Tip 6: Keep pushing the cloud.

Regardless of their sales models today, most solution providers believe customers will end up on cloud-based systems. With that in mind, more solution providers are considering selling – or exploring how to sell -- more cloud services.

Solution providers should work on building their authority in this space. At the same time, agent partners will run into customers that resist the cloud; but as trusted advisors, partners should keep cloud services fresh on their minds, Bullseye's Basa said.

"Resistance meets resistance. You have to continue to reach out and bring up your agenda. As people change positions within a company or as new people are hired, you can earn that business," he told agent partners. "You're competing with time and politics, and all those things take shifts. The day you give up is the day someone raises their hand and you lose to that provider."