Knowing how to get the most from a cloud partner is critical to success. So, if you’re looking into Channel, or want more value from your current partnership, look for the following five organisational attributes:
Relationships with leading technology providers
Reselling services should be a profitable venture, hinging not just on what you sell but your margins too.
Competitive margins are an attractive benefit of working with a cloud partner. As established specialists, they will have close commercial relationships with major players and, by virtue, the best cloud solutions that money can buy. As a result, partners can negotiate the best prices, which you leverage to boost margins. Learn about Node4’s partnerships.
Investment in infrastructure, people and ideas
Profitable resale channels have a dual focus: where can you maximise margins today, and how can you nurture a solid revenue stream for tomorrow. To protect both interests, your MSP or VAR must continue enabling your customers’ growth and cloud transformation journeys.
As a result, you rely heavily on a cloud partner’s ability to proactively scale, evolve and accurately anticipate what customers want in the short and long term. Therefore, choose a partner with demonstrable and frequent investment in new solutions, market priorities, infrastructure and people.
Customer-facing Managed or Professional Services
Enabling cloud transformation and growth will always put you in a customer’s good books. However, how you add value will determine whether they keep taking extra services. Although MSPs and VARs add value differently, a great cloud partner is equally important to sustaining healthy revenue streams.
- MSPs benefit from a partner’s Managed Services. Partners handle everything from performance and maintenance to support queries and uptime. So, you don’t overload resources and teams can focus strategically.
- And then there’s VARs. Although VARs don’t need Managed Services, they can benefit from Professional Services. Partners can work on projects behind the scenes or as a customer-facing, collaborative unit.
Flexible cloud pathways and revenue models
The beauty of working with a cloud partner is that you deliver next-generation agility without investment worries. Think about it: today’s customer has diverse needs, so every cloud journey will have different infrastructures behind it. How can your MSP or VAR be sure of where to invest? Will you yield the necessary ROI?
When reselling, pathways are not restricted. Node4, for example, has a broad end-to-end product portfolio and an abundance of market-leading specialists at the helm. We also offer one-off or recurring revenue models – whichever is most comfortable for you.
Go-to-market and demand generation support
Reselling cloud partner services is a lower-risk strategy for MSPs and VARs to establish new revenue streams. But you’ll still have targets, even when there’s no significant upfront investment to recoup. After all, you’ve pursued the partnership to enable customer growth and the sales success it affords.
Ensure that your cloud transformation partner has a tried-and-tested marketing toolkit to maximise. From branding and content to events and campaigns – confirm your partner has the resource, skill and experience to kickstart demand.
Unearth new opportunities for growth with Node4
We aren’t here to just help you sell more – we’re here to understand your business priorities and customers’ needs. From colocation to Azure, dedicated hosting to hybrid architectures, Node4 has your ISV covered.
Discover how we can help you drive change that matters with our Profitability Playbook – your guide to high-margin, sustainable cloud partnerships. Get instant access here.
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