Hi folks,
I promised to come up with a few experiences of ours which are
related to the reseller questions which Andrei posted late last
week. Now the idea is, you read this and, if you agree/disagree or
have something to add based on your own experiences or
problems, POST SOMETHING HERE TOO!
That way we can get a helpful and potentially wide-ranging
discussion going.
For a long time, we haven't bothered looking for resellers at all.
Being "on the Internet" means being potentially available to the
whole world and, so long as your target market is to be found
online, you're basically ok (language issues aside).
Thus, while we were selling principally software for developers, and
were able to build up a good Internet "market presence" for our
products, there wasn't much of a need to consider resellers.
The occasional inquiry from those wanting to resell was treated on
its merits, but most of those at the active end of the software
distribution market wanted too much value for too little
performance. In effect, we would be just another listing in their
online catalogue, which (in our experience) does not, in and of
itself, garner many more sales.
However, in recent times both the nature of our products and our
perception of marketing possibilities has shifted. For example, with
our TurboPress web product, we needed resellers able to learn,
understand and apply the product and to pursue long-term sales
prospects with a coherent marketing campaign and frequent
followup. That's quite different from download/try/buy or catalogue
sales.
So we oriented our Web site and promotional work to attracting
resellers, and also made our sales and show trips dual-focused, to
find both potential clients and resellers with whom to link them.
This involved cold calling, though often after careful softening-up by
email, or show-based introductions, seminars, the works. Every
channel we had available, such as online mailing lists we were part
of, and other networks, were massaged to find the right people.
In spite of all the funds and energy expended, I'd have to say our
experience has been mixed. A couple of very enthusiatic resellers
have made all the running, and most of the rest might as well not
exist. It's very hard yards to find people able to market products at
this price ($NZ20K and up) and level of specialisation required.
Contrast this with TurboNote+, our sticky note/instant messaging
software. Although it sells very well indeed with the
download/try/buy model, we see strong potential for greatly
increasing sales by having resellers market it to corporate
customers in their local regions.
More, because it is naturally widespread (it had a freeware
predecessor for example, so there are hundreds of thousands of
users), TurboNote+ tends to attract reseller inquiries at a fairly
steady clip, especially lately.
Thus, in the past month, we've had inquiries from:
* A smallish US software distributor wanting a rebranded OEM
copy they can sell through their existing channels for a fixed
percentage of turnover
[Our decision path there revolves around the slight possibility of
"competing with ourselves" and the larger issue of cost-benefit --
the cost of supporting them with their special version and the
weakening of brand power vs. the relatively hassle-free revenue thet
should result]
* Someone wanting to help us make, market and support a
German language version
[In this area, we look very hard at enthusiasm and marketing
capabilities (not technical or translation-wise). The current inquirer
is enthusiastic, but probably too weak to be a successful partner]
* An established Singapore software reseller who want to target
corporates with a strong marketing push
[They soon convinced us of their sincerity and abilities, so we've
gone a long way towards getting them set up for a big push -- if the
model works for them, we will reapply it with resellers we find in
other markets]
Some conclusions we've reached from all the above:
* FINDING interested and competent resellers is a whole lot easier
if you can make your product (or a version of it) widespread. The
nature of some products make this a whole lot easier to do than
others, but always look for a "free" or "low cost" angle to get it out
there and widely used. And talked about.
* QUALIFYING resellers is the hardest part -- you can go a long
way down the track with someone, with much invested effort, only
to realise they aren't going to do a lot with your product. On the
other hand, if you are too quick to brush away supposedly-spurious
or off-the-wall approaches, you may have missed a gem.
* ONE ACTIVE RESELLER is worth 19 dormant ones (Pareto
strikes again). And you shouldn't prejudge whether that active one
will be big or small, experienced or less so -- the main thing is that
they see a good reason for THEM to run with your product, and do
so.
The gaps we feel we have at present are in both finding and
qualifying the right kind of resellers for our products, and I hope to
see some other ideas aired here about these issues.
In the meanwhile, I trust some of the observations above help some
of you think about alternate channels, strategies or priorities in
your own reseller hunt!
cheers,
peter
============================================
Peter Hyde, SPIS Ltd & WebCentre Ltd , Christchurch, New Zealand
* http://BusinessDailyReview.com - daily analysis, strategy, ideas
* http://TurboNote.com - sticky notes and instant messaging
* Web automation for online periodicals: http://TurboPress.com
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