Security has always been a strong market. Even in lean times, it is a business necessity rather than a nice-to-have.

However, selling security solutions in a crowded market of commodity and high value solutions and me-too messaging can be tough.

Why not take a fresh look at marketing activity?

Many security vendor marketing strategies rely on the fear factor to drive sales but businesses really want value. Your marketing message should be structured accordingly.

Most organisations already have standard security software such as enterprise antivirus or a firewall. Consequently, many sales opportunities will be replacements or renewals.

Resellers must express how the customer can get greater value out of buying more products and how that can help them reduce their costs.

Good vendors will continue marketing even in tougher times and take a more co-operative approach to providing channel partners with the support and resources to conduct their own campaigns.

Vendor and partner can work as a team on marketing to generate more profits while spreading the cost of doing that marketing.

For VARs, marketing may be lower down the list of priorities compared to standard sales and events activities.

This is where the vendor can step in, showing VARs how to put together messaging and campaign materials as well as tap into wider trends within security.

Vendors can also directly benefit from co-operative marketing, because such funds can support events and webinar activities that the vendor and reseller run together. This can generate leads for both parties, while the vendor can be sure that the reseller is working well.

In the current economic climate, this co-operative approach can be a difficult balancing act, but can still be a win-win.

David Parkin is EMEA sales director at Sunbelt Software