How to Scale Your Connectivity Practice: An Advisor’s Guide

In an era of SaaS and cloud dominance, it's easy for technology advisors, agents, and consultants to overlook the significance of connectivity. However, in this article, we'll remind you why connectivity is still an essential part of any technology infrastructure and how scaling your connectivity business can lead to increased revenue and stickier customers.

By scaling your telecom and connectivity business you can open doors to cross-selling other high-value technology services. By the end of this blog, you’ll have a clear roadmap of how to prioritize connectivity and unlock the full potential of your practice.

The shifting connectivity market—A perfect opportunity

The telecommunications landscape is undergoing a dramatic transformation. Traditional telecom services are seeing declining returns, with the return on invested capital falling 10-15% since 2018 and revenue growth steady at 2.9% CAGR through 2028. However, this disruption creates an unprecedented opportunity for forward-thinking advisors.

While traditional services decline, next-generation connectivity is exploding.

• 5G services are projected to grow to $427.7 billion by 2028, at a 34.2% CAGR

• Fixed Wireless Access is expanding at a 14% CAGR

• Fiber infrastructure investment is accelerating

• Worldwide SASE market annual revenue will increase to more than $14B in 2027

At the same time, there’s an increasing demand for unified communications, advanced call management solutions, and cost-effective telephony systems. Cloud-based and IP-based PBX systems are rapidly overtaking the traditional PBX market due to greater scalability, flexibility and lower upfront costs. In addition, the rising adoption of cloud-based services and integration with modern communication platforms like VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is driving further market expansion.

This market evolution has created a perfect confluence of opportunity for advisors, who are perfectly positioned to capitalize on the growing demand for both traditional telecom and cloud services.

Why scale your connectivity practice?

Connectivity is still the backbone of business

As businesses increasingly adopt cloud infrastructure and SaaS solutions, reliable connectivity has become more critical than ever. High-performance networks are the foundation of modern business operations, powering everything from mission-critical applications to collaboration tools. From the reliable public Internet (fiber, cable, wireless) to the robust private circuits (MPLS, VPLS, P2P), these services are essential for businesses to remain competitive. The network isn't just infrastructure anymore—it's the lifeline powering digital transformation.

This digital transformation creates a unique opportunity for advisors to become the single trusted provider of both essential connectivity services and advanced cloud solutions.

All workforce models are dependent on connectivity

No matter how compelling cloud solutions have become, connectivity services are still the foundation of a business's network infrastructure. Connectivity connects users, branch offices, headquarters, data centers, and cloud services. Whether it’s work from home (WFH), hybrid, or in-office, reliable and efficient connectivity is indispensable. At the same time, both software-defined wide area networks (SD-WAN) and secure access service edge (SASE) are witnessing explosive growth, driven by an increasing reliance on sophisticated networks to facilitate remote work and secure data, applications, and systems. By embracing connectivity you unlock a world of potential to increase sales and grow your customer lifetime value.

Connectivity unifies your customers’ complete technology stack

Businesses use the cloud to store and manage their information, applications, and services. Companies require reliable and scalable connectivity to transmit data and enable seamless access to their cloud-hosted applications and services. As an advisor, selling connectivity alongside cloud solutions can help you earn more and ensure a comprehensive and optimized technology infrastructure for your customers.

It’s important to address multiple components of the customer's problem—not just an individual workload like email, but also other workloads such as backup, disaster recovery and solutions like the connectivity that are required to connect to the cloud.

—Van Murry, Managing Partner and President of Aeolus

Connectivity supports IT infrastructures

Today, nearly 70 percent of enterprises leverage a hybrid IT environment, including a mix of cloud or multiple cloud providers. Multi-cloud infrastructures also heavily depend on direct cloud connections for seamless operations. These connections centralize resources, ensuring swift access to the public cloud and enhancing visibility into operations and applications. Unified communication and collaboration services, vital for enterprise productivity, also rely on direct cloud connections.

