Becoming A True SMB Solution Provider

The term SMB comes up in about three-quarters of the conversations I have with VARs, vendors, and distributors these days. While there’s a large opportunity for VARs in this business subset, not every product or service offering is ideal for customers of this size. Classifying the application needs of businesses based strictly on their total number of employees or sales revenue just doesn’t make sense, but that’s usually how vendors classify their products.

Price alone does not separate enterprise needs from the midmarket. Customers will purchase your solutions  if you can solve their current or future IT needs — period. A great way to stifle your relationship with your clients is to provide them with an inexpensive solution because it fits their budget, without a proper assessment of their IT needs. You’ll be blamed when it doesn’t solve their business problems, and you’ll see your competitors brought into the account. SMB customers want more functionality and capability from IT solutions and can get it affordably with the latest technological advances, so uncovering the value they are looking for when building the ideal solution is crucial. A multitude of vendors and distributors are flooding the market with alleged SMB products, but how do you select the right choices for your customers beyond price?

First, you must evaluate the scalability of hardware, software, and solutions being marketed as SMB, especially with the lowest price offerings. Be wary when hardware manufacturers promise performance when additional capacity is added to their base units. I’ve heard numerous stories of VARs and their customers having to replace inexpensive hardware that wouldn’t give them performance when scaled. That’s an expensive and time-consuming lesson to learn.

Next, align yourself with a distributor or organization that can provide specialized SMB technical and sales support. The vendors may also be helpful when assessing midmarket opportunities, but realize each will typically offer only their product as a solution. The CompTIA, ASCII, and Gartner associations release studies and host midmarket specific events for channel partners and continually make new content available on their Web sites for members.

I attended a recent D&H Distributing road show and was introduced to many products, services, and even financing options targeted to VARs reaching an SMB audience. SYNNEX developed its TSD (total solutions division) unit to help resellers customize smaller business applications and maintain higher margins (see my On The Road article on page 20). Each of these distributors has developed SMB marketing programs for VARs, and I recommend assessing the resources available from your particular distributor.

SMBs May Require Support Beyond Your Abilities

Channel partners need to be the “trusted advisors” we hear so much about. This may involve completing the installation and support yourself or bringing in another partner who can bring a specialty your company does not have available. “I can’t hire the best technical experience for identity management and storage, so I partner with others in those areas,” said Steve Churchill, president of PreferredPartner.com. By bringing in a trusted partner who specializes in one area, you can provide your customer with a better overall solution and protect your account from competitors. SMB customers have the same IT needs and compliance issues as enterprise customers but rely on smaller (or no) internal computer support staff. Once you complete their first installation and they trust you, it’s easier to sell subsequent projects.

For VARs targeting the enterprise market, selling to smaller businesses goes beyond creating new solutions. “The SMB decision maker may not be a CIO or technology-savvy manager, so address your customer’s business needs first, with the technical solution next,” says Larry Zulch, VP and GM of EMC Insignia. Service and support after the implementation is important to smaller businesses, and successful solution providers can only achieve trusted advisor status with a lot of hard work.