More Agents Will Use TSD Branding

But if TSDs prove indepensible for agents in customer acquisition, it follows that more agents will fully align their brands with their chosen TSD. 

Agents in many areas credit the TSDs for their help in customer acquisition. Many partners say they lean heavily on their distributor’s sales engineers when it comes to more complex technologies like CCaaS and cybersecurity. For understaffed agencies, the TSDs can help them look large enough to potential enterprise customers. In other cases, they need the back office support. 

Telarus CEO Adam Edwards and Telarus senior vice president of strategic partners Dan Piryigi told Channel Futures that more partners are indicating their interest in leveraging the Telarus brand.

“And that’s how we see them now pitching to their customers. ‘By the way, I have this whole bench of resources called Telarus, and I bring them to bear, and that is part of my value to you,’” Edwards said earlier this year.

In some cases, a subagent might only align with the TSD on a customer-by-customer basis. But on the extreme opposite end, they may align as a result of an acquisition. The latter trend is, of course, nothing new, with AppSmart’s Invest program bringing many agencies into exclusive distribution agreements and Telarus purchasing long-time partner TelAdvocate.