Influencing Products And Services In 2004
Those findings aren't surprising. Small VARs have fewer resources and less authority, and are least likely to take part in those types of tag-team deals.
Randy Collins, president of The Strategies Group, a Norcross, Ga.-based solution provider, says the larger the VAR, the more it will be motivated to influence in order to survive.
"Midsize VARs generally have more overhead than small VARs and must be able to support this overhead," Collins says. "The more realistic sales perspective is that larger VARs may better understand the implementation and training cycle required to fully implement a product sale."
In line with the development of rewards programs to benefit solution providers that generate demand channels, participation in agent programs is also on the rise across all company sizes. Large firms (47 percent) are more likely than small firms (36 percent) to rate agent program revenue important in the next 12 months. Likewise, large firms are more likely than small firms to expect to participate in professional- services agent programs within the coming year (46 percent vs. 33 percent).