RW:  What is really clever about that approach is that it puts the ball back in the dealer’s court.  It is up to the dealer (who knows the local market far better than Vodafone) to identify the target SMBs.  All too often, local dealers just become passive takers of business. 

This approach takes the weight off Vodafone and it also demonstrates that Vodafone does believe there is a strong role for local dealers.

But it will only work if Vodafone has genuinely got the best product for that particular group of SMBs.  In my experience, a lot of Vodafone tariffs are aimed at corporates, and the SMB ends up with an uprated consumer tariff.  If the Vodafone offering isn’t as good as Orange’s, the dealer will simply sell Orange – the dealer won’t spend ten minutes selling one brand against another.

One of the big advantages of working with a good dealer network is that the fastest- growing companies are precisely the ones that are most likely to work with local dealers, rather than trotting down to PC World or buying direct.

This is because they have worked out that local dealers will save them time, and they appreciate that time is an expensive and limited commodity.  In other words, one of the best ways of segmenting SMBs may be by the channel from which they choose to buy.

A founding member of Saatchi & Saatchi in 1970, Roy Warman went on to set up Warman & Bannister, a business-to-business advertising agency.  He now works as an independent consultant.