SMB Shenanigans

SMB is a term that vendors use for the small- and midsize-business market. The problem is that there is no such market. There is a small-business market, where most of the technology purchases are made primarily by the owner, and then there is a midsize-business enterprise, where technology choices are made by a small set of IT personnel.

Both of these markets rely heavily on solution providers in the channel to select what products and technologies they need to deploy to be competitive. But vendors tend to treat both of these market segments as if they were one entity, which results in channel programs that are skewed against solution providers that focus on small business.

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MICHAEL VIZARD

Can be reached at (516) 562-7477 or via e-mail at [email protected].

Any vendor that uses the term SMB in its marketing message is sending a signal that says it only cares about Global 2000 companies. The rest of the market is the province of unwashed masses to which the vendor pays lip service. And you can tell which companies they are because the acronym SMB is all over their marketing literature.

Vendors are quick to claim poverty when it comes to the channel, but one thing that solution providers should examine when choosing their vendors is how distinctly they approach the small-business and midsize-enterprise markets.

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If a vendor's approach to the small-business market is driven mainly through online transactions or a few select national resellers, solution providers should think twice about establishing a relationship with the vendor. Instead, solution providers should look for vendors that get the channel's role in driving the adoption of technology in small-business environments.

And woe to the vendor that doesn't understand the value of the small-business market. Small businesses are the economy's primary engine and many of them are the midsize enterprises of tomorrow. But we all know that getting a customer to switch technologies is about a thousand times harder than getting a customer to adopt a technology standard from the early days of its life. So the vendor that is focused on small business today is the company to bet on tomorrow.

Are you listening? Do you agree? I can be reached at (516) 562-7477 or via e-mail at [email protected].