Seven Ways To Run Your Solution Provider Business Better

How To Get the Job Of Providing IT Solutions Done

With the uncertain economy, the stock market topsy-turvy and resources spread increasingly thinner, its important to be able to run your business efficiently. For solution providers, that could mean learning unfamiliar technology, implementing new solutions or increasing your client base -- or all of the above.

Following are tips from top IT executives on surviving, and thriving, in this economy.

How To Sell PCI Security

It's no longer shocking to hear that a retail store has somehow lost the credit card numbers of thousands of its customers. Those types of thefts can cost a business thousands of dollars in fines. In How To Sell PCI Security, Cybera's senior vice president of marketing Dan Glennon discusses the importance of Payment Card Industry (PCI) security and how IT solution providers can ensure that customers in the retail and restaurant industries are equipped with a reliable, scalable and secure network solution.

How To Use Linux To Help Customers Go to Market Faster

Creating, building and distributing software applications is a complicated and labor-intensive proposition. Because time is money, IT solution providers and ISVs can simplify the process. SUSE’s senior marketing manager Sabine Soellheim explains in her guest blog, How To Use Linux To Help Customers Go to Market Faster, that Linux can be a critical part of your customer's go-to-market strategy.

How To Sell Videoconferencing Solutions

With travel costs continuing to build, IT solution providers should consider including video conferencing in their portfolios. Those rising costs hit SMBs particularly hard, and cost-effective video conferencing solutions are gaining traction among SMBs. By combining education about these systems with economical solutions, VARs may find video conferencing to be a perfect way to extend sales to new and existing customers. In How To Sell Videoconferencing Solutions, Vu TelePresence's Vice President of Corporate Development Clinton Gatewood offers tips on how to make telepresence an affordable option for SMB customers.

How To Grow Existing Accounts And Drive Revenue

In a tough economy, it's difficult to drum up new business, which is why it's critical to maximize sales at your existing customers. However, it's important not to take your current clientele for granted. In How To Grow Existing Accounts And Drive Revenue, The Pedowitz Group's director of demand generation, Ed Thompson, offers tips on how to avoid embarrassing and costly mistakes that no VAR or solution provider can afford.

How To Use Mobile Business Apps To Increase Sales

Road warriors are all too familiar with the drill of connecting -- and waiting -- for the Internet via their laptop. If time is money, a lot of money that could be made is being held up by slow connection speeds. In How To Use Mobile Business Apps To Increase Sales, Clint Parr, president and CEO of MacroSolve/Illume Mobile, discusses an alternative: mobile applications via tablet computers.

How To Donate Surplus IT For the Biggest Bang

Every time one of your clients replaces a PC, it becomes surplus IT equipment. Instead of loading up landfills, used PCs and printers can have useful second lives -- if they are donated in proper working order to charities that need the refurbished PCs. Redemtech President and Founder Robert Houghton discusses how to make PC donation a win-win strategy for you (or your customers) and the charity in his guest blog, How To Donate Surplus IT For the Biggest Bang.

How To Work With Vendors For Long-Lead Sales

It's a dream sale: Valued at more than $1 million, this IT sales opportunity is lucrative, and it showcases what your firm is really good at. Not only will it be exciting to work on, but it will also be a star in your portfolio. The only concern? Getting it to all run smootly. In How To Work With Vendors For Long-Lead Sales, Jay Miller, worldwide vice president of Channel Sales and Alliances at Crossbeam Systems, offers suggestions on how to move the sale from to move the deal from handshake to final payment.