More VARs Should Sell Mobility, Virtualization

Every May, as everyone in business knows, the Global Technology Distribution Council gathers to talk shop. And CEOs of major distributors talk about selling emerging technology, and which have the hottest demand right now.

Go ahead and check out perspectives of some of the following leaders:

• Tim Dolan, Chairman, Westcon Group: Video
• Bob Dutkowsky, CEO, Tech Data: Mobility
• Roy Vallee, CEO, Avnet: Unified computing or converged infrastructure
• Kevin Murai, CEO, Synnex: Virtualization and server consolidation
• Kia Hong Lim, CEO, SiS Technology Group: Mobility and Data Storage
• Fabian von Kuenheim, President & CEO, Magirus: Storage Virtualization and Storage de-duplication
• Meinie Oldersma, CEO, 20:20 Mobile: Mobility

And what do you notice?  The overarching theme – sell emerging technology. And why?

That’s where a VAR can add the most value and thus, earn the highest profit. As everyone should already know, enterprises don’t need VARs for commodity products.  They can, and do, buy those products from DMRs, eCommerce or retail. However, they need VARs when technologies are complex.  And when those technologies must integrate into existing infrastructure.

Vendors – Make Your Emerging Technology Easier for VARs to Sell!

Now, the trick for vendors,  They need to make it easier for their VARs to sell emerging technology.

Yeah, we know. This is easier said than done.

Unfortunately, though, most vendors treat emerging technology the same as a commodity technology.  And they definitely should not!

These vendors then tend to forget that VARs need to learn how to sell the new technology. You have to, thus, teach them. Honestly, not the speeds and feeds. But instead the VAR needs to know how to:

• Recognize and qualify an opportunities
• Present technology benefits to the end user
• Understand why the end user should buy
• Overcome objections
• Win against competition
• Identify purchase timeframe, budget and decision cycle
• Upsell to higher value solutions
• Cross sell to add higher profit to the sale
• The technology applies to various vertical markets such as education, healthcare/HIPAA, public section, etc.

Build the Right Go-To-Market Tool Set for Partners

In sum, VARs need all the same go-to-market tools as your direct sales force. So look to leverage these materials for quick time to market. And here are more quick suggestions:

• Selling skills training (prospect identification, overcoming objections, competition, etc.)
• Technical skills training (pre-sales, installation, troubleshooting and post sales
• Demand generation tools (lead generation and nurturing, co-brand collateral, MDF, etc.)
• Product oriented tools (ROI calculator, product configuration tools, demo program, trade-in program, etc.)

Selling emerging technology is a winning strategy for both VAR and Vendor. But it takes work on both sides to make it successful.  So, on with it.  Get down to work and it’s win-win for both VAR and vendor.