Tech Advisor Revenue Pacing Ahead of 2024 Projections

Most technology advisor partners are posting higher-than-expected numbers in 2024, according to a recent survey of partners.

Channel Futures' Q1 market outlook found that 55% of tech advisors – companies that source services from IT and telecom suppliers in a residual commission (agent) model – are forecasting higher 2024 revenue than they had originally predicted. Similarly, 60% have increased their profit forecast.

With another chunk of partners simply saying their forecasts haven't changed since the beginning of the year, that left only a small number of partners who said they've had to cut back their numbers.

Q. As of today, how does your current overall full year 2024 forecasts compare to your original full year 2024 projections?

Source: Channel Futures Q1 Market Outlook

Rising 2024 forecasts come after a year where many partners saw growth. Asked how their 2023 revenue compared to 2022 revenue, 38% of tech advisors reported an increase of more than 20%. Despite a widely reported slowdown in tech purchasing in Q1 and Q2, many partners managed to ramp up their sales processes late in the year to cross the finishing line on deals.

Q. How did your overall full year 2023 actuals compare with 2022 actuals?

Source: Channel Futures Q1 Market Outlook Survey

Are these eye-popping numbers simply a matter of respondents self-reporting inflated results?

Related:Q3 Tech Advisor Survey Shows Shift in UCaaS Sales

Alex Danyluk, chief strategy officer at tech services distributor Avant, confirmed that growth is plentiful across the TA market. Danyluk said TAs working with Avant grew revenue by more than 30% on average in 2023. A number of technology product categories helped them attain those numbers, Danyluk said.

"This growth was largely driven by CCaaS, connectivity and security. In 2024, we expect to see continued strong growth in security, with security already significantly outpacing our historical ramp of UCaaS sales for the same time period," Danyluk told Channel Futures.

Twenty-seven percent of survey respondents said their cybersecurity revenue increased moderately (less than 10%), while 19% said they saw a significant increase. That makes for 46% of partners who said they saw an increase in cybersecurity revenue in Q1 2024 versus Q1 2023. And WAN/connectivity was the most common area of revenue growth, with 48% of partners reporting an increase.

Contact center as a service (CCaaS) and associated customer experience (CX) technologies are hot. It was the only product category where no TAs reported a decrease in revenue.

"Regarding contact center, we are seeing individual deal sizes climb to new records and volumes. We believe the overall growth of CCaaS is not only driven by the interest in AI, but also by the continued migration of contact centers into CCaaS solutions," Danyluk said.

Avant's Alex Danyluk

According to the survey, 48% of partners made less than $1 million in annual revenue. Another 15% made between $1 million and $2.5 million. Finally, 11% made between $2.5 million and $5 million.

Tech Advisor Revenue Growth

Catherine Behrenbrinker leads Michigan-based technology advisor Symplicity Communications, which is seeing "triple-digit growth."

Symplicity's Catherine Behrenbrinker

But that swell of business growth didn't materialize out of thin air. Behrenbrinker said she has dug deep into different educational tracks to boost her business. After partaking in a nine-month emerging leadership track with the Small Business Association, she put together a 42-page document detailing her plans for the company's growth. In addition, she and her team participated in Masterclasses from Intelisys to learn how to build a CX practice.

"This is now contributing to the massive growth in revenue and employees at my organization," Behrenbrinker told Channel Futures. "My recommendation to agents is create a plan and work with a TSD like Intelisys that has the excellent programming to get you and your team the skills you need to reach your goals. Don’t forget to dream big."

Channel Futures' Q4 partner survey challenged the notion of share-shift in the TSD space.

See other findings from Channel Futures' Q1 2024 partner survey: