How to become a security awareness reseller

Why the security awareness market is attractive for resellers

Before you decide how to sell, it helps to look at what the market is doing. According to Grand View Research, the European cyber security training market is growing by roughly 17 percent a year, heading towards almost 3 billion euros in 2030. This is not an isolated European phenomenon: the growth is present in every country where many resellers are active. The figures below come from independent market researchers, not from vendors themselves.

For a reseller active in several countries, this means the same service serves a growing, recurring demand in each of those markets. And that growth is no coincidence. The NIS2 Directive and its national transpositions require thousands of organisations to demonstrate secure behaviour, and board members now carry a personal training obligation as well. At the same time, cyber insurers increasingly require a demonstrable awareness programme. For you as a partner, this means demand that returns every year, and that is exactly what makes a healthy service attractive: recurring revenue instead of one-off sales.

The question, then, is not whether you offer security awareness, but how. You can do it in three ways, and each model has different consequences for your margin, your brand and your customer relationship.

Model 1: reseller, you resell licences

With the reseller model you buy licences from 2LRN4 at a partner price and resell them to your customers at your own price. 2LRN4 remains visible to the customer: they log in to the 2LRN4 platform and they receive support from 2LRN4.

The big advantage is that you can get started quickly without a heavy operational burden. Installation, updates and support run through 2LRN4, so there is nothing you need to set up yourself. If you have ten customers, you do not suddenly land ten support questions on your plate. This model suits partners who want to add awareness to their offering without immediately building a service around it.

The drawback is that your margin is lower than with the other models and that your customer sees two brand names: yours and 2LRN4's. That makes it harder to position yourself as the complete solution. You are also dependent on the speed of 2LRN4's support, and that can reflect on your own reputation.

Important for your pricing: in the reseller model licences are counted per customer. Each customer therefore falls into its own volume tier. If you have ten customers of fifty employees each, you price ten times for fifty licences, not once for five hundred. So you do not yet benefit from your total volume.

Model 2: managed service, you deliver awareness as a service

With a managed service you are more than a reseller. You take on the implementation and you report on behavioural change: how many employees have completed the training, how clicking behaviour on phishing is developing and what the trend is over time. This can be co-branded, where you are the face and the point of contact while 2LRN4 remains visible as the platform underneath.

In practice co-branded works like this: the customer logs in to the 2LRN4 platform, but in the reports, the accompanying emails and the conversations you are the sender and the adviser. The customer therefore sees that an established platform sits behind it, and at the same time that you are the one running the programme for them. You combine the credibility of a well-known platform with your own relationship and advice, without having to build the technology or first-line support yourself.

The advantage is a higher margin, because you deliver a service rather than just licences. You have more touchpoints with your customer and you can tie awareness into a broader security plan. Your customers feel guided by you, not by an anonymous platform, and that makes the relationship stronger. It also opens room for follow-up engagements, for example when the figures show that a particular department needs extra training.

There is another advantage that directly affects your margin: in the managed service model we count the total number of licences across all your customers together for pricing. All your customers sit in the same volume tier. Ten customers of fifty employees each then count as five hundred licences, and that is a more favourable price per licence than ten separate purchases of fifty. This is exactly why many partners switch from reseller to managed service around the thousand-licence mark: from that volume, pooling your licences really starts to save money.

The drawback is that you have to be able to explain what those figures mean. You need to know what a healthy click and report rate looks like and how to build a report that a board understands. You are also responsible for the rhythm: you have to report regularly and keep the programme alive.

Model 3: white-label, everything under your own brand

With white-label you sell security awareness entirely under your own name. Your customer logs in to your platform, which technically runs on 2LRN4 but which the customer does not see, and receives support from you. This is the most ownable way of selling and the strongest way to position awareness as your service.

The advantage is that the customer only sees you, which establishes you as an all-round security partner. Your margin can be the highest, because you deliver a complete service under your own brand instead of just resold licences. White-label is also one of the models with the strongest customer lock-in: a customer who gets everything from you is not quick to switch. You can add your own content and set up your own support process.

For pricing you are flexible in white-label: you can count licences per customer or pool the total across all your customers, whichever fits your set-up best. This way white-label combines the freedom of choice of both other models with full control over your own brand.

The drawback is that this demands the most work. You organise first-line support yourself, because customer questions come to you and not to 2LRN4. Technically, white-label requires your own domain and a verified support email address, with the accompanying SPF and DKIM settings for reliable delivery. White-label is available at 2LRN4 in the Freedom plan. So it is not a theoretical option, but a mature possibility that you do need to set up properly.

Which model fits you?

How to choose in practice

Suppose you are an IT service provider with twenty business customers and you want to start offering awareness. Three questions help you choose.

Do your customers know you well enough to buy awareness directly from you? If so, managed service or white-label make sense. If you have doubts about that, you can start as a reseller, so the customer sees that an established platform sits behind it, and scale up later.

Do you have someone who can maintain monthly reports? If, for example, you have a colleague who can track KPIs and discuss them with the customer, then a managed service is feasible. If that capacity is missing, reseller is the obvious choice, because there 2LRN4 provides the support. White-label actually demands the most from your own organisation: there you handle not only the reporting but also the first-line support entirely yourself.

Do you want to offer awareness as a core service or as an add-on? As a core service, white-label strengthens your own brand. As an addition to your existing offering, managed service or reseller is often more practical, with less overhead.

In practice most partners start as resellers. Around the sale of some thousand licences they grow into a managed service, because the volume then makes it worthwhile to steer on behaviour and report yourself. White-label is a different story: it is almost always a deliberate choice from the start, because you need your own help desk and your own marketing function for it.

Sources for further reading

Want to check the market figures? See Grand View Research - Europe Cyber Security Training Market (Europe, Germany, France, Spain) and Mordor Intelligence - Netherlands Cybersecurity Market (Netherlands).

Related on partnership

2LRN4 partner programme · Security awareness for IT service providers and resellers

FAQ

How do you become a security awareness reseller?

At 2LRN4 you sign a partner agreement and choose a sales model: reselling licences (reseller), delivering awareness as a recurring service (managed service) or offering it entirely under your own brand (white-label). The model determines your margin, your visibility and how much support you handle yourself. Get in touch to discuss the options.

What is the difference between reseller and white-label?

As a reseller you resell licences and the platform remains visible to the customer. With white-label the customer only sees your brand, you log in to your own domain and you provide the first-line support yourself. White-label gives a higher margin and stronger customer lock-in, but requires more set-up.

Which sales model offers the highest margin?

White-label typically offers the highest margin, because you deliver a complete service under your own brand instead of just resold licences. The trade-off is that you handle the support and the technical set-up yourself.

Do I need white-label to sell awareness?

No. Many partners start as resellers and grow into a managed service as their volume increases. White-label is available at 2LRN4 in the Freedom plan and is usually a deliberate choice from the start, because you need your own help desk and marketing function for it.

How are licences counted for pricing?

In the reseller model licences are counted per customer, so each customer falls into its own volume tier. With a managed service we count the total number of licences across all your customers together, which gets you to a more favourable price per licence sooner. With white-label you can do both: count per customer or pool the total.