The Trusted Business Advisor (TBA) webcast on Social Media and Resellers was well attended and participants asked a lot of very good questions. All confirming that social media is having a big impact on the IT value chain – and resellers want to understand how to use these new tools to their advantage. Since most vendors are not helping resellers move into the future, the channel has to figure it out themselves, with a little help from their friends at Mar.com and Gilwell Group.
Much of the information presented during the webinar came from the TBA research program, which is measuring reseller adoption of next generations tools and products like social media and SaaS. These on-line surveys have been continuously emailed to resellers since February. Approximately 250 surveys have been completed to date. Most of the results are freely available at This Link
The most interesting discovery is that resellers who report year-on-year revenue increases are using social media significantly more than partners who report that their revenue is flat or declining. Most likely, there is a stronger correlation between reseller success and early adopter behavior than between growth and social media use. Still, current social media usage is obviously one indicator of reseller revenue growth potential.
The presenters discussed the shrinking channel and gave some reasons for it: the economic downturn, consolidation, morphing of traditional resellers into consulting organizations, and fewer entrepreneurs in IT as the industry matures. Even though this issue elicited several questions, we are still looking for the data that backs up these assertions. While everyone is talking about fewer resellers this year, we don’t yet have the numbers to tell us how many, what kinds, or why.
Social Media is changing the traditional solution-oriented sales process. Customers increasingly expect that competent salespeople will do much of their discovery on-line and arrive at their first meeting with an understanding of their company, product needs, and purchasing process. Conversely, salespeople can expect that qualified buyers will research them on-line and draw conclusions about their competency from their profiles in spaces like LinkedIn, Facebook, and BlogSpot. Cold calls are no longer effective in selling IT products and services.
The ROI of social media usage is a another hot topic. In many ways, it is as difficult to calculate an ROI on social media as it is with any other marketing investment. Organizations and people use social media because it makes communication easier, not because there is a clear ROI. Since communication is a big part of doing business, there are clear (if unquantifiable) benefits to using new tools. However, organizations that have good data on activities associated with communications will be able to calculate the ROI. Examples include measuring the cost for a sales contact, a proposal, a support call, technical problem resolution, etc. There is good information about social media ROI from Forrester. Some of it available at www.lithum.com. (Lithium a leader in enterprise on-line communities.)
The realization that vendors were strengthening relationships directly with end users through social media – and bypassing the channel completely -- was no surprise. Vendors have always marketing directly to end users. However, what is alarming to the channel is that social media provides a two-way dialogue and smart vendors are gathering customer information which might be useful for future on-line sales initiatives. If customers, after engaging in an on-line community, decide that they want to purchase a product they have been discussing, it’s easier to just click over to an electronic storefront. In these cases, reseller disintermediation could become an issue again.
Several resellers asked during the webinar about getting started with social media. For this, I recommend the following two blogs. Both provide some information on steps that you can take today.
Social Media 101 for Channel Managers at . This Link
The End of Email at This Link
In addition, there are literally thousands of web sites, blogs, and tutorials on how to increase business performance and improve your personal life with social media tools. Just spend some time with Google and you will have more reference sites than you can handle.
If you want to hear the webinar, follow this link. https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/752358161
Mike Dubrall is Managing Director of Gilwell Group, a consulting company that specializes in “Channels of the Future” research.
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