2020 brings new opportunities and challenges to everyone, especially POS value-added resellers (VARs) working to grow their businesses within software technology verticals. Of course, increasing profitability is a top concern, and there are many ways to do that, such as:
- Increasing prices
- Decreasing overhead expenses
- Selling more products
- Growing their customer base
But the real key to success for VARs is in the name: value-added. In order to create a lasting impact that continues to boost revenue in 2020 and beyond, VARs need to redefine the value they bring to their customers. Here are a few ways to do this:
1. Offer a Solutions-Based Approach to Sales
The first step is understanding the total scope of the customer’s business. Work with the customer closely to identify their unique and individual needs, and then offer solutions that won’t just provide short-term benefits. Your customers appreciate solutions to their pain points that will work long-term.
Some many not immediately recognize the root issue of their problems or how your solutions will address them. It is the POS value-added reseller’s job then, to explain how the features and functions of the solutions will make a difference and contribute to overall business growth.
Don’t just focus on the customer’s business needs, however. Focus building the one-on-one relationship with your customers and add more value by positioning yourself as a helpful resource for guidance and insight. Doing relationship-building things like this will shorten your sales cycle, increase your closing rate, and lengthen client retention.
2. Build Recurring Revenue
Individual sales are always good for VARs, but it can make month-to-month income unpredictable, and cause difficulties with your budgeting if you only focus on that one area. Many POS value-added resellers solve this by building recurring revenue.
To do this, consider ways that you can upsell or cross-sell additional services, such as payment processing or self-checkout. Even security technology can add value and bring in additional monthly revenue to hold you over on slower sales months.
Additional services increase the dollar amounts of each sale, while adding value to the customer. To make it more worthwhile, look for ways to bundle products together so that the customer gets the best value they can, while you still enjoy a steady stream of revenue from these services. An example of this would be offering a support and maintenance services package or product upgrades with a bundled POS solution.
3. Differentiate Your Brand
It’s important that as a POS value-added reseller, you direct some of your attention to differentiating yourself from the competition by offering a better experience for your clients. Create a competitive advantage by offering a financing solution to ease the up-front costs, while still increasing your profits overall.
It’s also a good idea to ease the deployment of your solutions by handling installation and training so that it’s as simple and easy as possible for customers to purchase technology from you. Also consider handling integrations between various software solutions so that all systems can share data and provide better visibility into operations.
Success as a Reseller
Boosting revenue requires you to strike a balance between selling your product and understanding your client. Too often, VARs can drift to one area. Either they direct every discussion towards how great their solution is or they focus more on listening to what the client wants and don’t position themselves as an industry expert.
Achieving success requires you to become adept at both demonstrating industry expertise and understanding your individual clients. Your customers should look to you as a trusted resource for industry expertise, knowledge, and guidance.
To learn more about what VARs can do to increase their revenue and build success, check out our free Reseller Success Guide and You First web resource.
