THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
How resellers can ride the recession wave Mark Jones, Head of Channel for UK & Ireland at Sangoma, reveals why, with the right steps, resellers can maintain a crucial role for their customers.
Channel resellers currently find themselves in a very precarious position. With the mounting pressure to cut enterprise costs and inflation at an all-time high, this is prompting vendors to liaise directly with distributors and customers, to ‘cut out the middle-man’. The looming recession is one of the main challenges facing all businesses this year. They need to rethink business strategies, which is leading to drastic action from large technology companies such as Google, Amazon and Salesforce, in making over 55,000 layoffs in January 2023. Redundancies are being felt throughout the technology industry, with UC companies such as 8x8, RingCentral and Avaya making layoffs to help cut costs too. However, despite cost cutting actions causing chaos, resellers still have a key role to play within the channel. Their expertise and knowledge makes them vital to the channel supply chain, but they must position themselves as invaluable to both vendors and customers. The question is, how? Showing value Resellers, more than ever, must show their value to vendors and customers by continuing to offer more value added
services to expand their portfolio. As customer demand shifts to wanting consumption-based models, resellers must evolve in line with this and offer these services too. Businesses no longer want to be tied into long contracts, and if resellers want to remain relevant and keep their client base, they too must do away with them. Showcasing their value as a one-stop- shop for technology solutions, such as Unified Communications solutions, allows resellers to prove their worth within the Channel, and makes them more ‘sticky’ to their customers. If a reseller can provide a range of services in line with the vendor they are working with, they become far more expert in their field. Establishing trust within the channel In such tough economic times, it is vital to establish trust and collaboration between resellers, vendors, customers, and channel partners. But trust is mutual. Resellers must showcase their expertise, knowledge, and results to vendors to establish a trusting relationship. With customers becoming more demanding and recession fears plaguing people’s minds, enhancing collaboration through the channel will allow both vendors and resellers to thrive.
Mark Jones Head of Channel, Uk & Ireland
www.sangoma.com
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