Candid Advise from Resellers

Successful Reseller Secret # 4

The following questions were asked of several award winning resellers from around the country in May, 2002. While the names of these resellers have been suppressed, here are the profiles:

 

Reseller 1 – (Vermont) Open Systems since 1993, moved to MAS 500 last year. 11 employees.

Reseller 2 – (Tucson) CPA firm, resells ACCPAC BPI and MAS 90, have grown from 2 employees to 25 employees over past 7 years.

Reseller 3 – (Detroit) Has worked with BusinessWorks and MAS 90 products, has 6 employees and 125 customers.

Reseller 4 – (Dallas) 15 employees, resells Solomon, BusinessWorks, MAS 90, and MAS 500. More than 500 implementations.

Reseller 5 – (Charlotte) 9 employees, sells BusinessWorks and MAS 90.

Reseller 6 – (Portland) Top customer service in the country 2 years in a row. 15 employees. More than 800 implementations.

1. What has been the most successful thing that you have done to build your pipeline with Mid-range prospects?
 

• Our alliances and networking with local CPA firms work great. We also work closely with the Chamber of Commerce and our golf outings helped put us on the map and catapult our image. (Reseller 3)
   
• We work with local media. If there is a technology story, this reseller tries to get there free on the news as a reference. Most sales come from people who saw the reseller in the news. (Reseller 1)
   
• We rely heavily on CPA alliances and seminars with CPAs, almost everything we do is based on referrals. (Reseller 6)
   
• We buy leads from any qualified source. $90 per lead is a good range to pay for a lead – well worth it. (Reseller 6)
   
• We tried CPA Online’s Find Accounting Software  and finally closed 1 deal after more than 2 years. Better sources are now available. (Reseller 6)
   
• Another source for leads (refused to disclose) has been 10 leads a month – 20% success rate. (Reseller 6)
   
• Accounting Software Advisor – is a good source for promoting your firm on the web and gathering good credibility (Reseller 6)
   

2. What are the steps you always take to prepare for your first meeting with a prospect?
 

• We always conduct a phone interview prior to our initial visit to confirm the meeting, length of time, objectives, and process. (Reseller 5)
   
• Rather than beating around the bush and talking about starting the process, we prepare a list of questions and actually start the evaluation process. This tells the prospect that we are efficient with our time and like to make progress. After a good productive meeting in which we have already completed step one, it is more difficult for them to throw away our progress and hire another consultant. (Reseller 2)
   
• We do our homework. We print their web sites, find out who their CPA firm is, learn about their competitors, look for articles, etc. (Reseller 1)
   
• We perform a needs analysis up front for no fee. Many other resellers say that they don’t like to give away knowledge for free. However we first decide if we want to do business with the client. Are they clear, are they organized? If so, we conduct the needs analysis – you need to do this anyway, and forcing them to pay for this can chase the prospect away before you ever get started. (Reseller 3)
   
• We always find out who the decision makers are, and we make sure that we are talking to them. We find that otherwise, we are often wasting our time. Once we land the needs analysis work, we then turn our attentions to the staff. (Reseller 3)
   
• We always ask for a tour of the facility first. It is a good ice breaker and subsequent discussions always seem to be clearer and easier to understand. This gives the prospect a chance to feel more comfortable with us, it allows us to bond a little bit and gives us a good mutual frame of reference for further discussions. (Reseller 3)
   
• We never take a computer with us on our first meeting. We view the initial meeting as a get acquainted meeting – we will come back with our presentation and demonstrations well prepared to meet their concerns. (Reseller 2)
   
• We try to find out where the referral came from prior to our first meeting, and contact the source of the referral to find out as much as we can. (Reseller 1)
   

3. What competitors do you see most often and how do you differentiate your products to beat them? How do you differentiate your company?
 

• Great Plains is a frequent competitor.
   
• We try not to come across as a reseller, rather we strive to come across as a business partner. We walk away from prospects who see us as a reseller and we tell them why. In many cases, they ask us back and thereafter see us in a more professional light. It is a great trick but takes guts to try it. (Reseller 2)
   
• We are a solution provider for Microsoft and we have Microsoft engineers on staff. This helps us differentiate and compete. (Reseller 5).
   
• We work with software only. Many of our fellow resellers are either CPA firms or they also sell the hardware. We are able to come across as specialists in our area because software is all we do. We like to show prospects a list of CPAs in area that used to sell “Great Plains” but they do not sell it any more. It is a real eye opener to see how so many got in and got out of that line of business. (Reseller 1)
   
• We run into Great Plains and Solomon. We try to find out about our competitors – little details about their last failed installation or problems they have encountered. Also, we send our information in first but go last in the demonstrations. (Reseller 2)
   
• We once won a deal because the client said we took the time to learn their business. Ever since then, this has been a fundamental part of our approach. (Reseller 4)
   
• We provide the prospect with a detailed plan that lists all of our tasks – the longer, the better. This helps them better understand what we do, why they need us, and helps justify our fees. (Reseller 3)
   

4. What are the key indicators in the sales cycle that you look for to determine if you can win the deal and if/when it makes sense to walk away?
 

• If the warehouse looks like junk, their books probably look like junk too. (Reseller 2)
   
• We once walked away from deal because the client did not want to pay for client/server and the hardware. (Reseller 3)
   
• We have a phrase - “Sell & Repent”. We try to avoid this common situation. (Reseller 6)
   
• Due to tight time frame, we recently were not able to go through the pecking chain, and as a result we lost the deal. Next time, I think we will excuse ourselves all together when faced with that same situation. (Reseller 5)
   

5. As you approach the end of the sales cycle, how do you overcome price objections/price shopping and prospects who take a long time in making the decision to move forward?
 

• We charge a relationship fee for orphans. If the client expects to price shop and buy elsewhere after we have done the evaluation, then we will not take them as an orphan unless they pay us the full profit on the sale that we would have made in the first place. So far, two orphans have paid this fee. (Reseller 6)
   

6. What are the top three things that have contributed to the success of your company?
 

• Good people, good products, a good publisher behind them. (reseller 5)
   
• Focus! (we used to do networks and anything the client wanted. Now we just concentrate on software and we are good at it.) (reseller 5)
   
  • We developed a structure that we follow with each prospect/engagement (this has helped our process a great deal)
     
  • Consistent Marketing (we hired a firm that does direct mail, email, fax, brand awareness)
     
• Integrity – We don’t sell anything the customer does not need. (reseller 6)
   
• Constant communication, end user seminars, newsletters, write your own and make it personal. (reseller 5)
   
• Acquisitions of other reseller partnerships did not work for us (reseller 1)
   
• Promotion is big (reseller 1)
   
• #1 Radio Station – drive time 60 second spot $65 a spot. (reseller 1)
   

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