GlobalBX

Noting that we hadn’t put his new title on the program for an upcoming integration conference, one of my panelists jokingly said, “I’m just not feeling the love.” That was an easy fix; but getting the panel participants – sales execs from resellers and producers – to agree on the issues and priorities was a lot more difficult. The chaos, rising costs and pressure for quick results puts a lot of strain on manufacturers and their channel partners in today’s dog-eat-dog, solution-selling environment. True, but that’s no excuse for either party to waiver on the partnership commitment. It’s no excuse for not having continuous and open communications. If anything, the partners need to improve in both areas because business isn’t going to get any easier. In fact, it’s get tougher and more complex. It’s no time for lip-service; it’s time for action … immediate action. Like “showing the love” and getting the title changed … immediately!

Partnership Puzzle – There are two sides to the manufacturer and integrator/VAR relationship and it takes hunting – and a little work – to make the complete picture work smoothly.

Partner Requirements
Manufacturers can only have the best, most professional integrators/VARs on their team.

Integrators/VARs that have:
– A clear, concise understanding of their target market(s)
– Unwavering business ethics
– A professional sales, installation, support team
– A commitment to deliver on the customer agreement, even when unforeseen issues/problems arise

At the same time, integrators/VARs can only afford to work with companies that:
– Support them when they’re right and support them when they’re wrong because installations can and will go sour
– Won’t cherry-pick easy sales, expecting the partner to handle the dirty projects
– Support the integrator/VAR with staff, equipment and expertise when issues/problems arise

Good integrators/VARs have a strong understanding of their market and their customers’ real and perceived needs that the manufacturer simply cannot match. This is because they deal with the localized market shifts on a daily basis. They have a real hands-on, customer-facing level of experience they can use to help customers based on similar applications, similar installations. The manufacturer designs/produces for the global market while the integrator/VAR focuses on specific market segment — healthcare, entertainment, local/regional/state government, education, finance – specific countries and/or regions. That experience and expertise is invaluable for both the manufacturer and the customer. It’s something the manufacturer can’t undervalue or dismiss. Experience, trial and error and the school of hard knocks, give the best VARs the strong selling position and proposition that more quickly moves the prospect to a satisfied customer.

VAR Shortcomings
The problem is most integrators/VARs move from new customer to new customer without leveraging their successes or their expertise up and down the sales food chain. VAR managers like to “sell something” – hardware, software, service – anything. And if they think about their marketing activities at all, they think about promotion to prospective customers in their market area/market segment. That covers half of their market; but remember, integrators and VARs are not in business alone … they have a partner. The more your manufacturing partner knows about your expertise, commitment and successes, the more comfortable they are with the relationship and that they made the right partner decision. It’s about “feeling the love.”

Manufacturer Shortcomings
Of course, the same level of open, continual communication is required by the manufacturer. All too frequently, manufacturers develop an integrator/VAR “program” that includes signing up VARs, shipping them a bunch of literature, dumping a bunch of “inquiries” on them and sitting back waiting for the orders to roll in. When they don’t; obviously, it’s a lazy partner, one that doesn’t have a clue or one that is just totally wrong. Where’s the commitment/communications in the relationship? Where’s “the love?”

No Clear Path – Even the best channel relationship seems to go in a lot of different directions; but those that work best are those that navigate the landscape together.

Plan, Action
Developing and maintaining a network of the best integrators/VARs out there requires a lot of pretty mundane work beyond the initial and periodic wining/dining. Manufacturers need to establish guidelines, relationship/program scope, overall direction and measurement criteria for the relationship. That means not just spelling out the items the integrator has to live up to but also the ones the manufacturer has to live up to–including the full range of marketing/communications activities focused on the partner, the customer and the marketplace. And if the program doesn’t have the commitment/support of the entire organization, not just the channel sales manager (or whatever the fancy title), then it’s doomed at the outset. More importantly, it’s a relationship that the really good/best integrators/VARs will either take a pass on or sign up until something better comes along.

Translation?

No matter how great the product, you’re a place holder until the right company with even a decent product comes along.

Then?

Break-up, divorce time!! It costs both parties time and energy.

But most experienced channel sales managers will agree it is harder on the manufacturer because they have to:
– find and develop a team relationship/understanding with the new organization
– introduce/promote the new VAR to existing and prospective customers (tough, very tough)
– make up lost ground, lost momentum

All of that could have been avoided with even a modest amount of communication and commitment reinforcement.

Real Relationship
Few manufacturer/ integrator or VAR relationships ever go smoothly, which is probably why they’re called relationships. Both sides have to do their research, define their market(s), develop their strategic/tactical plans, clearly define and communicate what is expected from each other and then work hard – very hard – on the commitment. In 20-plus years, I’ve never seen a manufacturer/integrator/VAR relationship that was just meant to be. But I have seen a number of them that started out with an agreement and morphed over time to produce sales and profits for both organizations.

If you look at the relationship from a single perspective (manufacturer or channel partner), it looks dumb easy. The manufacturer signs up a bunch of integrators, lay quotas on them, beats them up when they don’t do well and sells direct to the really easy, really profitable customer. Integrators/VARs sign up with the manufacturer who sells the order, you do the installation, they send the check and wait for the next order to come in. Sweet, but …

Management on both sides of the desk has to have a clear understanding of their responsibility to each other as well as their respective goals. Agree, disagree, thrash things out, move forward. They promote and support each other. They reinforced the commitment with continual communications and talked through issues/problems when they arose and fine-tuned the commitment to meet changing times and changing market conditions. They minimized the number of erroneous and expensive false starts in the marketing and sales activities. As a result, they both had a strong referencable base of customers and a profitable, very profitable relationship. Everyone “feels the love” and if you don’t think that’s a good thing, ask your partner.