Resellers Using Web 2.0 Tools to Reach Customers
Channels of the Future Research Service
Reseller Survey 3/3 May 2009
…………………………………..
General Observations
• Vendor on-line program offerings are not keeping up with reseller sales requirements.
Outdated reseller websites, lack of access to on-line communities, and continued reliance on
traditional marketing methods like webinars and mass emails are impacting the health of
reseller businesses.
• Most resellers are not capable of evaluating the myriad social media options by themselves.
Vendor leadership and training is going to be required to make resellers more social media
savvy – like their customers.
• Reseller executives are aging, yet they are actively experimenting with some social media
tools for business and pleasure. It’s is a myth that social media users are young. (70% of this
group is more than 40 years old.)
• Resellers that report revenue growth are significantly more active with social media than
resellers that report revenue declines or no growth. (This is a consistent finding.)
• The most common social media sites used by resellers are business networking sites like
LinkedIn and Plaxo. These sites are used to find prospects (suspects), network vendors and
other resellers, and find useful sales information (often posted by vendors).
• Many resellers form their own groups on Business Networking sites and even more are
involved with vendor groups.
• Scores are lower than in January or Feb, possibly because reseller respondents are working
through the economic downturn.
• Twitter is the fastest growing social media site among resellers, possible because vendors are
experimenting with Twitter as a communication tool for the channel.
• Reseller rating of the importance of traditional channel marketing programs in supporting
their sales efforts (like partner portals, webinars, mass emails) are lower than three months
ago as resellers adopt new communications methods to find information and sell products.
• Resellers are thinking about on-line communities, wikis, blogs, on-line storefronts, and instant
messaging. However, they don’t have the skills, time, or compelling customer interest to
adopt these new tools on their own.
• YouTube is catching on as a training tool and for knowledge transfer between vendors and
resellers.

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Resellers were asked to rate the programs provided by their vendors, in terms of how well the
program helped the reseller sell to customers. Growing resellers rated all programs higher than
ng
non-growing resellers. (March 09)
Reseller Rating of Vendor Program Offerings
Partner Portal 2.86
Webinars and web 2.76
meetings
On-line training
line 2.59
Mass emails with file 2.36
attachments
Joint Business Planning 2.27
Electronic Newsletters 2.21
On-line forums
line 2.18
CRM/SFA Tools 1.80
1=Negative impact on our ability to sell
2=No impact on our ability to sell
3= Modestly improves our ability to sell
4=Significantly improves our ability to sell
How Many Customers Do You Have?
H
The percentage of active customers continues to
Reseller Customers hover around 75%, meaning that 25% of reseller
customers purchased something more than six
months ago and are not active currently. Social
media allows resellers to stay in touch with these
inactive customers at a fraction of the cost. More
important, if these inactive customers join an
active on-line community they might be
line
encouraged to purchase new products or services
by other members of the community.
Copyright 2009, Gilwell Group LLC COTF Research Results

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Participants (reseller employees) were asked to describe their personal internet activity. Resellers
are generally less active online than vendor-employed channel managers. Growing resellers are
more active in all areas than non-growing resellers. (May 09)
How Resellers Describe Their Personal Participation/Activity Level With Web 2.0 Sites
(1=no participation and 10=daily visits)
Non-growing Growing Resellers All Resellers
Resellers
Business Networking 4.64 6.63 5.81
sites like LinkedIn
Blogs about their 3.27 4.13 3.78
products or services
Social Networking 4.91 4.88 4.89
sites like Facebook
Video on Demand 2.64 3.31 3.04
sites like YouTube
Wikipedia 3.36 2.56 2.89
Twitter 2.00 3.56 2.93
On-line Community 3.10 3.13 3.12
How would you describe your company’s use of the following tools to support your sales efforts,
where 0 means that are not being used at all and 10 means they are used a lot by your company.
Social/Business Networking (Like LinkedIn or Plaxo)
0…..1…..2…..3…..4…..5…..6…..7…..8…..9…..10
4.3
Resellers are setting up groups, joining vendor groups, and looking for prospects (suspects) on a
variety of business networking sites. There are tens of thousands of reseller employees on
LinkedIn, and hundreds of groups that resellers might join to gain information or to network.
Copyright 2009, Gilwell Group LLC COTF Research Results

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Participants were asked to describe their company’s use of social media tools with end- user
customers.
Don’t use Starting to Have tried Are starting Already using
them and look at them them but to use them them
know little are not and they successfully
about them using them seem
a lot promising
Blogs 30% 27% 13% 20% 10%
On-line storefronts 40% 20% 23% 10% 7%
Wikis 53% 30% 10% 0% 7%
Instant Messaging 23% 27% 33% 3% 13%
Internet Advertising 33% 13% 30% 10% 13%
Forums 37% 30% 17% 3% 10%
On-line Communities 27% 37% 13% 10% 13%
with end users
How would you describe your company’s use of the following tools to support your sales efforts,
where 0 means that are not being used at all and 10 means they are used a lot by your company.
File Sharing Sites (like SlideShare, Flickr, or Issuu)
0…..1…..2…..3…..4…..5…..6…..7…..8…..9…..10
1.9
File Sharing sites (like SlideShare, Flickr, Issuu, Podcast, Schribd, and many more) become more
important as reseller use of social media sites increases. These sites make it easy to store
important files and then easily link them to emails, communities, profiles, and web sites.
Copyright 2009, Gilwell Group LLC COTF Research Results

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How would you describe your company’s use of the following tools to support your sales efforts,
where 0 means that are not being used at all and 10 means they are used a lot by your company.
Video on Demand Sites (like YouTube)
ideo
0…..1…..2…..3…..4…..5…..6…..7…..8…..9…..10
2.9
Resellers are following their vendors onto sites like YouTube and Yahoo Video where they can
already find tens of thousands of videos posted by vendors. Some manufacturers have moved a
significant amount of training to these sites, creating playlists of videos that have to be
completed by reseller sales people.
mpleted
Videos Posted by Resellers on YouTube and
Similar Sites
More than 5 = 8%
Less than 5 = 13%
None = 79%
Demographics of the resellers surveyed (on
(on-line questionnaire)
• There were 61 reseller surveys completed during March. Not all participants answered all
.
questions.
• The sample is mostly small resellers (under $10 million) that have been in business more
than 10 years. Most sell primarily to SMB customers, although enterprise sales are also
customers,
well represented by the larger resellers in the sample
sample.
• These resellers sell to end users through a variety of activities: Direct Sales (65.7%),
l
Telesales (14.12%), Web (8.58%), Other (11.60%).
Copyright 2009, Gilwell Group LLC COTF Research Results

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• About 45% of the respondents reported year-to-year revenue growth. The other 55%
reported flat revenue or even declines . (The percentage of resellers reporting growth has
fallen in each of the past three surveys.)
• Many different primary vendors were mentioned. Microsoft and Intel computers (various
brands) were named most often.
• Most respondents were more than 40 years old (70%). All had some experience with social
media, but most in a personal or experimental manner.
For more information:
Mike Dubrall, Managing Director, Gilwell Group LLC
miked@gilwellgroup.com - www.gilwellgroup.com
Channels of the Future Group on LinkedIn
Copyright 2009, Gilwell Group LLC COTF Research Results