reseller product awareness report

Reseller Product Awareness Survey

Sergey SleptsovDone on a base of my real report

Familiar Products Sell Better•Relation between product awareness and sales of a product is extremely strong (see chart);•Greater awareness leads to higher sales (cause and effect relation is proved by the following slide);•Monitoring levels of awareness is very important for understanding mix of products sold thru the channel;

•About 80% of our EMEA resellers would be selling Structure if its level of awareness reached 4.0 level;•At current pace we will be there in 2020

Product Sales vs Awareness

R2 = 0.96

-

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0Declared Product Awareness

(from 1 = very unfamiliar to 5 = very familiar)

Shar

e of

Res

elle

rs C

onfir

min

g Se

lling

Pr

oduc

t, %

Company ProductsPoly. (Company Products)

Structure

Sergey Sleptsov

Obstacles to Selling ProductsQ: Could you specify major obstacle to selling the following products?

•Lack of awareness is the major declared obstacle to sales;•“Uninterested Customer” becomes a smaller obstacle as product awareness increases – solid product knowledge helps finding right arguments!

Strong educational effort on Strong educational effort on structure dramatically structure dramatically reduced key barrier in the reduced key barrier in the categorycategory

I don't see any obstacles in selling these productsOther

My customers are not interested in this productCustomer does not have budget for itNot enough marginI purchase them from other supplierI don't know how to configure the correct solutionI don't have enough knowledge of the product

Value

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%Share of Resellers

Services

Product E

Air and DC

Product D

Structure

Mobile and Cable

Surge

Rack and Rack Accessories

Software Management

Accessories

Product C

Product B

Product A

Sergey Sleptsov

Obstacles to Selling Products

There are common trends as well as country-specific patterns

Smaller budgets in RussiaSmaller budgets in Russia

Lack of customer Lack of customer interest in Germanyinterest in Germany

EMEA_FRANCE EMEA_GERMANY EMEA_ITALY

EMEA_RUSSIA EMEA_SPAIN EMEA_UNITED KINGDOM

I don't see any obstacles in selling these productsOther

My customers are not interested in this productCustomer does not have budget for it

Not enough marginI purchase them from other supplierI don't know how to configure the correct solutionI don't have enough knowledge of the product

Value

ServicesProduct EAir and DCProduct D

Structure

Mobile and CableSurge

Rack and Rack AccessoriesSoftware Management

AccessoriesProduct CProduct B

Product A


ServicesProduct E

Air and DC

Product DStructure

Mobile and CableSurge


Software ManagementAccessories

Product CProduct BProduct A



Lack of customer interest in Germany

Sergey Sleptsov

Familiarity with ProductsQ: Please rate your familiarity with the following product lines

•Awareness declined across all product lines except for Structure;•Dropped awareness of Services and Management Software is of a particularly concern;•Change in awareness of Structure (by almost 0.5) is the greatest compared to trends in the other products

1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00

Product Familiarity (1=Lowest, 5=Highest)

Service

Product E

Air and DC

Product D

Structure

Mobile and Cable

Surge


Software Management

Accessories

Product C

Product B

Product A

n=3612 1.87n=817 2.16

n=3612 1.94n=817 2.29

n=3612 1.98n=817 2.09

n=3612 2.36n=817 2.71

n=3612 2.50n=817 2.05

n=3612 2.63n=817 2.83

n=3612 2.83n=817 3.18

n=3612 3.06n=817 3.20

n=3612 3.10n=817 3.31

n=3612 3.12n=817 3.29

n=3612 3.67n=817 3.74

n=3612 3.93n=817 3.99

n=3612 4.25n=817 4.28

Sergey Sleptsov

Familiarity with Products (Selected Countries)

•Best and least aware markets of Russia and Italy remained at the levels of previous year;•Average levels of awareness declined in the others;•Declared levels of awareness are subjects to cultural bias (similar levels are likely to be given lower rates in Germany and higher rates in UK etc.)•Cross-country comparisons are less relevant that Y-o-Y trends within same countries

1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00Average Awareness of All Products

EMEA_ITALY

EMEA_GERMANY

EMEA_FRANCE

EMEA_UNITED KINGDOM

EMEA_SPAIN

EMEA_RUSSIA

n=544 2.42

n=110 2.43

n=681 2.57

n=134 2.81

n=198 2.73

n=77 2.80

n=265 3.02

n=39 3.31

n=138 3.08

n=84 3.26

n=214 3.74

n=85 3.72

Structure solution Steals Resellers’ Attention?

