Jun 16, 2015

Launching Your Technology Offering to Value Added Resellers

Our work in the technology space reinforces the lesson that your go-to-market plan can have a direct impact on the length of your sales cycle. And with technology sales cycles of 6 to 12 months or more, your approach needs to be integrated across numerous touchpoints to attain the channel sales revenue goal.

PREPARE TO LAUNCH SHORTER SALES CYCLES

Value Added ResellersTo ensure your technology offering has the shortest sales cycle possible, strategically introducing your solution to value-added resellers is key.

Ask yourself these questions first:

  1. What are the strengths and weaknesses of my product?
  2. Is our technology open- or closed-source?
  3. What is the market opportunity for our solution?
  4. Is this solution focused in the SMB, MSE or Enterprise space?
  5. To what extent would my channel distributors and value-added resellers need training on the solution?

Next, keep this technology market intelligence in mind as you formulate your channel launch strategy around these three tenets.

  1. CHANNEL MARKETING IS NOT ONE SIZE FITS ALL

    A channel marketing launch program can be as simple or complex as the solution itself. Your go-to-market strategy will be defined by the answers to these questions. If you build one strategic solution for every technology offering, prepare your organization for a lengthier (and not so pleasing) sales cycle.

  1. DON’T EXPECT TECHNOLOGY TO SELL ITSELF

    Key differentiators are crucial, whether it be support, implementation services you provide, sales incentives, rebates and/or quality. How you set yourself apart and communicate this within your technology marketing launch plans influences the success of your technology offering and length of the sales cycle. Let’s face it, a down market requires stronger marketing positioning and messaging.

  1. SALES-MARKETING ALIGNMENT WINS

    Your sales team and channel distributors are critical sources to ensure your sales cycle is as short as possible. Help them to understand the solution, market opportunity, sales incentives and determine a realistic, yet efficient sales cycle. This will successfully enable your team to communicate the value of your product to their end-users/customers.

Dutifully consider these three things as you plan your go-to-market strategy for introducing products to your VAR channel. Then, reap the rewards of smooth partner on-boarding, sales acceleration and increased revenues for the channel.

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