A Reseller Educational Series — Are You a Counterfeit Reseller?

There wouldn’t be such a thing as counterfeit gold if there were no real gold somewhere. — Sufi Proverb

The above proverb is very apropos for today’s value conscious customers who are carefully evaluating both products and the quality of reseller services. Terms like “Gold-level Service” are often used casually and can be misleading. Sometimes a customer expecting “Gold-level” service ends up with “rusty-iron” service.

Service contracts are an excellent source of recurring revenue. Communications are mission critical for most companies so contracts are generally renewed. However, if your company has morphed into “Rusty Iron Communication Services”, the result will be cancelled contracts and lost revenue.

Many resellers are reducing their training budgets resulting a lowering of employee skills. Granted, it is expensive to have employees attend technical certification and sales training courses but there are ways to reduce costs and still keep you staff current including:

1. Use a “train-the-TRAINER” program whereby one person gets trained and trains other team members. For best results, select an employee with good teaching skills and schedule the in-house training to immediately coincide with the return of the TRAINER.
2. Utilize the many free or low-cost webinars and other easily accessible programs and resources available.

TMC (News - Alert) is a fantastic resource for both of the above. I personally conducted a TMC University Course at ITEXPO East 2009 (minimal cost for conference attendees) and a free sales training course for resellers. Additionally, ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers quality time with manufactures, exposure to new product releases and the opportunity to mingle with resellers from varied geographic areas to get a good read on the national market.

TMC’s web site is a goldmine of educational opportunities including webinars, podcasts, white papers and videos — Click “Free Resources” at the top of the home page (www.tmcnet.com). Encourage your staff to keep current with the TMC site by periodically selecting topics and conducting a brief quiz. A gift card or other incentive can be awarded to employees who “pass the quiz” or score highest. IT

Max Schroeder (News - Alert) is the Senior Vice President of FaxCore, Inc. (www.faxcore.com)

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