IT Vendor Marketing Programs and Social Media
Channels of the Future Research Service
Reseller Survey 1/3 Jan 20, 2009
Demographics of the resellers surveyed (on-line questionnaire)
• There were 59 reseller surveys completed. Not all participants answered all questions.
• The sample is mostly small resellers that have been in business more than 10 years.
• Most sell primarily to SMB customers.
• About half of the respondents reported year-to year revenue growth. The other half
reported flat revenue or even declines .
• Many different primary vendors were mentioned. Microsoft and Intel computers (various
brands) were named most often.
• Resellers represent a diverse blend of business models and sales capabilities. More than 11%
of their sales are on-line, 26% over the telephone.
• Most respondents were more than 40 years old (75%). All had some experience with social
media, but most in a personal or experimental manner.
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General Observations
1. The channels’ electronic landscape has become a cluttered wasteland of outdated
information, bloated PDF datasheet directories, and orphaned websites.
2. Very few resellers consider their websites to be useful as a sales/marketing tool (4.08 rating
out of 10). Only about 10% of resellers are using new capabilities like RSS, Wikis, and blogging
in their web sites. Non-growing resellers are not using them at all.
3. Resellers want and need their vendors to help them market and sell on-line, not just sell face-
to-face. (They want/need leadership and program support with on-line Web 2.0 tools.)
4. Resellers need/want more of the basics: on-line “canned” product demonstrations, on-line
storefronts, e-newsletters and the capability to use them more efficiently. They especially
want help with their web sites.
5. For every active reseller customer (purchased in the past six months) there are two inactive
customers (purchased more than six months ago). Growing resellers abandon inactive customers
and acquire new customers significantly more often and quickly than non-growing resellers.
6. Fast growing resellers are more active in social media than non-growing resellers, especially
on business networking sites like LinkedIn.
7. SFA/CRM tools are not being used except when pushed by vendors (only 22% use them).
When used, they are generally not effective for resellers. They go through the motions but
don’t see real benefits.

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8. Current vendor offerings (portals, mass emails with attachments, webinars, forums) get mixed
reactions as to their effectiveness.
9. Resellers do very little marketing. What they do is usually ad hoc.
10. Virtually all resellers have a high interest in receiving more information about available or
potential “hosted, multi-vendor, social media marketing programs.”
11. Vendors are generally more active on the social web than resellers. Most IT vendors are
developing social media strategies for end-user customers (bypassing resellers)
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
non-growing resellers.
Reseller Rating of Vendor Program Offerings
On-line training 3.10
Partner Portal 3.04
Webinars and web meetings 2.99
Joint Business Planning 2.99
Mass emails with file 2.66
attachments
On-line forums 2.58
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
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.
How Resellers Describe Their Personal Participation/Activity Level With Web 2.0 Sites
(1=no participation and 10=daily visits)
Non-growing Resellers Growing Resellers All Resellers
Business Networking 2.67 4.50 3.89
sites like LinkedIn
Blogs about their 2.55 4.08 3.60
products or services
Social Networking 3.17 3.63 3.47
sites like Facebook
Video on Demand 2.83 3.17 3.06
sites like YouTube
Second Life 1.00 1.88 1.61
Resellers were asked to describe their company’s marketing activities. Most consider their website
to be ineffective as a marketing tool. Few reseller websites have incorporated capabilities like RSS
feeds, forums, and wikis. Reseller websites are usually static, not interactive.
Description of Reseller Marketing Activities
We do ad hoc marketing, mostly funded by ourselves 37.5%
We have a consistent multi-vendor marketing program 14.0%
We do ad hoc marketing, mostly funded by vendors 11.0%
We do very little, if any, marketing 37.5%
Copyright 2009, Gilwell Group LLC COTF Research Results

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Participants were asked about their interest in having vendors provide specific social media tools.
Reseller Interest In Having Vendors Provide The Following Social Media Tools
(1=no interest and 10=extreme interest)
Non-growing Resellers Growing Resellers All Resellers
Online product 7.00 6.64 6.75
demonstrations
Electronic marketing 6.50 6.50 6.50
support, including
storefronts
Internet Advertising 6.20 5.95 6.03
Social/Business 5.10 5.00 5.03
Networking
Customer testimonials 4.00 4.59 4.41
on YouTube
Specific Reseller suggestions to vendors:
• Provide on-line marketing collateral, webinars, demos, training that we can point our
customers and potential customers to.
• Create customer-to-customer dialogue, blogs, leverage social networking to enable this
change.
• Assist our company with this transition to social media.
• Produce “how to use their product” videos with link to vendor website where our company
can link to.
• Give me a business reason to use social media tools. Give me something of value.
• Provide orientation and training seminars on Web 2.0 tools and how to use the most
effective tools.
• Make it easier to establish a real web store front for more than one vendor.
• Provide us with cookie cutter social media tools to use.
• Help with our web site. Make it more effective.
For more information:
Mike Dubrall, Managing Director, Gilwell Group LLC
miked@gilwellgroup.com
www.gilwellgroup.xeequa.com
Copyright 2009, Gilwell Group LLC COTF Research Results