As much as we are all talking about the impact that cloud, subscription based consumption etc will leave many channel partners in the dust....I believe it's the new world of sales and marketing via the buyers journey that will be the real culprit.............

Time and time and time again, talking to, and working with ITSPs of all types (VAR, MSP, CSP, SI etc) and sizes I hear "ok, I'm ready to sell cloud - let's go!". Really?

I think we all know how a very large percentage of the 10's of thousands of the IT Channel/IT Solutions Providers (VAR, MSP etc) came about starting decades ago. In case you dont,

Many, many, many of these were started by a guy/gal that became tired of "working for the man" at a vendor (Cisco, Avaya, HP, you name it) or at an existing large IT Solutions Provider and said "heck I can do this myself" and/or they were part of the latest RIF. So he or she hung up a shingle, brought on some clients they knew and that trusted him/her and next thing you know, over time the client base grew, they now had a handful of staff and "voila - a nice little business emerged". And do you know that virtually everyone of these guys/gals say today "it's the best decision I've ever made"

Here's how I see it,

The cloud-focused MSP or cloud focused IT Solutions Provider (what ever label you want to use) isn't going to cannibalize their current revenue streams coming from their non-cloud clients by aggressively introducing cloud to them - so if they are serious about cloud they need net-new clients for their cloud solutions and services. 

Same thing with the "born-in-the-cloud" guys - they obviously need net-new clients for their cloud solutions and services.

Problem, it's going to be "next to impossible" for most all of these guys to properly execute on today's digital marketing aka inbound or marketing 2.0 needed to fill their funnel of their cloud solutions and services with their lack of expertise and resources to consistently create, execute and manage digital marketing campaigns.

As much as we are all talking about the impact that cloud, subscription based consumption etc will leave many channel partners in the dust....I believe it's the new world of sales and marketing via the buyers journey that will be the real culprit.............

Time and time and time again, talking to, and working with ITSPs of all types (VAR, MSP, CSP, SI etc) and sizes I hear "ok, I'm ready to sell cloud - let's go!". Really?