The real strength of a successful reseller is the ability to market locally.
Local ISP's normally charge a much higher fee for domain name webhosting than can be found online. A reseller, by providing his services for a slightly lower fee, can often grab a large number of clients if he's willing to aggressively sell his services.
Let's assume that you live in Jersey Junction, Iowa.
Looking in the phone book, you notice that Jersey Junction has three Internet Service Providers. After calling each of these providers, you determine that the Average Monthly Fee for domain name webhosting in Jersey Junction is $25. You also determine that the Average Setup Fee is $35.00, and the average cost of domain name registration is $35.00 per year.
Now, let's assume that your webhosting provider will sell you similar plans for $7.25 per month. You could safely double that figure and charge your clients $14.50 per month. Now you're receiving a 100% markup on webhosting. If you sign up 100 clients, you will net $725.00 per month in recurring revenue. At the same time, you are saving your customers money by providing your services for almost half the price of the local ISP's.
Whether you charge a setup fee or not is entirely up to you. What I like to do is charge a setup fee, but waive it if I need to in order to make the sale.
If you can find a cheap source for domain names, you could use this, as well, as an added inducement to buy.
Now that you offer competitive prices, you're ready to compete.
Let's take another look at your competition. This time, let's evaluate their marketing strengths and weaknesses. Where and how do they advertise? In the newspaper? radio spots? Where are they strong? Where are they weak?
Suppose you find that the ISP's in Jersey Junction rely primarily on radio advertising and marketing to their existing dial-up clients but do very little face-to-face sales. (This is most likely the case). This tells you that you might be able to exploit their weakness in the area of personal contact.
In most communites, this will be the most fruitful angle to work.
This means you need to put yourself where your prospective clients will be, and you need to be there often. Join your local Chamber of Commerce, Kiwanis Club, or Lions Club and GET INVOLVED.
A little secret here: People often do business with people they like, even if they can get a better deal elsewhere. By ingratiating yourself with various business owners, you will create a desire in them to send business your way. Relax, have fun, get to know them, be helpful. Selling your service should seem to be almost an afterthought.
Another fruitful angle to exploit is good old-fashioned door to door sales. Hit the business areas in your city and pop into several businesses a week. You can simply introduce yourself, drop off your brochure, and answer any questions they might have.
Speaking of brochures... If you always have nicely designed professional looking literature handy, this will make a very good impression on prospective clients. They may never read it, but they will judge you to be a serious businessman, and this reflects well on your company.
There are, of course, many other ways to market locally. With a little creativity and a little work you can easily become the leading webhosting provider in your community (see also What Do I Need To Know About Reseller Web Hosting?).
Autor by Larry Dozier
