Situation
Our client, a Fortune 500 information technology company, sought to expand its sales reach to the midmarket. In the past, the company had targeted large enterprise companies via a dedicated field sales team. To effectively gain share with midmarket companies, our client needed to develop strong value-added reseller (VARs) channel marketing program.
Although our client has existing relationships with value-added resellers in every major region, it did not have a market-leading sales support program for these partners. Our client sought to develop a marketing portal where resellers could easily access effective marketing collateral to support demand generation.
Methodology
Maia Strategy Group conducted in-depth research with hardware and service-focused Value Added Resellers in EMEA, APAC and North America with the goal of understanding marketing needs, budgets, successful initiatives, and the vendor expectations of key reseller partners. Maia also conducted a quantitative online survey with over 200 Value Added Resellers.
Analysis
Maia’s research found that VARs required marketing tools that enabled the partners to track leads and ROI, so that the partner could justify resource and monetary investment in our client’s IT infrastructure products and services. Maia found a difference in need according to VAR size. Smaller VARs requested the option to use the portal to engage with third-party marketing collateral firms, while larger VARs preferred marketing fund dollars to develop materials via its own marketing vendors.
Impact
Maia’s recommendation regarding the proposed marketing portal content, features and functionality were integrated into a global roll-out plan for the portal. Our IT client saw total revenue gains of 30% with midmarket customers.