T&L companies don't have a tracking problem. They have a making-tracking-useful problem.
94% call asset visibility a high or critical priority. Yet only 42% describe their technology environments as highly automated or connected.
For VARs, that gap is the market.
The gap between wanting and buying
While the appetite for better visibility is nearly universal, the path to getting there remains complicated.
Only 42% of respondents describe their technology environments as highly automated or connected. Integration challenges are the most frequently cited barrier to expanding adoption. Hardware costs and infrastructure requirements aren’t far behind.
For value-added resellers, that’s the opportunity.
The next wave of T&L technology growth may not belong to the reseller with the longest product list. It may belong to the partner who can make increasingly sophisticated tracking and visibility technologies feel practical, integrated and financially defensible.
Here are six lessons from the research that can help VARs do exactly that.
Nearly every T&L buyer we surveyed already considers asset visibility important. 94% call it a high or critical priority, and 98% say the same about traceability.
But simply knowing where something is isn’t the end goal.
Buyers want visibility they can act on: 86% want real-time location, 64% want chain-of-custody traceability, 61% want asset utilization insights and 51% want condition monitoring.
They want to know when a shipment is delayed, where chain-of-custody breaks down, when equipment is underutilized, or when an asset is about to become a problem.
That changes the VAR conversation.
Instead of leading with “We can help you track your assets,” lead with the operational problem: What do you wish you knew sooner?
That question moves the conversation from hardware and features to outcomes, and creates room for a much broader solution around the device.
MARKETING MOVE:
Build campaigns around the costly moments better visibility can prevent: lost assets, delayed shipments, misplaced inventory and unexpected downtime. Sell the problem you can eliminate, not the technology that detects it.
SPONSORED MESSAGE
The strongest signal in the survey may be this:
Integration capabilities are the No. 1 solution-selection priority, at 78%. Integration challenges are also the No. 1 barrier to expanding adoption, at 74%.
Most T&L organizations already have tracking technology in place. The opportunity isn’t necessarily to replace it. It’s to make it work better together.
Buyers are telling us that directly: 51% want tracking data integrated into their existing ERP, WMS or TMS. Just 7% prefer a standalone dashboard.
For VARs, that plays directly to a traditional strength: making disparate technologies work together.
So make that expertise visible. APIs, software partnerships, implementation experience and systems integration shouldn’t be buried in a capabilities deck. In this market, they may be among your strongest competitive differentiators.
SALES MOVE: Start discovery with an inventory question, not a product pitch: “What systems are already in place, and what’s still not talking to each other?” Then look for opportunities to make what the customer already owns more useful.
Not every visibility problem is worth solving first.
87% of respondents identified high-value goods as one of their most critical assets to track. And with 80% requiring technology investments to produce ROI within 24 months, the economics of the first deployment matter.
That gives VARs a better place to start. Instead of proposing a broad visibility transformation, identify the problem costing the customer the most money, time or productivity and build the first deployment around it.
A focused pilot makes the business case easier to prove. 40% say a proven ROI or business case would be the single biggest motivator to move forward with a pilot or purchase.
If better visibility reduces search time, prevents loss, improves asset utilization or keeps shipments moving, the customer has a concrete reason to expand.
SALES MOVE:
Ask “Where does poor visibility cost you the most today?” Build the pilot there, establish the baseline, measure the improvement and use the results to justify the next phase.
T&L customers aren’t signaling that one tracking technology will win everything.
54% say a hybrid mix of tags and sensors best matches their current or planned deployments, compared with smart sensors alone (32%) or simple ID-only tagging (14%).
Their willingness to pay tells a similar story. Only 8% favor ultra-low-cost disposable tags. 49% prefer moderate-cost reusable tags, while 43% accept higher-cost sensors for critical assets.
The takeaway for VARs: match the sophistication and cost of the technology to the value of the asset and the information the customer needs from it.
Use barcode or passive RFID where identification is enough. Use active technologies where real-time location matters. Add sensors where condition, shock, temperature or other telemetry creates enough value to justify the additional cost. And combine technologies when different asset classes have different needs and economics.
This is an opportunity to behave like a consultant rather than a catalog.
SALES MOVE:
Don’t start with “Which technology do you want?” Ask: “What do you need to know about this asset, how quickly do you need to know it, and what is that information worth?” Let the answer determine the technology.
The biggest barriers to adoption aren’t particularly glamorous: integration challenges (74%), hardware cost (72%), infrastructure requirements (66%) and unclear ROI (50%).
And when buyers select a solution, they prioritize integration capabilities (78%), total cost of ownership (64%) and ease of deployment (63%).
That’s practically a blueprint for a VAR service portfolio.
Customers need help with architecture and integration, site and connectivity assessments, deployment and configuration, infrastructure requirements and lifecycle support. They need someone who can model total cost rather than simply produce a hardware subtotal.
In other words, the complexity surrounding the box may be more commercially valuable than the box.
Package that expertise into repeatable offers: a visibility assessment, fixed-scope pilot, integration package, deployment service or ongoing managed support.
MARKETING MOVE:
Turn services into products. Name them. Define what’s included. Give them a process and a deliverable. “Professional services available” is vague. A “30-Day Asset Visibility Pilot” is something a customer can understand and buy.
“T&L” isn’t a single buyer profile.
Freight transportation respondents show stronger interest in fleet tracking than logistics operations respondents, 78% versus 63%. Hardware cost is also a particularly significant barrier among freight organizations, at 81%.
Logistics operations respondents lean harder into inventory tracking, 79% versus 57% among freight respondents. They’re also more interested in chain-of-custody insight, 73% versus 49%.
Company size changes the conversation, too.
Executive leadership participates in technology evaluations at 48% of small organizations, compared with 28% of medium-sized and 38% of large organizations. Smaller companies also place particularly high importance on ease of deployment, while larger organizations are more likely to emphasize integration, scalability and richer sensor capabilities.
The takeaway isn’t that VARs need dozens of separate campaigns. It’s that “transportation and logistics” is probably too broad to be the message.
For freight-oriented prospects, lead with fleet visibility, utilization and loss prevention. For logistics or warehouse-heavy operations, inventory, chain-of-custody and integration may open stronger conversations. Then adjust the business case and deployment story to the size of the organization.
SALES MOVE:
Build two discovery scripts, not two product lines. Choose the conversation based on the customer’s operating environment before the call, not during it.
T&L buyers already understand why visibility matters. The opportunity now is helping them get more value from it.
Only 29% currently use tracking data for predictive analysis or optimization, while 50% describe their technology environment as only moderately integrated.
That gap is the VAR opportunity: connect what customers already have, focus investment where it creates measurable value and make expansion easier to justify.
The winners won’t simply sell more tracking technology. They’ll make tracking technology easier to put to work.