Don't Make These Mistakes Other VARs Make With SMB Customers
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
SMBs have different purchasing habits than other market segments. According to a Cisco whitepaper for example, SMBs buy more bundled services than any other segment for reasons that include reliability, quality, integration, ease of doing business, and price. Knowing the ins and outs can be a challenge for VARs, MSPs, integrators, and software developers, but there is also a chance to differentiate yourself among your competitors by expertly addressing SMBs’ needs.
Business Solutions Magazine solicited advice regarding the most common mistakes made by IT solutions providers when selling to SMBs and channel executives responded with the following list of mistakes your competitors are making.
Ivan Lutwin, sales manager for Barcoding, Inc., replied, “A common mistake is that VARs don’t take the time to fully understand their prospect’s business application, their pain points, and what they are trying to accomplish. It is vital to ask questions and really listen to your customers. There is a driving force behind every project. It is up to us to figure out what it is and how to best solve the client’s problem.”
But it goes beyond listening, as Darren Niller, Webroot senior director of worldwide alliance and channel marketing pointed out. “Many SMBs fail to address the fact that the network perimeter now resides well beyond the endpoint, and data is shared frequently through numerous access methods, increasing the attack surface. The common mistake VARs, MSPs, and integrators make when selling to SMBs is to approach this new dynamic with traditional security solutions. To enable SMBs the flexibility required to protect an evolving network perimeter and data access through a variety of devices, solution providers must turn to the cloud for security, which provides scalability to meet the demands of SMBs for simplified deployment and lower costs while providing the best security posture in today’s climate.”
And Rick McFarland, CEO of Voice4Net, asserted, “Resellers and integrators too often are focused on numbers, on selling boxes and making their quotas, as opposed to creating solutions that actually fulfill customers’ needs. This is a bad long-term strategy — especially for selling into vertical markets. Resellers, developers, and integrators needs to approach solution sales from the customer’s point of view, by getting to know their market needs and their sales processes. The solutions need to fit the end-user’s requirements, as opposed to walking into a customer site and pushing a ready-made solution that doesn’t address the business owner’s unique challenges.”
This means that MSPs and solution providers should position themselves as an expert or thought leader in the vertical markets they serve, Neal Bradbury, co-founder and VP of Channel Development of Intronis, Inc., said. “When they can demonstrate that they are knowledgeable about the unique challenges faced by customers in financial services, healthcare, law, retail, or other industries, then they will be perceived as a “go-to’ expert, and customers in that vertical will then be more likely to engage with them for the services offered.”
Randy Clark, senior vice president of marketing for Vantiv, asserted the biggest problem VARs face is “forgetting that the consumer-merchant relationship is at the center of everything we do. It’s not about software, technology, or developer tools. It’s about helping merchants grow their business by better servicing and engaging their customers at the point-of-sale whether that is at a traditional POS or in-store remote mobile payment. We’re in the business of enabling better relationships and experiences.”