Many consultants decide to be computer resellers.  But is this a smart move?

What Does it Mean to Be Computer Resellers?

Some consulting firms prefer to be pure consulting firms because they don’t think they can make a cent off products and don’t want to deal with the conflicts that reselling demands.  These pure computer consulting firms help clients decide what to buy, specs and also show them where to buy products but to not peddle the products themselves.  

Purchasing Agents

Purchasing agents are a variation on pure computer consulting firms and computer resellers.  If you are a purchasing agent, you do the purchasing for clients and your firm bills clients for a couple hours to perform that task.  Your firm is responsible for getting and looking at quotes, placing and tracking orders and following the purchasing process through until the end.  

Hybrid Consulting Firms

Hybrid consulting firms are those in which consulting businesses become computer resellers for some products but not others.  A lot of computer resellers in this capacity do white box PC reselling, selling PC clones.   Computer resellers that offer this service are offering non-branded desktops, servers and sometimes notebooks (white books).

Should You Be Computer Resellers?

In order to decide whether or not you want to join the ranks of other computer resellers, you have to think about how you want to spend your time.  Do you want to get some additional profit off product sales or have your income mostly come from pure consulting services? No matter what, to put yourself in a strong position you can’t lead off with being computer resellers in your sales pitch.   

Will Being Computer Resellers Put You in a Good Position?

In most cases, can being computer resellers really put you ahead and get your foot in the door?  In most cases, honestly the answer is no.  This is because when you label yourself as a reseller you position yourself as a commodities broker.  Customers will most likely not hire a commodities broker to do consulting, because they have you labeled in their minds as a cheap source and not a high-end professional services firm.

If you want to be computer resellers, resell to people that already have consulting relationships with you and make sure you get a decent profit margin for your time, capital, space, staff and overhead.  

Added By:  Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit