What to Look for in a Value-Added Reseller
If you’re evaluating Smartsheet, or you’re coming up to renewal and wondering whether your current setup is actually working for you – there’s a question worth asking before you think about licences: who are you buying through, and does it matter?
The short answer is yes. But only if you choose the right kind of reseller.
Transactional vs value-added – the only distinction that matters
There are resellers who will process your order, apply a discount, and move on. There’s nothing wrong with that if all you need is a licence. But if you’re expecting Smartsheet to do meaningful work in your organisation – to change how your teams operate, how you report, how projects get delivered – then a transactional relationship won’t get you there.
A value-added reseller is meaningfully different. Not in what you pay – purchasing through a reseller costs you no more than buying direct – but in what you get alongside the licence. You keep the same end user agreement with Smartsheet, the same technical support, the same access to your account manager and Customer Success team. What a good reseller adds is an additional layer of expertise, continuity and hands-on support.
I’m yet to find a client-side downside to purchasing through a reseller. The question is simply whether the reseller you choose is worth the relationship.
They should have come from your world, not just from software
Smartsheet has an exceptional team with deep platform knowledge and broad industry exposure across a genuinely global customer base. What a specialist reseller can add on top of that is first-hand, coalface experience in your specific domain.
Configuring Smartsheet well isn’t just a technical exercise – it’s a process exercise. The person guiding you needs to understand how work actually flows in your organisation, not just how the tool works. There’s a difference between knowing the platform and having previously run a PMO, managed a capital programme, or tried to get a portfolio of projects visible to a board with inconsistent data.
Before founding Prodactive, I spent twenty years in industry across transformation, change, portfolio and programme management – pharmaceuticals, consumer goods, hospitality, retail, real estate. That background shapes every conversation we have with clients. We’re looking at your Smartsheet environment through the lens of someone who’s had to deliver similar requirements from the inside.
Ask your reseller where they came from. The answer tells you a lot.
Continuity and a relationship that compounds
The Smartsheet partner programme is designed to ensure that certified partners remain close to their clients – driving adoption, supporting implementations, and helping organisations get more from their investment over time. The best reseller relationships reflect exactly that intent.
One thing clients consistently tell us they value is continuity. Smartsheet account managers, like those across most enterprise software businesses, do change regularly – territories shift, teams grow, organisations evolve. That’s not a criticism; it’s simply the reality of operating at global scale. What a good reseller provides is a constant alongside that – a relationship that doesn’t reset when a territory changes hands, and that compounds in value the longer it runs.
At Prodactive we have clients we’ve worked with for years. We know what’s been built, why it was built that way, and what’s changed in the business since. When you’re evaluating a reseller, ask how long their typical client relationships last.
Adoption over activation
Smartsheet expects its solution partners to drive adoption and support successful implementations, and rightly so. A licence that isn’t used well isn’t delivering value for anyone.
A value-added reseller should be thinking about adoption from the outset. That means understanding how your teams work, where the likely friction points are, and building something people will actually engage with. Look for evidence of this in how a reseller talks about their work – do their case studies describe outcomes, or just deliverables? Do their clients talk about what changed, or just what was built?
Value over discount
Some resellers lead with price reduction. That’s a valid offer, but it shouldn’t be the main one.
The real value of a reseller relationship is what sits around the licence – the strategic input, the implementation experience, the ongoing relationship that catches problems early and identifies opportunities you might otherwise miss. That’s where the return actually comes from.
At Prodactive we look at what we can genuinely add to a client’s engagement – whether that’s professional services support, discounted or complementary, or simply the kind of frank advice that helps you get more from what you’re already paying for. The goal is that working with us makes your Smartsheet investment work harder.
What to actually ask when evaluating a reseller
Do they understand your sector, or are they generalists? Have they built solutions like the one you need? Can they show you evidence – real clients, specific outcomes, people you could speak to? Who does the actual work, and can you meet them before you commit? What does the relationship look like twelve months after go-live?
Vague answers to specific questions tell you something.
The bottom line
Purchasing Smartsheet licences through a value-added reseller costs you nothing extra. What it gives you – if you choose the right one – is a partner formally linked to your account, aligned to Smartsheet’s own goals around adoption and success, and invested in what you actually do with the platform.
The licence is the starting point. What matters is what happens next.
If you’re purchasing Smartsheet – new or at renewal – get in touch. We’re happy to talk through what a reseller relationship with Prodactive looks like in practice.
