Are You Ready To Grow This Year?

Best For Your Customers, Best For You
Active vendor support is a critical part of a solution provider's success, but early partner support can dwindle if it isn't properly nurtured. That's why Arlin Sorensen, founder and CEO of Harlan, Iowa-based Heartland Technologies, said he spends half his time deepening the relationship between his company and his vendors.

One aspect of his strategy is a yearly business-planning meeting with Heartland's four major vendors and distributors to plan out 2008. "We used to [meet] one at a time and end up with multiple plans," Sorensen said. "Now we lock all the vendors in the room together and pound out a plan."

Next, while you need vendor support, none of your hard work matters if you don't take the time to fully understand your customers' business. Actively cultivating that knowledge invigorates long-standing partnerships built on trust.

Customers may be hesitant to share everything about their company at once, admitted Rick Chernick, CEO of Camera Corner Connecting Point, Green Bay, Wis. Trust takes time, so the earlier you start asking the probing questions, the better. "Our goal is not to just sell them something but to help them reach a particular end," Chernick explained.

Solution providers know it's not just about selling your customer the least expensive product on the market--or the most expensive, for that matter. Where a VAR provides true value to the client is where the clients' specific challenges are solved using a fluid, customer-sized combination of technology and innovation.

"It can't be a cheap solution you have to continually replace--as IT solution providers we have to justify our own existence," said Darren Patoni, president of Technology Workshop, Tempe, Ariz. "You want to make their limited resources count."

Upsell ability is also crucial. Everyone's heard the adage about being savvy enough to sell ice to Eskimos. But there's truth in that cliché, and in an environment where margins are melting away, your company's ability to upsell and cross-sell to the existing client base as well as new customers will keep your sales force sharp and your revenue insulated. Beware, though: Upselling without a value-add can damage the relationship with a customer--that is, if you're pitching that extra ice, make sure it improves the igloo.

Sales incentives are a good way to foster a healthy spirit of upselling, said Mike Novotny, president of InterTech, Phoenix. Using your company's strength in services is also a great way to position an upsell, and a valuable upsell can pay big dividends. "I find our customers are more willing to trust our judgment on a longer term basis," Novotny added.

In a business that thrives on constant technological innovation, it's more important than ever that VARs are aware of new products and services that can better facilitate their customers' end goals. The hottest of those innovation trends is in virtualization, one of whose big advantages is that it applies to all sizes of companies, said John Gunn, president of ISG Technology in Salina, Kan. "It's one of the few things I can take to customers big and small and give them an ROI that's easy to show," he said. "[But] when you get in front of customers, you better be able to talk the talk. We've experienced explosive growth and don't even feel like we've scratched the surface."