Key Characteristics Of Growth-Oriented VARs

As I mentioned in a previous column, CMP Channel has recently completed some research surrounding solution providers' desire to grow their businesses.

In some cases, "lifestyle VARs"—which we define as those merely looking to keep pace with the market in terms of growth—have made a conscious decision not to expand. In other cases, it's merely a transition period while management re-establishes a growth strategy. Our research confirms that there are some very distinct differences in key business activities between lifestyle VARs and growth-oriented solution providers.

ROBERT FALETRA Can be reached at (781) 839-1202 or via e-mail at rfaletra@cmp.com.

While we have recently identified a trend showing that VARs in general are adding new vendors at a more rapid clip than they have in the past few years, it's even more pronounced in the growth category. VARs that are focused on rapid growth are 118 percent more likely to add vendors than those in the lifestyle category. There are other interesting stats surrounding this as well.

Growth-oriented VARs are also 150 percent more likely to invest in sales training. Their desire to add salespeople has an order of magnitude that is 103 percent more than lifestyle-oriented VARs.Growth-oriented solution providers are also 67 percent more likely to market their businesses and 219 percent more likely to be on the lookout for management talent.

This recent CMP Channel data, only a fraction of which I've written about here, can be used in a number of different ways by solution providers and vendors alike.

For VARs, you can use it to determine if you are keeping pace with the activities of other like-minded VARs. For instance, if you are focused on growth and haven't built a solid marketing plan, you might want to do so.

Vendors should use the data to construct a profile of the partner base and then determine the mix of lifestyle-, growth- and hyper-growth-oriented solution providers. No vendor should realistically expect all of its partners to be in hyper-growth mode. In the same respect, if too much of the base is lifestyle-oriented, it's a problem as well.

How would you classify your grwoth mode?
Make something happen. E-mail CMP Channel President Robert Faletra at rfaletra@cmp.com.