Your Future Success Lies In Selling Solutions

By Sue Bresee, Publisher, Business Solutions magazine.

If you’re a solutions provider, and not someone who just resells tech products, this should be an exciting time for you. Advancements in time-tested technologies, the emergence of new technologies, and an economy that’s encouraged the adoption of time- and cost-saving solutions have all combined to create an environment perfect for true solutions providers. This year’s Partner Program Insider strives to do two things to help you win big in this solutions-based climate.

First, we combined the expertise of our own editors with various analyst groups and other sources of industry data to provide you with trend-rich articles on a handful of verticals. For instance, we worked with analyst group VDC Research to uncover IT spending trends in the government vertical. To identify opportunities in the healthcare space, we combined recent survey data from our sister publication, Health IT Outcomes, and insight from industry organization CompTIA.

Many of our readers have identified the education vertical as good for potential sales growth. We combined research from a handful of different expert sources to pinpoint your best areas for growth. Finally, as technology advances have breathed excitement into the retail channel, we combined survey data from our sister publication, Integrated Solutions for Retailers magazine, with data from other analyst groups to cut through the hype and provide you with the clearest idea of which solutions your customers are looking for.

Across all of these vertical-specific articles, we cover topics and technologies such as mobility, bar coding, digital signage, tablets, cloud computing, security, and more — basically, every technology that Business Solutions magazine covers on a monthly basis. While you’re most likely not currently selling all of those solutions, if you can achieve true market specialization (knowing more about the vertical and customer challenges than your customers in that vertical), you can begin designing solutions that solve problems and possibly incorporate technologies you’ve overlooked in the past.

Enter the second thing this year’s Partner Program Insider strives to do: if you read the trends articles in this special supplement and want to take the next step in adopting a new technology, you should be able to find partners within these pages to help get you started. I can’t think of a vendor who doesn’t have programs in place to help educate and stimulate your sales growth. Utilize this Partner Program Insider to learn where your next sales opportunities lie and then take your first steps toward a more profitable future.