How to become a computer software reseller

Running an online business sounds like a dream come true for many. There are countless opportunities to create an online business from scratch and earn hundreds of thousands of dollars without having to lift a finger. Or so it seems.

The obvious question is — if it’s that easy, why isn’t everybody doing it? You probably already know the answer. It’s neither easy, nor is everyone well-suited to run a business. Despite the fact that setting up an online business takes less time and effort than launching a traditional brick & mortar business, there are quite a few things you need to figure out and take care of before you can even begin thinking about generating a profit.

If you’ve researched the matter, you’re likely also aware of the hundreds of scammers that are promising you can get rich overnight. There are thousands of pyramid schemes out there, and most “gurus” teaching people how to make money online are actually making a profit by exploiting people’s naivete. 

That said, it’s not that there aren’t genuine business opportunities out there. There are plenty of ways to start a legitimate online business and sell tangible products that provide tremendous value to your customers. You just need to learn how to recognize these opportunities, as well as be aware of the time, money, and effort you’ll need to invest in order to get your business off the ground.

White labeling as the best way to start your online business

White labeling is one such opportunity. This business model allows you to resell other people’s products and services under your own brand. 

Why do companies allow you to sell their products? They’ve worked tirelessly to develop these solutions, and they’re willing to let you make a profit off of them, and even sell them as your own. 

What’s the catch? 

The catch is that they don’t have to concentrate any of their efforts on marketing to the end-users. Instead, companies offering white label solutions can continuously develop new products and services, while resellers take care of promoting the products and acquiring customers. 

Think of it this way — these companies are technically outsourcing their marketing by engaging resellers to advertise to the end-users. They save a ton of time and money and can continue focusing on other business operations, while the sales keep coming in.

This is a favorable business interaction from a reseller’s point of view as well. As a reseller, you get the opportunity to make a profit by selling a product or service you haven’t invested any money in. You don’t need to worry about the development cost, inventory, maintenance, or customer support. Your only job is to efficiently promote solutions and generate sales.

Resellers are compensated in one of two ways:

1. By earning commissions on every sale they make

2. By setting their own margins 

Commissions are typically a percentage of the price the end-user pays. With this model, you’re reselling the product at the original price, determined by the provider. The amount of money you make depends on the price point of the product or service and the commission rate.

With margins, you have the opportunity to set your own price point. This means you’re buying a solution for one price and selling it at a higher price. Your profit here is the difference between the two price points. 

At first glance, margins seem much more appealing. One thing to keep in mind is that you’ll need to justify the higher price somehow. Most resellers do this by including additional services alongside the white label solution they’re reselling.

With white label software, these additional services are typically the implementation of the software and training. 

Who can become a computer software reseller?

As we’ve mentioned, running an online business isn’t exactly for everyone. Although technically anyone can become a reseller, there are quite a few factors that will largely determine the success of this business endeavor. 

Before you make a final decision and decide to dive into the software resell world, you should be aware of all the different aspects you’ll need to cover before you can start making a profit. At a bare minimum, these include:

• Having a decent level of knowledge and skills regarding the IT industry

• Finding a reputable software supplier

• Building a website from scratch

• Creating content to attract potential customers

• Creating enticing offers

• Promoting your business

This doesn’t mean you need to be a tech wizard or an experienced marketer to find success with a software reselling business. It does, however, mean that you’ll need to thoroughly research the industry and familiarize yourself with the software solutions you’ll be selling. 

It also goes to show you that you’ll need to be prepared to learn the necessary marketing skills in order to effectively promote your business and consistently generate sales.

Let’s go over these aspects in detail, so you know exactly what it takes to become a successful computer software reseller.

Having a decent level of knowledge and skills regarding the IT industry

If you’re someone who barely uses a computer, reselling software might not be the best option. There are many intricacies and nuances regarding computer software. 

You must be fully aware of all the features, functionalities, and advantages the software you’re reselling offers. As you can imagine, regardless of what your software is, there are likely hundreds of similar solutions your clients can opt for instead. Without the proper knowledge, you’ll find it difficult to convince them to buy from you, rather than one of your competitors. 

