Resellers frustrated with IP telephony vendor lead generation programsVendor lead generation activities may not be nearly as successful for their chan

Vendor lead generation activities may not be nearly as successful for their channel partners as expected. A new benchmark study from Nemertes Research on IP telephony found that no channel resellers are getting quality leads on a regular basis from the IP telephony vendors they work with.

The IP telephony study is part of a larger group of studies about unified communications and collaboration, specifically as they relate to vendors, product and the channel. One of the more interesting discoveries was the disparity between what vendors say about lead generation programs and what their channel partners said. According to the Nemertes study, channel partners dealing in IP telephony aren't all that impressed with lead generation activities.

"It was very frustrating for a lot of MSPs that I spoke with that they weren't getting the leads, and when they were getting them, they weren't qualified leads," said Karen Trost, research analyst at Nemertes Research.

When asked how often they get leads from the vendors they work with, 77 per cent of resellers said "rarely" and 23 per cent said "never." No resellers said they were getting leads from the vendors often.

Although she wouldn't name names, Trost said some very large IP telephony vendors have a reputation of not sending off leads except to their very largest resellers. One of the perceived reasons for a lack of leads is that resellers aren't top-tier partners, but many also believe that once they work with a vendor for awhile, the relationship gets a little too comfortable and the vendor starts to think it's not necessary to send new leads out.

For the largest accounts, vendors are also taking leads for themselves and trying to sell their solutions directly to the customer, Trost said.

Although 61.5 per cent of channel resellers only sell one IP telephony line, there is still a large percentage of resellers that sell products from multiple vendors in the space. Many of those resellers that sell more than one vendors' products believe that vendors don't pass on new leads because they're afraid the resellers will take the leads and sell competing products instead, Trost said.

There is good news, though. While hardware margins have shrunk, resellers are now finding good margins on the services element of IP telephony.

"They can make a lot more profit margin on services. Actually, the good news is with the economy right now, managed servcies is really increasing," Trost said.

Compared to the 2007 benchmark study, there has been a large increase in interest in managed services, she said. There is some interest in hosted services, but most customers are interested in managed services instead. VARs that are true MSPs are going to do well, she added.

"Virtually everyone is doing something with VoIP. Less than one per cent have no plans whatsoever to deploy VoIP," Trost said about businesses. All sizes of businesses have plans to deploy VoIP in one form or another.

Additionally, most customers prefer to buy from local regional VARs, with 54.3 per cent of businesses surveyed saying that's where they prefer to buy. Many (24.5 per cent) prefer to buy direct from vendors, while 7.4 per cent will go to a large system integrator and a further 7.4 per cent will buy from a carrier. Additionally, 6.4 per cent will buy from multiple sources.

The number of people buying direct is somewhat inconsistent with what vendors say, though, Trost said. With 24.5 per cent of businesses buying direct, it's a big difference between the five to 10 per cent of direct business vendors claim to have.

The IP telephony study is part of an eight-volume benchmark study called "Unifed Communications and Collaboration." Other parts of the study focus on organizational strategies, unified communications applications, Web 2.0 and collaboration, mobility and video over IP.