How To Find Resellers for a Hosted IT Solution?
Discussion
Hi
My company is an IT consultancy and we have a number of hosted products that we have developed in-house. They are hosted solutions so typically there is an ongoing monthly fee to be paid by the client and minimal, if any capital, costs. Our business model is best exploited if we use a reseller network as the sales resources we have internally are limited. This reseller network would work in the normal way with us supplying the service and the reseller selling it and taking an ongoing margin dependent upon the quantity of sales they were generating. It works for both sides since we get our product sold and can concentrate on product development and support whilst the reseller gets a margin without having to do anything beyond the sales process.
We have a few resellers who are doing quite well, but they're all direct contacts of mine and I'd like to expand the network considerably. Does anyone have any ideas how to go about doing this - i.e. how do I reach potential resellers? I wondered about advertising in IT magazines but other than that I'm really not sure. Any help much appreciated!
Cheers,
roadie.
My company is an IT consultancy and we have a number of hosted products that we have developed in-house. They are hosted solutions so typically there is an ongoing monthly fee to be paid by the client and minimal, if any capital, costs. Our business model is best exploited if we use a reseller network as the sales resources we have internally are limited. This reseller network would work in the normal way with us supplying the service and the reseller selling it and taking an ongoing margin dependent upon the quantity of sales they were generating. It works for both sides since we get our product sold and can concentrate on product development and support whilst the reseller gets a margin without having to do anything beyond the sales process.
We have a few resellers who are doing quite well, but they're all direct contacts of mine and I'd like to expand the network considerably. Does anyone have any ideas how to go about doing this - i.e. how do I reach potential resellers? I wondered about advertising in IT magazines but other than that I'm really not sure. Any help much appreciated!
Cheers,
roadie.
The ultimate dream.. Sales men who work for free and bring in lots of business
I'll take 20 please.
On a serious note, we find the best sales tools are our existing clients.. once they settle in and realise how great things are, they literally send us their friends / colleagues / suppliers / up&down streams etc.. hell, we've even had competitors come along wanting 'what they have!'
If you're looking to recruit cold, commission only sales men, you'll need to have some incentive to make them spend their time and resources investing in your product.. something which makes you stand out from the other thousand companies out there who also want free sales.
This can be upfront gifts, or very favourable margins / sales bonuses...
As to where to find that, all I can say is find a friendly local salesman, chat him up, and see what circles he runs in, then 'reward' him for introducing you to them.
Also, I assume you've already investigated relationships with your suppliers.. it's obviously in the best interests of anyone you deal with for you to sell more, so that incentivises them to help you sell more...
There is no 'quick' answer to this question, if there was, we'd all already have them all sewn up alas.
GL with it!
J
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