You must be prepared to answer any and all technical questions, explain the functionality of each feature the software provides, as well as highlight its advantages. In some cases, providers of white label solution will give you supporting material that briefly explains what the solution is and what its primary functions are. 

If you fail to understand why certain features might be important to your client, you won’t know how to frame your marketing offers and what your unique sales proposition should be. 

This doesn’t mean you’ll need to learn how to code or develop the software yourself, but you should have moderate experience with similar software solutions. If you’re selling a management platform, but haven’t been involved in project management before, it might be difficult to wrap your head around all the different options it provides.

You can always take the time to learn about different management techniques, requirements, and issues the software might help your clients resolve. Depending on the complexity of the solution you’re reselling, this can be quite time-consuming.

If you have some previous knowledge on the subject, you’ll find it way easier to both understand and explain the benefits your solution provides, as well as to close the sales.

Finding a reputable software supplier

There are hundreds of different white label software providers offering a range of different solutions, with varying functionalities and of different quality. It’s imperative to find a supplier with an excellent online reputation who’s offering premium quality products that your clients will be satisfied with. 

If the product or service you’re reselling fails to meet the customers’ expectations, your business will quickly crumble. That’s why you must ensure that the software you’ll be reselling is reliable, user-friendly, and works smoothly across different devices. 

When it comes to a supplier’s reputation, it shouldn’t be too difficult to discern. Reputable ones should have customer reviews or case studies you can look into, as proof of their credibility. If they deliver high-quality products and offer decent commissions, other resellers already in the business with them will likely recommend them. 

Check online forums to see what the current resellers are saying about the software supplier you’re interested in. A quick Google search should do the trick.

Regarding the quality of the software, the best way to determine just how good a particular solution is would be to request a demo. There’s no reason for the supplier not to provide one, so we recommend sticking with those that allow you to test the software before you start reselling it. 

Here at Sell SaaS, we give each of our potential resellers an opportunity to thoroughly test out the software themselves and get to know all the features and functionalities before making a commitment to become a reseller. And we believe every decent supplier should provide you with this opportunity.

Another thing to keep in mind when selecting a supplier is a software reseller agreement. You should carefully review it and check all the requirements, responsibilities, payment methods, and the size of your commissions or margin restrictions. Don’t just go blindly for the product that seems the most appealing, or a supplier who promises the highest commissions. A reseller agreement is a legally binding document, so make sure you agree with all the terms it lays out before signing it. 

Building a website

Another prerequisite for launching an online business is having your own website. It will serve as your “base of operations,” and all of your content and products you’ll be reselling will be featured here. 

Since this will be the foundation of your business, we strongly recommend investing the necessary time and effort in developing a visually pleasing, optimized website that’s rich with valuable content. 

There are hundreds of WordPress themes out there that can help you get your website up and running in 15-or-so minutes, but the sites you create this way can be a bit dull. Despite the customization option built within these themes, your options are still limited. These websites rarely give off the impression that they were developed by a professional who knows exactly what they’re doing and is fully invested in their business.

Besides, you would have to learn how to use WordPress first, as well as create the website copy yourself. This takes time and, unless you have experience with writing engaging copy that will draw in customers, the results might be a bit disappointing.

That’s why we recommend hiring a professional to create a website for you. This way, you can request a lot more customization options and will end up with a more impressive website that's also fully-optimized.

The key considerations when building a website are:

1. The site’s loading speed

2. Good website navigation

3. Clean and appealing design

4. Visuals and website copy

5. Mobile compatibility

The website is one of the crucial investments in the early stages of launching a business. Without one, your business practically doesn’t exist in an online environment. A great website can be a tremendous asset, while a poorly-designed one can deter potential customers. 

So, don’t be hesitant to invest in your website. Remember that you are building a business, and although a great website calls for a decent initial investment, it will definitely pay off in the long run.

Creating content

Once you have your website up and running, you’ll need to enrich it by adding content to your pages. It’s no longer enough to simply have a home page and a product page. With competition around every virtual corner, you will need to earn the trust of your customers if you’re hoping to generate those sales. 

