remains one of my favorite parts of growing a company. To me, the challenge and excitement of finding quality players who meet the cultural and quality demands that the business deserves is the lifeblood of leadership.

The one question I always ask in interviews in order to gauge a candidate's passion for taking care of customers and teammates is "tell me about an organization or company that you believe epitomizes a great customer experience."

People have a tendency to light up when you ask them something like this and it rarely takes long for them to respond. While the answer can vary, over 20 years of asking this question by far the most frequent answer I have gotten is Publix Supermarkets.

For those of you who do not live in the southeast, Publix is very large regional grocery chain headquartered here in central Florida where I grew up and still live. Publix is known for clean stores, great service, taking care of their people, catering to customers and great sub sandwiches. Growing up in the 70's every parent wanted their kid to learn customer-facing skills through working at Publix while in high school, and some of those kids now run multi-billion dollar businesses. In fact, I am not sure my mom will ever forgive me for taking a job selling newspaper subscriptions door-to-door rather than bagging groceries back then.

Something changed in people's answers about 3 years ago.

I rarely hear Publix anymore and not because it is not a ...

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About Steve Terp

Steve Terp is a veteran business management and technology sales executive with 25 years of experience in building innovative technology services, business development teams and partnership programs. Steve manages the overall direction and growth of Concerto.

An expert in technology systems, sales and cloud enablement services, Steve was instrumental in the formation of Concerto Cloud Services and developed the Concerto Partner Network aimed at helping organizations quickly transition to a profitable cloud model.

Prior to Concerto, Steve served as chief sales officer for Tribridge, where he built a business development team that helped achieve a compounded annual growth rate of over 40 percent each year, industry-leading customer satisfaction scores and numerous sales and marketing awards.

Steve has invested his entire career in technology sales and strategic consulting, having first sold "cloud-based" services in the late 1980s. Prior to joining Tribridge, he was director of sales and marketing for ExecuTrain, a full-service technical education provider. Earlier in his career, Steve rose from account executive to area vice president at NDP/Dataflex, where he helped drive annual sales from less than $20 million to over $120 million.

Steve serves on Microsoft's Convergence Partner Advisory Council and has been a member of the Microsoft Dynamics 100% Sales Club. He has also served as a volunteer and board member with Big Brothers Big Sisters, Sales and Marketing Executives, Tampa Bay Professional Alliance, International Association of Microsoft Partners and The Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He holds a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences degree in Marketing from the University of Florida.

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