•Strong focus on Structure is a likely explanation for slipping awareness in non-Structurecategories;

Error Bars show 95.0% Cl of Mean

Bars show Means

1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00Product Familiarity (1=Lowest, 5=Highest)

Average Awareness of All Products Except Structure

Average Awareness of All Products

Structuree

n=3612 2.90

n=817 3.09

n=3612 2.87

n=817 3.01

n=3612 2.50

n=817 2.05

Structure Awareness and Structure Education Events

(Selected Countries)

•Sizes of bubbles and labels show est. reseller population;•# of Structure solutions events taken from Structure Education Cube

Largest amount of Largest amount of events and smallest events and smallest reseller population reseller population result in greatest gain result in greatest gain in awarenessin awareness

Fewer local resellers Fewer local resellers ensure better coverageensure better coverage

Only marginal change Only marginal change in awareness at in awareness at “average” # of events “average” # of events raise concerns re raise concerns re events efficiencyevents efficiency

GERMANY, 13407

ITALY, 9202

SPAIN, 5084

RUSSIA, 3604

FRANCE, 8060

UK, 8533

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450

# of Structure Channel Education Events

Rep

orte

d G

ain

in S

truc

ture

Aw

aren

ess

Sales EffortsQ: Which products have you recommended or sold within the last year?

•Product sales become confirmed more often with products of higher awareness;•Rack-related products of, Racks and Rack Accessories, and Structure are the categories sold by more resellers Y-o-Y;

Neither

Recommended, but not sold

Sold

Value


Services

Product E

Air and DC

Product D

Structure

Mobile and Cable

Surge


Software Management

Accessories

Product C

Product B

Product A

Shares of Closures

•Shares of Closures indicate how successful resellers are in selling a product: higher shares = sold by more resellers;•Illustrated by blue bars and are the ratios of # of Resellers that Sold Product to: (# of Resellers that Sold + # of Resellers that Recommended but not Sold)

•Although fewer resellers attempt to sell non-Structure products, higher proportions of those who does succeed in closing deals;•Services made notable progress becoming now sold as “easily” as Product D.

Recommended, but not soldSold

Value

Bars show counts

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%Count

Product E

Structure

Air and DC

Services

Product D


Software Management

Mobile and Cable

Surge

Accessories

Product C

Product B

Product A

Sold ApplicationsQ: Which of the following hardware applications do you sell?

•Notable spike in interest towards storage systems while data centers remain static at the bottom of the list;•Every other reseller active in data center applications offered Structure

36% of those recommended 36% of those recommended Structure and 6% soldStructure and 6% sold 54% of those recommended 54% of those recommended

Structure and 21% soldStructure and 21% sold

Do Not SellSell

Value

Bars show counts


Data Center/Computer Room

Storage System

Telecommunication Equipment

Workstation

Mid-Range or High-End Network Server

Networking Equipment

Entry-Level Network Server

Notebook

Desktop PC

Product Sales EffortsQ: In what % of projects do you recommend solutions for the following applications?

•About a quarter of high-end applications’ projects does not include a solution;•Note: question probes for “solutions” regardless of vendor!

Bars show Means

0 25 50 75Recommended Product in % of Sales

Data Center/Computer Room

Storage System

Telecommunication Equipment

Workstation

Mid-Range or High-End Network Server


Entry-Level Network Server

Notebook

Desktop PC

Q: What is the usual reason for not recommending Product with every sale of Application?

•Bars show shares of resellers confirming a reason;•Data across all applications

Reasons not to Offer Product With Applications

Installed Product Installed Product base becomes base becomes the major barrier the major barrier to new salesto new sales

10% 20% 30% 40%

I don't know how / where to purchase appropriate

Not enough vendor support

I don't know how to configure correct solution for customer

I don't have enough knowledge of the problems

Unsuccessful selling in the past

Not enough margin / Effort involved greater than financial benefits

Other

Customer upgrading Product with a Replacement Cartridge

I don't think a Product is needed / important for this type of equipment

Customer receives recommendation / purchases from another source

Customer purchases from another source (catalog, retail, e-commerce, etc.)

