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UK resellers go for growth

Supply lines

Reg Reader Studies A Register Reader Study of people working for UK resellers, conducted by research company Quocirca, has found that more than half believe the market is improving. More than 50 per cent say their customers have increased spending in the last twelve months, and even more think this trend will increase in the next 12 months.

Over 40 per cent of respondents believe customers have increased spending a bit over the last year. In the next 12 months 55 per cent believe customers will "increase spending a bit" and just over ten per cent believe they will "increase spending a lot".

The Register Reader Survey also looked at relationships between resellers and suppliers. The main suppliers mentioned by name were Cisco, Dell, HP, IBM and Microsoft.

Most resellers trust their supplier enough to share information on sales - 15 per cent share information on business opportunites all the time. Over 50 per cent do so "when we need to do so". Just over 10 per cent said they don't pass on leads because they fear the supplier may pass them on elsewhere and about the same percentage said: "We keep information to ourselves; we don't trust them in the slightest".

The move to service-led sales is well underway, according to the survey, but most resellers prefer to offer their own services rather than resell branded services from suppliers. Over 30 per cent say they create service offerings with no help from suppliers. A similar percentage said they create packages themselves with some help from suppliers.

The survey also asked resellers how good their main supplier is at helping in sales situations. Almost 40 per cent said they did most of the selling but the supplier helped when asked. Around 30 per cent do not get much help from suppliers and less than ten per cent said they keep suppliers at arm's length.

Suppliers are also credited with doing a good job of support. Second line support from vendors was held to be excellent or "generally OK" by 60 per cent of resellers questioned. But more than ten per cent of respondents said their main supplier was "as good as useless" at second line response.

A full summary of this Register Reader Study is here (pdf) ®

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