If you resell technology, stop wasting joint marketing funds provided by your partners. Over a billion dollars in unspent funds are reported each year, meaning there is money available, however, dysfunctional marketing campaigns are destroying the channel’s ability to access this money. Use this money with a well planned marketing strategy and show a return – earn the right to more than your share. Companies like HP, Cisco, Oracle, Sonicwall, etc. all have funds to support these types of activities. The goal should be to choose your partners based partly on technology and partly on their willingness and ability to support you as a reseller. From there, it’s up to you to demonstrate your ability to bring incremental business to the table. But be careful…
Marketing is different now! You can’t run an event and advertise “storge UC/Voip, Data Center, or Network Security” and expect decision makers to show up, and you can’t have your local vendor or internal SE be your featured lunch-and-learn speaker. However, events are a great way to attract higher level audiences if you present the right things in the right way. Educational based marketing is powerful, and between social media and properly planned events, resellers can demonstrate tremendous value. This video provides a few minutes of insight on this important subject!
© David Stelzl 2010
High Tech Business Growth 
Dave,
Great information. Delivering value at every stage is key. So much marketing energy is directed into managing sales reps through ratcheting up the volume of phone calls made, number of face to face meetings, marketing events attended, mailers mailed and number of attendee’s at a luncheon or dinner that the industry leaders must become incredibly selective at where, how and who they spend their time with. Those delivering value at the very beginning of the business relationship stand out and begin to earn a spot in the ear of the audience. Thank you for putting all this great material out here to help us do a better job serving corporate America’s information/data security needs.
Jay
Glad it’s helpful Jay – I have a white paper coming out later today on using the assessment process to drive new business. It will be available on this site: http://www.davidstelzl.com
I’m sure you will find it helpful as well!
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