SaaS reseller programs, or SaaS reseller partnerships, come in different types and shapes. Choosing the right type is not often possible without having a deeper knowledge of them all.
You may choose the right product to sell. But if you do not follow the right method to sell that product, you may not go very far in terms of business growth, profitability, and expansion.
Many salespeople would say following the right method to sell a product is more important than the product itself. If you have a method in place, you can successfully sell any product.
This article will help you choose the right reseller program for your business.
12 Types of SaaS Reseller Programs That You Can Make a Business Around
1. Regional reseller program
The regional reseller program may be for you if you are a large marketing company or agency.
You will work closely with the SaaS software owner or parent company and their customers in a specific region or local market.
If you choose this program, it means that:
- You know your market more than your SaaS company does
- You create a marketing and sales strategy that is relevant to your market and region
- Your customers can turn to you when they need help instead of to your SaaS company
Regional partners reach a software product to different parts of the globe and exponentially increase the software owner’s revenue. Most multinational companies have regional resellers.
2. Technical reseller program
This reseller partnership is for you if you are a software developer trying to benefit your customers by integrating another software into your package.
This is called a technical partnership.
Adding third-party software to your software adds value to your service.
This means the following:
- You do not need additional investment to produce a second product for your customers
- You have determined that having access to the third-party product is important to your customers
- The third-party product solves a problem that your product does not solve or solves poorly
You may have to attain licensing and technical permission in the form of an API to start this business.
3. Agency reseller program
Also called agency partners, this business opportunity is for you if you already own an agency in the same sector or market.
For example, if you own an SEO, web design, or digital marketing agency, you may be interested in entering partnerships with Semrush or Ahrefs.
This means the following:
- You have gone through their SaaS proficiency test or certifications
- You have the expertise to help your customers in setting up, integrate or use the SaaS products you are partnering with
- In search of new clients and customers, you have sufficient resources and ability to expand your business
You may have seen this image at the footer of some companies serving the digital marketing industries.
These companies have entered such reseller partnerships with Google.
Agency reseller programs are great for agencies.
It uplifts their profile and brings them new business.
4. SaaS partnership for leaders in education
If you are an external training provider in the technology field, you may pursue this excellent SaaS reseller program by partnering with major software companies.
You can teach your trainees the software as part of your curriculum and make them a customer of the software at no extra customer acquisition cost.
You can make a deal with the SaaS company to introduce a discount for your trainees for a certain number of sales within a specific period. This helps your trainees get the software they need at a great price and brings you extra revenue.
Many SaaS companies already have educational partnership opportunities in place. Go to their website and contact them if you are looking for this reseller program.
5. SaaS reseller program that everyone knows about
This business model is not one of the best SaaS reseller programs, but everyone seems to be blown away by it.
I am talking about affiliate partnerships.
This reseller model is popular because you don’t need to invest much in it. Some would say you don’t need to invest at all in it.
However, successful affiliate marketers will tell you it actually needs some work to earn some money from it. If you want to make it a business, you must employ a lot of work.
In this reseller program, you sell the SaaS product to your followers through email links, links on your blogs, ebooks, PDF downloads, social media posts, and webinars.
You get a commission from every sale you make through your various publishing channels.
6. White-label SaaS reseller program
This is a comparatively newer reseller business model.
Under this model, you serve your customers using tools and products procured from a vendor or Manufacturer.
You send the product to your customer as your product when it is not exactly your product.
Your SaaS owner allows you to label their product as your product through a service-level agreement.
Let us talk about a physical product, so the matter becomes easier to understand.
If you are a graphic designer designing business cars, you may offer your customers to print their business cards although you do not have a business card printer.
You enter a reseller partnership with Vistaprint and send your artwork to them. They print the business cards and send them to your customer’s address without any sign that they are the printers and senders of the business cards.
White labeling is available for many SaaS products. You can increase the number of services you offer your customers without investing money in developing or maintaining those services.