One of the best ways to do that is through content. Apart from showing your audience that you’re an expert on the subject, providing value for free through useful, relevant content is a sign of goodwill. It shows that your objective isn’t only to make as much money as possible, but that you’re genuinely concerned with helping your clients solve their issues or get a step closer to reaching their goals.

After they’ve already received immense value from your business for free, they will be much more inclined to consider your paid offers since it’s reasonable that the value you’re providing through these products and services is even greater. 

You can start out by creating several articles about various topics that are closely related to the product or service you’re selling. Don’t worry — you don’t need to be a first-class writer to create a few blog posts. 

Do your research, gather the necessary information, and create a structure of your article. Cover the most important points, explain the topic to your audience, and tell them why it matters. What issues does it help resolve? How can they benefit from your advice? What are the next steps they should take after reading the article? If you answer all these questions, you’re good to go. 

One thing to keep in mind is that your content needs to be optimized for search engines in order to generate organic traffic from Google. You can take an SEO course and grasp the basics in a few days, to ensure that your content performs well. If you want to offer similar products to your clients, invest in a white label SEO audit tool, or one of the other SEO tools to help them rank well too!

The alternative would be to hire someone to create the content for you. There are plenty of extremely talented and creative professional writers that you can hire on freelancing sites like UpWork, for a reasonable price. 

Creating an offer

When you’re creating a reselling business, it’s crucial to remember that you’ll be selling every single product and service under your own brand. This means you cannot simply reuse the copy that the supplier created for the product. You will need to get creative since you’re not only promoting the products themselves—you’re also promoting your business as a whole.

Your offers also need to stand out from the competition. The functionality of the software is exactly the same, regardless of how many different resellers are promoting it. That’s why, apart from highlighting the benefits the software solution provides, you must come up with engaging copy and powerful marketing messages that align with your brand.

What you can do is bundle up a few different software solutions and create a unique offer. You can also offer additional services such as training and implementation to gain a competitive advantage over other resellers. 

Another thing to keep in mind is that the software you’re reselling isn’t your only offer. Before asking them to make a purchase, you can offer your customers additional free content in the form of reports, eBooks, training videos, and demos. You can also share insights, advice, industry news, and interesting stories with them via email.

This way, you’re nurturing your relationship, making sure that your business stays on their mind, and gradually earning their trust and building credibility. By constantly engaging your customers and providing value on a regular basis, they’ll become more responsive to your promotional offers in the future.

Promoting your business

There are a number of different ways to get your offers in front of your customers. You can:

1. Ensure that your website and content is well-optimized for search engines and generate tons of organic traffic

2. Build a strong social media presence and attract new customers through social posting and interaction

3. Run online advertisements to draw in new leads and customers

4. Create powerful email campaigns to nurture your leads and promote your offers

In our opinion, a comprehensive marketing strategy that involves all four is the best approach. If you rely on one but neglect the other sources, you’re basically leaving money on the table. That said, handling all three advertising channels requires time, as well as a great level of marketing experience.

Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts you can take here. The results of your business will be directly linked to your ability to effectively promote the software. If you don’t have any marketing experience, learning as much as you can about the different marketing channels and strategies should be a priority. 

We’d go as far as to say that you shouldn’t even consider any other aspect until you’ve mastered the basics of online advertising. There are hundreds of different blogs run by veteran marketers, as well as plenty of affordable online marketing courses you can take. You should study these in your spare time, for as long as it takes until you’re comfortable that you know how to execute marketing campaigns that will produce results. 

Remember — you’re building a business, one that should be sustainable, scalable, and profitable. The better your foundations, the higher the chances that you’ll be a successful reseller and that you’ll generate a decent profit. 

So don’t just look for the fastest way to start. Instead, think about the best approach that will provide you with the best possible results in the long run.

Ready to start your computer software reselling business?

If you have all the necessary knowledge and technical skills to set up your website, create engaging content, and effectively promote your offers, you can start your software reselling business today.

SellSaaS offers you a variety of top-tier white label software solutions to choose from. Each piece of software is fully customizable, so you can quickly and effortlessly tailor it to your own brand. 

We also offer free demos to our resellers, so you can check out each solution before you start reselling it to your customers. 

If you’re looking for a reliable partner to start your software reselling business — SellSaaS is the perfect place to start!