Recent Articles
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What’s Left on the Table?
How much money are you leaving on the table? Kirk Robinson, vice president of North America Channel Marketing at Ingram Micro, posed that question to a roomful of VARs March 15 at the distributor’s VTN conference in Nashville. If you’re not taking advantage of license renewals and warranty extension and refreshes, you likely are leaving…
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Cisco’s SMB Recruitment Banks on Disties
Cisco System’s five-year effort to engage an SMB channel, has relied almost exclusively on distributors to introduce, recruit and train VARs about the vendor and their SMB value. It has engaged all of the distributors with programs with programs that familiarize a set of VARs already selling successfully in the space with a technology and…
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Marketing on $25 a Week: Three VAR Marketing Strategies That Work
What works in marketing? During a break on March 14 at Ingram Micro’s VTN conference in Nashville, VARs shared with each other some unique success stories. Inacom Information Systems, of Madison, Wis., took the focus off technology, holding events like family night at the zoo, inviting guest speakers like University of Wisconsin football coach ,…
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Not During Dinner: A ‘Do Not Call’ List for VARs
No one likes hearing from telemarketers during dinner and hearing from them at work isn’t any better, especially when the call’s from someone who should know better, VARs told Ingram Micro on March 14 during a regional chapter meeting at the distributor’s VTN conference in Nashville. “I don’t like getting calls from the ‘special promotions…
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Distributors Making Money Lending Money in the SMB Market
Tech Data reported March 8 that its profit rose 22 percent in the fourth quarter. There are no doubt many reasons for this — its European realignments are finally paying off, the market grew over all and business process changes like a new SAP system are coming online. But Tech Data’s CEO, Robert Dutkowsky, attributes…
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What No Vegas for PartnerWorld? Phew!
Attendance and attention at IBM PartnerWorld keynotes should improve this year after Channel execs made the call to move the show from Las Vegas to St. Louis. Channel execs said they made the call to move the show after partners expressed some waning interest in a fourth consecutive PW in Sin City. And the city…