VARs: New Strategies Could Spur SMB Sales

During a conference keynote discussion at the CMP XChange Conference in Orlando, Fla., which is sponsored by CRN parent company CMP Media, solution providers and an executive from distributor Ingram Micro said renewed focus on SMB sales will mean new strategies for the channel.

Pat Collins, group vice president of sales and marketing at Santa Ana, Calif.-based Ingram Micro, pointed to studies showing that SMBs will account for 45 percent of all corporate IT spending in the United States, and that the average revenue for businesses with between 500 and 1,000 employees is $105 million annually.

"These numbers add up to one thing," Collins said. "They add up to opportunity. It's easy to see why SMB opportunity is on the top of every vendor's list."

Angie Wong, owner of Network Designs Integration Services, Fremont, Calif., told attendees that she managed to unlock more business value by narrowing her company's focus to a couple of niches.

"People say specialization," Wong said. "We specialized in 20 things. Specialize means something you're the best at. Can I be the best at 20 things at the same time? Honestly, no. We decided to pick a couple of specializations and provide some offerings."

Several vendors at the XChange conference acknowledged that they would vigorously pursue the SMB space with the channel as commercial IT spending returns to brisker levels after a three-year slump. Lexmark executives, for example, told CRN earlier in an interview they would enhance their channel program by year's end to add additional focus to the segment (see story).

Wong oversaw the development of an IP-based video surveillance specialty unit at her company, and eventually spun it off into its own, new company, Ojo Technologies.

"We give it separate resources: marketing resources, engineering resources, sales resources," Wong said. "It allows us to have a clear identity and mission."

Apart from finding niche areas, Laurie Benson, president of Inacom Information Services, Madison, Wis., said her company has begun to engage in new partnerships to win additional business in SMB accounts, including a partnership with a company once considered to be a channel competitor--IBM Global Services (see story).

"As soon as [our IGS representative] heard about our core competencies, she said, 'Is it OK if wee give you a couple of leads?' " Benson said. "She would not have been able to fulfill [with a smaller account] because they would not have been cost-effective."