Customers prefer to work with a single provider for all their technology

Customers increasingly seek simplicity and efficiency in their technology solutions, preferring a one-stop-shop for their tech needs. Showcasing your expertise by creating a comprehensive portfolio with a strong connectivity practice, means you can position yourself as the preferred and exclusive technology partner.

6 essential connectivity sales strategies

While selling connectivity has traditionally been an intensive manual process, there are steps you can take to streamline the process and close high-value connectivity deals more quickly.

1. Don’t try to be the expert in everything—Instead of hiring more engineers or trying to become an connectivity expert, find trusted experts who can support your sales and engineering teams. Look for vendor-agnostic experts who can guide you and your customer through the complexity of choosing the right technology stack. By harnessing the strength of partnerships, you can grow your revenue without increasing your SG&A expenses.

2. Look for a diverse catalog and provider specialists—When you want to expand your connectivity practice, find a partner with an extensive, diverse catalog of connectivity and telecom services. Whether it’s AT&T, Verizon, Lumen, or another carrier, each top-tier provider offers different expertise and capabilities. Lean on experts to help you speed up the ordering process and ensure your customers are getting the most value out of their services.

3. Focus on back-office capabilities—Creating connectivity quotes quickly and efficiently and having access to the right experts is essential to landing more connectivity deals. Look for self-service or assisted-sales tools that simplify locating the right products and providers to ensure you get the most favorable pricing and terms, and that your quotes align with your customers’ requirements. Whether you’re working on a simple or complex deal, insist on robust back-office tools for fast, accurate quotes, order tracking, and commissions management, so you can quickly share quotes with your customers, track their orders, and ensure they get the most value from their solutions

4. Alleviate headaches with network aggregation—Network aggregation is an ideal solution when you’re navigating the complex process of selling and servicing connectivity, particularly for multi-site networks. Instead of juggling contracts with multiple providers, network aggregation services own wholesale contracts with multiple providers and offer all-in-one services, including options for SD-WAN and managed security. These aggregators bring additional managed services to the table, helping you cross-sell complementary services across the network and beyond primary and secondary circuits. Working with a partner that has relationships with network aggregators means you can deliver a better experience to your customers and eliminate the need for them to deal with multiple bills from different carriers. Network aggregators expertly handle installation and trouble tickets, instilling trust and peace of mind in your customers.

5. Sell SD-WAN—The SD-WAN market is growing rapidly, making it an ideal time for advisors to capitalize on this opportunity to grow their revenues. Software-defined wide area network solutions are a natural evolution of WAN technologies and are suited to migrating applications to the cloud, offering better performance and investment protection. Instead of private circuits from carriers for connectivity, SD-WAN optimizes networks for cloud technologies, giving customers flexibility to leverage connections that meet their specific needs—both public and private and best effort or dedicated. SD-WAN also simplifies management and enhances application performance, contributing to an improved customer experience.

6. Sell SASE—SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) represents the future of secure connectivity, integrating networking and security services into a unified, cloud-native service. As businesses digitally transform, SASE addresses the shift of user traffic, workloads, and sensitive data to the cloud. It reduces complexity and costs, improves performance through application-based prioritization, and enhances security with tools like CASB, ZTNA, and SWG. SASE provides flexible, consistent security with next-generation firewall policies, zero-trust network access, and comprehensive threat prevention. The market is rapidly adopting unified SASE solutions, combining SD-WAN and security into one platform, making now an ideal time to capitalize on this growing opportunity.

89% of organizations have already deployed SD-WAN or are planning to deploy SD-WAN in the near future. This statistic highlights the strong momentum behind SD-WAN adoption as businesses recognize the strategic importance of modernizing their network infrastructures.

CommandLink report

Jumpstart your connectivity business with AppDirect

AppDirect can become an extension of your team. We offer all the expertise, tools, and support you need to build your customer experience, increase revenue stream, and reduce churn. 

Here’s how to make the most out of selling with AppDirect:

1. Sell across multiple technologies to boost your growth 

Despite the increasing focus on SaaS and cloud, connectivity remains a critical component of any technology infrastructure. Scaling your connectivity practice positions you as a full-stack advisor, enabling you to maximize cross-sell and up-sell opportunities.