7. SaaS Merchant wholesalers
If you are a SaaS customer, you do not meet these resellers. They work between owner-manufacturers and retailers. They are SaaS B2B companies.
These resellers buy software in bulk and sell them to retailers for a profit.
In most cases, they sell multiple SaaS products. Sometimes they sell them individually. But, sometimes, they bundle things up before reselling.
Wholesalers generally invest a large sum of money in their business ventures. They have warehouses, transportation means, and their own reseller programs.
8. Traditional retailers
You can buy Quickbooks accounting software online or from a Staples store.
In this case, Staples is a traditional retailer which stores SaaS products of different kinds and sells them to their loyal customers.
Nowadays, you can buy software by visiting your favorite vendor’s website. Your vendor has a business-level agreement with the software manufacturer and profits from any sales made through their physical and online channels.
It so happens that most customers choose to buy directly from manufacturers online instead of a retailer if the manufacturers make their products available to customers.
There may be products that you must buy through a retailer. Manufacturers make the products available to retailers who must deal with their customers.
Some manufacturers are just happy to develop and manufacture their products and make money without selling them directly to customers.
9. The arbitrage SaaS reseller
Arbitrage resellers are clever people. They constantly buy and sell software in different markets to profit from the price difference.
For example, they find a software on Amazon at $100 and at $95 at Walmart. They will sell the product on Amazon at $100 but supply it to the customer after buying it from Walmart as long as they can make a profit or the quantities are available.
Arbitrage SaaS reselling is a risky business. Only experienced resellers should try it. Besides, it needs your constant attention, without which you may lose a lot of money quickly.
10. Reseller to a reseller to a reseller
Many marketing programs involve several intermediaries. SaaS marketing is no different.
Suppose you have an agency and you sell software. You have entered a reselling partnership with a national or regional distributor. That distributor has the right to sell or market a product developed by an overseas company.
You are a reseller to a reseller.
At the same time, your marketing strategy includes recruiting local resellers or retailers for the same software. In the true sense of the term, they are also resellers.
The only difference is that they are resellers to a reseller (you) to a reseller (your distributor) to a seller (the manufacturer).
In some cases, a software may go through five resellers or intermediaries before it reaches the end user.
11. Application marketplace resellers of SaaS products
This SaaS reselling method is plenty on the internet.
The resellers sell many software products, including the ones competing with each other. The sellers, however, do not pay attention to the competition, as if it does not exist.
On the other hand, they like this competition and may use it to their advantage when it comes to choosing which product to promote.
They may promote a product if it brings them good money by displaying it at prominent locations on their websites.
In comparison, they may not promote a good product if the profit margin is less than average.
If you are a software manufacturer, you may not like this reselling. But these resellers own the platforms and are very strong entities. You can neglect them at your peril.
12. The coupon SaaS reseller
If you are a certified partner with a SaaS company, you may enjoy certain advantages over other resellers.
Your software manufacturers may allow you to sell their licenses to your customers at a reduced price.
For example, Roketto is a Hubspot reseller. Roketto can license Hubspot to their customers at a better price than the customers might have to pay if they buy the Hubspot services directly from Hubspot.
Roketto supplies its customers with unique shopping links to make the reselling happen. The links direct the customers to the Hubspot sales page, but the price customers pay is lower than the standard amount.
A note from Narrative Topics
SaaS reseller programs are a great way to earn money.
The SaaS model is very effective and makes a rewarding business. The money you earn at the beginning is not much, but – based on the reseller program type you choose – the recurrence of revenue over a period is lucrative.
Most customers continue their subscriptions once they agree to receive the service. That means you pay the customer acquisition cost only once and reap the rewards for an unlimited period.
Besides, the situation can be in your favor if you are into multiple SaaS reseller programs.
You can resell a second software to the customer who has subscribed to one software before. There are software for almost everything now, and we cannot live without some of them.
If you are interested in SaaS reseller programs, you may like to read our article on SaaS reseller agreement.
Read the article now to give your reseller business a great start.