Customers not aware of the problems

Customer does not have budget

Customer using previously purchased Product (does not need new UPS)

1%1%3%3%3%4%3%4%6%6%6%6%8%8%12%10%14%13%17%15%19%16%33%34%41%46%47%45%

Product Sales Efforts (average across all applications)

•General trends are positive for both Product recommendation and Product sales efforts;•In about a half of all projects resellers recommend Product solution;•About one third of resellers’ projects is sold with a Product solution

•Calculated values


Bars show Means

10.00 20.00 30.00 40.00 50.00Value, %

Ave_Recommend_Effort

Ave_Sell_Effort

n=3521 52.28

n=802 50.16

n=3521 34.81

n=802 31.43

Products Sales Efforts, Selected Countries

(average across all applications)

Increase in share of projects with Increase in share of projects with sold Products and constant share of sold Products and constant share of projects where Product is projects where Product is recommended indicate increased recommended indicate increased closure rateclosure rate

Constant share of projects with sold Constant share of projects with sold Products and decreased share of Products and decreased share of projects where Products is projects where Products is recommended indicate increased recommended indicate increased closure rateclosure rate

Highest closure Highest closure rate (72%) at rate (72%) at lowest share of lowest share of sold Product sold Product solutions (31% of solutions (31% of projects)projects)

EMEA_FRANCE EMEA_GERMANY EMEA_ITALY

EMEA_RUSSIA EMEA_SPAIN EMEA_UNITED KINGDOM


Bars show Means


Ave_Sell_Effort

n=190 50.77

n=76 50.17

n=190 33.50

n=76 33.29

n=671 43.09

n=133 42.46

n=671 31.13

n=133 30.29

n=526 58.03

n=107 58.12

n=526 35.97

n=107 34.03

0.00 25.00 50.00 75.00Value, %


Ave_Sell_Effort

n=211 62.81

n=84 61.44

n=211 41.92

n=84 35.44

0.00 25.00 50.00 75.00Value, %

n=136 66.92

n=84 63.87

n=136 40.56

n=84 36.29

0.00 25.00 50.00 75.00Value, %

n=256 54.14

n=37 65.58

n=256 37.41

n=37 36.71

Estimated Closure: Slightly Up in current year (average across all

applications)

•Horizontal axis shows in what % of sold applications resellers recommended;•Vertical axis shows in what % of sold applications resellers successfully sold;•Each yellow dot represents surveyed reseller;•Red regression line shows linear approximation, steeper line indicates higher closure

0.00 25.00 50.00 75.00 100.00Ave_Recommend_Effort

0.00

25.00

50.00

75.00

100.00

Ave

_Sel

l_Ef

fort

Ave_Sell_Effort = 0.58 * Ave_Recommend_Effort

Previous year Current Year

0.00 25.00 50.00 75.00 100.00Ave_Recommend_Effort

Ave_Sell_Effort = 0.62 * Ave_Recommend_Effort

Products Offered With Applications

(high-end applications)Q: Which product do you recommend FIRST/SECOND for the following applications?

•Structure becomes the product of choice for datacenter applications;•Increased Structure popularity is also notable in Storage Systems and Mid to High-end Servers

Product AProduct BProduct CProduct D

Product EStructure

SurgeAccessoriesAir and DCSoftware ManagementMobile and CableServicesRack and Rack Accessories

None

Value

Bars show counts

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%Count

Mid-Range or High-End Network Server - Second Choice

Mid-Range or High-End Network Server - First Choice

Entry-Level Network Server - Second Choice

Entry-Level Network Server - First Choice

Data Center/Computer Room - Second Choice

Data Center/Computer Room - First Choice

Storage System - Second Choice

Storage System(- First Choice

Telecommunication Equipment - Second Choice

Telecommunication Equipment - First Choice

Pre

ferr

ed P

rodu

ct p

er A

pplic

atio

n

Products Offered With Applications

(low-end applications)Q: Which product do you recommend FIRST/SECOND for the following applications?

•Mobile and Cable recommended with Laptops by only about 15% of resellers;•Shares of resellers not recommending any of the products with these applications are rising

Bars show counts

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%Count

Laptop PC - Second Choice

Laptop PC - First Choice

Desktop PC - Second Choice

Desktop PC - First Choice

Workstation - Second Choice

Workstation - First Choice

Internetworking Equipment - Second Choice

Internetworking Equipment - First Choice

Pre

ferr

ed P

rodu

ct p

er A

pplic

atio

n

Presence of Competition

•Overall share of loyal resellers slightly declined;

Q: Do you recommend other vendors?