Research shows that for every new category you sell into as an advisor, your revenues can increase by 2X-3X.

How to get started

Create a path to evolve your business from core connectivity to advanced services. Start with the two foundational technologies that drive every business today: productivity tools and telecom networks.

Then, transform those basic connectivity sales into comprehensive technology solutions.

A broad catalog of technologies is crucial for successful expansion, and AppDirect empowers you to seize this opportunity. With our marketplace of 1000+ providers and a vast catalog of 29,000 solutions, you can transform your business from a traditional telecom advisory into a comprehensive technology partner selling a wide range of solutions—from plain old telephone service (POTS), to modern SaaS collaboration tools like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, and RingCentral.

By offering diverse solutions—such as wireless services, SD-WAN, security, network and mobility lifecycle management, and voice services—you can drive increased revenue and help customers adapt and optimize new technologies, while tapping into a larger share of their budget.

Beyond connectivity, with AppDirect you can streamline your customers’ procurement across a complete technology portfolio—from mobility & IOT, cloud, hardware, and managed services, to security, customer experience, cloud infrastructure, and energy. This enables you to transform everyday connectivity sales into a total technology solution across the entire tech stack.

2. Future proof your business by upselling into more complex categories

Today's business landscape favors partnerships that provide comprehensive, end-to-end solutions. Leverage AppDirect's extensive multi-category catalog to delve into more complex categories to increase the overall value you bring to your customers.

How to get started

Resell all the leading LLMs through AppDirect's devs.ai

 devs.ai is a no-code AI agent builder and marketplace that enables you to resell all the leading LLMs to your customers under one plan. By granting them access to devs.ai, you empower your customers to easily create, manage, and deploy custom AI agents in a secure environment. 

You can also sell Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini through AppDirect.

Sell comprehensive managed services

Compete effectively by leveraging AppDirect's managed services portfolio. Expert project managers can guide you on onboarding, strategic initiatives, technology upgrades, premium technical support, and lifecycle management.

Sell end-to-end network management

Deliver superior service with AppDirect’s vendor-agnostic network management, including 24/7 monitoring, incident response, and on-site support.

Sell comprehensive network and mobility lifecycle management

Layer in comprehensive network and mobility lifecycle management to save your customers up to 30% on their network and mobile spend. vCom’s vManager, provided in combination with AppDirect, is a powerful suite of spend management services that handles everything from planning and procurement to operations and expense management on one streamlined platform.

Sell comprehensive hardware and logistics lifecycle management

Provide comprehensive management for end-user hardware, including procurement, maintenance, inventory control, configuration, testing, deployment, retrieval, and secure disposal, through our Firstbase platform.

3. Broaden your sales base through a refined customer acquisition strategy

It’s easy to disappear into the background in today’s busy market landscape, which is why it’s so important for advisors to stand out above the crowd. In The AppDirect IT Business Leaders 2024 Outlook Report, IT leaders showed clearly that to get customers’ attention and to establish a trusting relationship, advisors need to demonstrate that they understand the needs of their business.

How to get started

• Establish yourself as a leader in connectivity and communications by offering customers solutions from a robust digital marketplace. Use your expertise to attract and engage customers, building lasting relationships.

• Sell from the AppDirect platform—You can sell both first- and third-party products and services, and provide customers with a digital hub to automate their spend management, driving continuous engagement.

Being able to offer your customers a complete solution is a game-changer, differentiating you from competitors. Every time you cross-sell or up-sell into a new tech category, you boost your customer lifetime value through increased sales opportunities, multiple revenue streams from cross-selling, and reduced customer churn.

Resources to get you started

Learn how AppDirect can help you navigate the complexities of selling communication services. You’ll be on your way to scaling your connectivity business and increasing wallet share.

Visit the Connectivity & SD-WAN/SASE Solutions page where you'll find a link to training resources and marketing tools, and links to leading connectivity providers.