As companies continue to migrate their operations to the cloud, channel partners are presented with all kinds of opportunities and challenges. To navigate them successfully, channel partners must innovate and adapt accordingly, and we’ll show you how.
In this post, you’ll find six strategies that channel partners can use to stay relevant and sustain profitability during the continued transformations of this new cloud era.
Without further ado, let’s dive in.
In O’Reilly’s latest Cloud Adoption report, 48 percent of respondents plan to migrate half their apps to the cloud next year, and 20 percent plan to migrate all their apps to the cloud.
Strategy 1: Specialize, specialize, specialize
One of the common traps that channel partners fall into is trying to be “all things to all people.” But this leads to several problems, such as:
- A Lack of Differentiation: Without a distinct specialization or focus, you compete against a broad spectrum of providers, making it harder to stand out.
- Resource Drain: Trying to market to a broad range of customers with all kinds of needs will spread you and your team thin – financially and productively – limiting your ability to deliver high-quality services.
- Lower Profit Margins: When you cast a wide net, you end up competing based on price, not on quality, which erodes your revenue over time.
Instead of covering every aspect of cloud services, channel partners should focus on specific niches or industries. Specialization isn’t about limiting yourself – it’s about becoming an expert in something that sets you apart from your competitors and makes clients think of you first when they need that cloud service.
For example, say you choose to offer UCaaS solutions for small businesses in the hospitality industry. By concentrating on these customers, you can understand their communication needs and challenges and provide customized solutions they’ll pay top dollar for.
Strategy 2: Offer services beyond cloud products
Instead of just selling products, channel partners should look at including more value-added services that make their customers’ experiences better and their business run smoother. This can include things like:
- Ongoing support and training
- Additional customizations and feature sets
- Professional monitoring services
- Extra security measures
- Platform performance optimization
By offering these extra services, channel partners become more than just a one-time, one-note solution provider. They become a trusted partner that businesses can rely on for continued help and guidance with their cloud technology.
This not only adds value to their offerings but also opens opportunities for the channel partner to generate more revenue over time through these value-added offerings.
Strategy 3: Listen to customer feedback and adapt
Regularly check in with companies using your solutions to see what’s working well and what’s not. For example, you might ask questions like:
- How easy is it for your team to use our platform?
- Are there any features or tools you wish our offering had?
- Have you run into any challenges or issues while using our solution?
- How has our solution helped improve your company?
Take your customers’ answers and put them to work! Adapt your offerings and services accordingly to better meet their needs. Doing so will not only help you improve your solutions but also strengthen your relationships with clients.
When customers see that you value their input and are willing to act on it, they’re more likely to stick with you in the long run and create something other potential clients in their industries would appreciate.
Whether through surveys, customer interviews, or simply paying attention to comments and reviews, listening to your customers can make a big difference in profitability.
Strategy 4: Help your customers optimize their current costs
Customers appreciate partners who collaborate with them. And what better way to collaborate than to help them make the most of their current investments? Here are just a few ways you can help your customers save money:
- Analyze their usage patterns and spending to see where they might overspend on or underutilize resources.
- Help them match their cloud computing power and storage to their actual needs, saving them money.
- Provide strategies like spending limits and real-time usage tracking and monitoring to help them set and stick to cloud budgets.
By helping customers save money through cost optimization, channel partners earn their trust, paving the way for deeper relationships and future upselling opportunities.
Positive feedback from these satisfied customers strengthens your reputation, attracts new ones, and solidifies your position as a top player in cloud services. After all, word of mouth leads to five times more sales than paid ads.
Strategy 5: Embrace emerging technologies
The only constant in life is change – especially in technology. New ideas, new solutions, and new evolutions are popping up all the time. And as a channel partner, it’s essential to stay abreast of these trends to see how they can boost your current offering. For example, you could:
- Use artificial intelligence (AI) to automate tasks and make predictions using data
- Connect everyday objects to gather and exchange information with IoT technologies and programming
- Process data closer to its source with edge computing software
The possibilities are endless, and by staying curious and open to new ideas, channel partners can stay ahead of the curve and provide even more value to their clients.
Unlock Profit-Sustaining Strategies with LoopStart
Looking for ways to diversify your offerings and stay profitable in the face of all kinds of tech advancements? Then, it’s time to check out Loop Start’s partner program. With our industry-leading cloud communications solutions, you can retain more customers, boost your profits, and enjoy world-class support. Just drop us a line to experience it for yourself.