Not SureNoYes

Do you recommend other vendors?

Bars show counts

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%Count

2006

2004

Year

of S

urve

y

n=1236 n=2037 n=339

n=248 n=496 n=73

Presence of Competition, Selected Countries

•Competitive pressure increased in 4 out of key 6 countries

Although channel loyalty Although channel loyalty slightly recovered, slightly recovered, French resellers remain French resellers remain the most competitor-the most competitor-friendlyfriendly

Not SureNoYes

Do you recommend other vendors?

Bars show counts

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%Count

EMEA_UNITED KINGDOM

EMEA_SPAIN

EMEA_RUSSIA

EMEA_ITALY

EMEA_GERMANY

EMEA_FRANCE

Cou

ntry

* - C

ount

ry

n=87 n=164 n=14

n=10 n=29

n=47 n=80 n=11

n=34 n=39 n=11

n=88 n=97 n=29

n=25 n=51 n=9

n=147 n=363 n=34

n=22 n=84 n=4

n=223 n=387 n=71

n=31 n=94 n=9

n=86 n=81 n=31

n=41 n=27 n=9

Presence of Competition in Applications

•Competitive pressure increased in every application;•Strategic areas of data centers and servers as well as core area of desktops are of the greatest concerns

•Calculated vales; base is the number of resellers selling an application;•T-bars show 95% confidence interval of measurement

Competition in Applications

14%

19%

21%

21%

24%

32%

34%

38%

39%

10%

15%

15%

13%

18%

26%

28%

33%

31%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%

Notebook


Storage System

Workstation

TelecommunicationEquipment

Entry-Level NetworkServer

Mid-Range or High-EndNetwork Server

Data Center/ComputerRoom

Desktop PC

Sold

App

licat

ions

Share of Resellers Selling Competitors in Applications

Beaten on the priceQ: What are the reasons for you to recommend this competitor?

Significance of the Significance of the price factor becomes price factor becomes paramountparamount

•Bars show shares of resellers confirming reason to recommend competitors;•Base: resellers that recommend competitors;•Multiple reasons were accepted

Pull of customer Pull of customer demand and push of demand and push of reseller margins reseller margins follow in rankingfollow in ranking

10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

Sales Tools

Other

Sales Training

Company Reputation

Warranty

Product Features

Technical Support

Product Availability

Reliability / Quality

Margins

Customer Request / Preference

Enduser Pricing

Top Competitors: Why Offered

Q: What are the reasons for you to recommend this competitor?

•Greatest price pressure is coming from Competitor 5 followed by Competitor 3 and Competitor 6;•Low priced competitors show success in building positive attitudes towards products (note raising share of resellers choosing them);•Price appeal of Competitor 1 appears to be rising

Sales ToolsOtherSales TrainingWarrantyCompany ReputationTechnical SupportProduct FeaturesProduct AvailabilityReliability / QualityMarginsCustomer Request / PreferenceEnduser Pricing

Category

Bars show counts

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

Competitor 8

Competitor 7

Competitor 6

Competitor 5

Competitor 4

Competitor 3

Competitor 2

Competitor 1

Conclusions and Recommendations

Product awareness is the crucial element of successful sales and we need to ensure that creative and efficient educational efforts remain the key part of our channel initiatives;

Regional impact from channel educational initiatives depends on the coverage (amount of events to reseller population in the region) and their quality and efficiency. To ensure best use of investment, local targets for ## of events need to be set in line with the total ## of local resellers and events quality and efficiency should be monitored;

Strong focus on Structure education lead to dramatically increased levels of Structure awareness but resulted in declined familiarity with non-Structure products; Structure is becoming the product of choice with applications and closure rate reaches 50% of projects where it is offered;

Competitive pressure increased across all application segments and the price factor became the key argument for resellers to offer competitors’ products. Combined with declining awareness of non-Structure items it is posing a serious threat to share in the core segment;

Resellers remain to be oriented towards low-end applications. Limited and stagnant population of companies active in the data center area is likely to become a bottleneck for continued growth of Structure sales in the channel.

reseller product awareness report

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