How to Find Resellers and MSPs in New Markets

Expanding into a new market can create valuable growth opportunities, but entering an unfamiliar region also comes with a major challenge: finding the right local partners.

Resellers and Managed Service Providers (MSPs) can give businesses access to established customer relationships, local market knowledge, technical expertise, and sales capabilities. The challenge is identifying partners that actually fit your business rather than simply collecting a long list of companies.

A structured approach can make partner discovery faster and more effective. Here is how businesses can find and evaluate resellers and MSPs when entering new markets.

1. Define What Your Ideal Partner Looks Like

Before searching for partners, establish clear qualification criteria.

Not every reseller or MSP will be suitable for your business. Depending on your product and target market, you may want partners with:

• Experience in your industry
• Specific technical capabilities
• Existing relationships with your target customers
• Coverage in particular cities or countries
• Relevant certifications
• Compatible products or services
• An established sales team
• Experience selling similar solutions

Having these criteria in advance makes it easier to separate potential partners from companies that simply appear relevant in a search.

2. Start With the Target Market

Partner research becomes much easier when the market is clearly defined.

Instead of searching broadly for resellers or MSPs, identify the specific countries, cities, industries, and customer segments you want to reach.

For example, a technology company entering a new country might look specifically for partners serving:

• Mid-sized businesses
• Healthcare organizations
• Financial services companies
• Professional services firms
• Enterprise customers

This helps create a more focused partner prospecting strategy.

3. Use a Reseller and MSP Database

Manually searching Google, company websites, LinkedIn, and industry directories can take considerable time. It can also produce inconsistent information.

A reseller database can provide a more structured starting point by bringing potential partners together in one searchable resource.

Businesses can use database information to identify companies by factors such as location, company type, industry, products, and partnership capabilities.

This is especially useful when entering a market where the company does not already have an established network.

4. Search for MSPs With Relevant Capabilities

MSPs can be particularly valuable for technology vendors because they often have ongoing relationships with businesses that rely on outsourced IT services.

However, the largest MSP is not necessarily the best partner.

Look for providers that have experience with the type of technology you sell and serve the customer segment you want to reach.

For example, if your solution is designed for small and medium-sized businesses, an MSP focused primarily on large enterprises may not be the right fit.

The objective should be relevance rather than volume.

5. Evaluate Partner Fit Before Outreach

Once you have identified potential partners, qualify them before spending time on outreach.

A simple qualification framework can include:

This process helps reduce the number of low-quality prospects entering your pipeline.

6. Look Beyond Company Names

A company name and website are not enough to determine whether a business is a good potential partner.

Try to understand who the company serves, what technologies it works with, which products it sells, and what type of partnerships it already maintains.

For MSPs and resellers, additional information about decision-makers can also be valuable. Reaching the right person is usually more productive than sending a generic message to a company's main inbox.

7. Build a Localized Partner List

A new market may contain hundreds or even thousands of potential resellers and MSPs. Instead of treating them as one large audience, segment them.

For example:

Market → Country → City → Partner Type → Industry → Partner Fit

You could create separate groups for:

• IT resellers
• MSPs
• VARs
• Distributors
• Specialized technology partners
• Industry-specific partners

This makes outreach more relevant and helps your team prioritize the strongest opportunities.

8. Research Existing Partner Ecosystems

Another useful approach is to examine the ecosystems surrounding your competitors and complementary technology providers.

Look at the types of companies already selling, implementing, or supporting similar solutions.

This can reveal potential partners that already understand your market and customer requirements.

However, businesses should still evaluate potential conflicts before approaching a company that works closely with a competitor.

9. Personalize Partner Outreach

Once you have a qualified list, avoid sending the same generic message to every company.

A reseller may be interested in additional revenue opportunities, while an MSP may care more about expanding its technology portfolio or delivering additional value to existing customers.

A stronger outreach message should explain:

• Why you selected the company
• What makes the partnership relevant
• What customers could benefit from the solution
• What the partner could gain
• What the next step would be

Relevant outreach generally creates a better first impression than mass messaging.

10. Use Automation to Scale Partner Research

When entering multiple markets, manually researching every company can quickly become difficult to manage.

This is where channel partner recruitment automation can help streamline parts of the process. Automated workflows can assist with identifying potential partners, applying qualification criteria, organizing prospects, and managing follow-ups.

Automation does not eliminate the need for human evaluation. Instead, it allows teams to spend less time on repetitive research and more time engaging with promising partners.

11. Prioritize Quality Over Quantity

A list containing 5,000 companies may look impressive, but it does not necessarily represent a strong partner pipeline.

Ten highly relevant partners can be more valuable than hundreds of poorly matched prospects.

Prioritize companies based on factors such as:

• Strategic fit
• Customer overlap
• Market coverage
• Technical capabilities
• Sales potential
• Partnership compatibility
• Ability to generate business

This creates a healthier pipeline and prevents sales teams from wasting time on partners that were never a good fit.

12. Keep Your Partner Data Updated

Markets change constantly. Companies launch new services, change leadership, enter new markets, discontinue products, and form new partnerships.

That means partner research should not be treated as a one-time project.

Maintain your prospect data and regularly review:

• Company information
• Locations
• Services
• Key contacts
• Technologies
• Partnership status
• Engagement history

Accurate data makes future recruitment and expansion efforts much more efficient.

Finding the Right Partners Makes Market Expansion Easier

Entering a new market does not necessarily mean building a customer base entirely from scratch. The right reseller or MSP can provide local knowledge, established relationships, and sales or technical capabilities that would take years to develop internally.

The key is to approach partner discovery strategically.

Define your ideal partner, identify relevant companies, use structured partner data, qualify prospects carefully, personalize outreach, and automate repetitive parts of the process where appropriate.

With a focused approach, businesses can build a qualified partner pipeline in new markets without simply chasing the largest possible number of prospects.