November 27, 2024

Thanks again to everyone who participated in Noteya Innovations recent LinkedIn poll about go-to-market strategies for technology vendors. 

In our poll, we asked which go-to-market strategy should technology vendors focus on to generate new business and revenue growth in 2025?

Our survey attracted engagement from technology vendors, end user organizations, service providers, sales channels, investors, journalists, analysts and other professionals from around the world.

Indirect Sales through sales channel partners attracted the most votes, edging out Hybrid Sales based on a combination of direct and indirect sales and well ahead of Direct Sales.

This is indeed a tricky question and the answer depends on many factors, ranging from a technology vendor’s growth and product development stages to available resources to targeted geographic and vertical markets and more.

Our opinion is that strategically engaging sales channel partners, such as system integrators (SIs), value added resellers (VARs) and managed service providers (MSPs), to penetrate new markets and expand sales is a preferable go-to-market strategy than trying to sell directly to end users.

First and foremost, by selling indirectly, a technology vendor can significantly expand its sales footprint and leverage the market positions of its sales channel partners in their local markets to access new sales opportunities that were otherwise beyond the company’s reach. Another significant advantage is that ongoing maintenance and support can be provided in the local language of the customer and according to the customer’s local business culture and standards. 

Below is a quick list of some of the benefits of working with sales channel partners.

• Expand sales footprint – leverage engagements with sales channel partners to access more customers and more sales opportunities around the world.
• Increase productivity – manage relations with sales channel partners strategically as an integral part of your company’s sales team rather than chasing after individual sales opportunities one by one.
• Do business in local culture – utilize sales channel partners to bridge culture gaps and language barriers that would have otherwise prevented your company from accessing engagements with new customers in local markets.
• Grow awareness in local markets – take advantage of the brand, reputation and track record of sales channel partners to elevate the position of your company and its offerings.
• Improve business transactions – use sales channel partners to facilitate business transactions with customers, including the efficient collection of payments.
• Maintain long term relationships – leverage the relationships with sales channel partners for effective post-sales activities from project deployment to first line support to ongoing account management and more.

From the Americas to EMEA and across Asia, all of this is true and especially those markets in Southeast Asia, South Asia, East Africa and Southern Africa where we have had good success in recent years and where we have a strong network of established sales channel partners.