A fundamental objective of most software vendors is to find partners/resellers that will help them scale their business. Resellers can be particularly beneficial, in many case the only way, for expansion and international growth.
Nevertheless, establishing successful channels is particularly challenging for software vendors:
- Enablement/Attractiveness: providing resellers with the necessary support (training, material, marketing) for success. Most markets are very competitive, so you have to be attractive to your potential reseller.
- Benchmarks: measuring the performance and ultimately assessing the real added value of each reseller.
- Audit/Transparency: making sure that resellers comply with the rules and not jeopardize the product itself. You want to know what and how exactly your resellers are doing with your product.
- Process Automation: minimizing administration effort for every closed deal.
Similarly, resellers have their own challenges:
- Diverging business models: despite globalization and digitalization, every market has its own unique characteristics. Therefore, a reseller operating overseas might need adjustments in order to be successful in his local market, e.g., a different pricing or a subscription instead of a lifetime model.
- Branding: customizing the design of all user interfaces (including end-user self-service portals).
- Autonomous License Generation: creating end-user, internal or trial licenses without the interference of the software vendor.
- Software Delivery: providing easy and fast access to the software product, its service packs and updates.
- Workflow: integrating the sale process into existing back-office systems.
At the end of the day a successful partnership requires from both parties to minimize/eliminate the administration effort of every closed deal. Especially for low priced products, or with low margins for the reseller, this is absolutely crucial.
A professional licensing and analytics solution with integrated reseller support can help both parties be successful.
