Tuning into a new channel programme

No cookie cutter solution in managing a successful channel programme

We are an organisation with a dedicated channel focus and are very proud of our Partners First programme. This is a platform for Zebra to have a consistent and transparent channel strategy that recognizes and rewards our partners. We believe in partner differentiation and providing the necessary benefits to assist revenue growth, education and market development of our partner's businesses in line with their commitment to Zebra.

As vendors we need to understand our partners' business, focus on the long term and not be short-sighted in cost saving measures. Good account management, joint business planning sessions and sales and marketing support are critical (especially for partners without any in-house dedicated marketing staff) to achieve common goals in maximising profit margins.

Managing a successful partner ecosystem requires commitment and the necessary investment in resources. While there is no cookie cutter solution to manage a successful channel programme, vendors who sell indirectly need to demonstrate the commitment to keep communication channels open so as to understand and respond to changing dynamics and requirements in the industry and with our partners. This will nurture our partners and in turn translate to customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Posted by Marion Obergfell, Marketing Director EMEA | 04 Aug 2009

A channel programme on its own is only the framework for success

Channel programmes are important as they provide the framework between the vendor and the channel. It is important to have methods and processes in place to define the partnership, however at the end of the day a programme is just a programme. The key to a successful channel partnership is that the people within it all drive the business to work towards a common goal - the programme itself only offers a framework for this relationship to flourish. All parties need to work together and engage correctly to ensure success.

The key to a successful vendor partner programme is that it is re-evaluated on an on-going basis. This is particularly relevant to the IT market place as it is constantly evolving. Within the last few years the market has changed dramatically, with the growth of SaaS and cloud computing. A vendor programme needs to incorporate these new routes to market and should constantly revaluate to correctly support the channel community. When CA recently revised the CA channel programme offering, we evaluated the crème de la crème of the whole channel to offer the best channel structure and partnership style.

The ability to adapt is essential to any programme, in particular matching the partners to the solutions brought to market. For our products that are relevant across the marketplace, we work with a number of resellers to reach the wider market, however, for our high level enterprise solutions it is more about key strategic partners to avoid competition and allowing partners to differentiate from the crowd. CA understands that partners are drawn to programmes that offer a commercially rich structure and has acted accordingly. The success of the relationship is dependent on matching the partner to the solution, investment of resources as well as the commitment between CA and the partner and vice versa.

Communication and trust are essential to a committed and successful relationship which can adapt to either party?s changing needs. In addition to this the relationship needs to enable an ongoing dialogue and the vendor needs a close relationship with the resellers, work with resellers committed to the partnership and offer commitment back, drive demand generation, offer pre-sales, marketing and technical support throughout and have an agreed business plan up-front that both parties can deliver against. Most important is a level of honesty and openness in all dealings in the channel.

Posted by Tamar Brooks | 03 Aug 2009

No one tells the truth - Its about MONEY

I have now been in the market for close to 20 years, and worked in all areas from Resellers, Vendors and Distributors, lets keep this simple.
A) Resellers want leads, deals, margin and MDF, and to cover all areas by offering all or any products the customer wants - and why not they are in this to make money and keep the customer happy. So if they are a top level Symantec partner and have been promoting Symantec to the customer - but the customer wants to place an order for 100K worth of Trend then the reseller will take the order. - So if you are a vendor why support the resellers - they are shallow. But YOU need them to take you to the end user - So give them everything, or give them nothing as they will allways back all horses in the race? Where do you stand?
B) Distributors, a vendor would like just one so they can control the channel, but need more as none of them deliver in terms of either technical support or sales support or marketing support, because like ALL parties in this industry they want everything for nothing, so they retain on average 10 - 20 per cent (specialised distributors) but offer nothing except a finance house. Well its cheaper to insure the debt. But on the other hand we need them to introduce the vendor to the 10 partners they have good relationships with. So do we need them?
c) Vendors - they believe they can do everything on their own but to do this they would need 100 sales people instead of 5 - 20 sales people - so it's just not scalable. So they need distributors and resellers.
Simply - Who wants to give profit to a reseller for organising a meeting and the vendor closing the deal - none of you - but you have to or you would not have had that meeting and then not had the deal
Who wants to give profit to a distributor for offering a credit line - non of you but you have to as they know the resellers whom know the enduser
And vendors they think they do all the work and they do the most but they can not get to the end user with out the channel, so love it or hate it we all need each other.
Partner programmes not worth the paper they are written on if that be silver, gold or platinum. If a reseller who has no partner level of a particular vendor gets a deal worth a 100K then takes it to all the distributors he WILL get top discount if that be directly on the quote or as a rebate on "prompt payment" he will get the discount. So partner programmes forget them. But at the same time sign everyone up so as a vendor you get market coverage.
Finally - We are all in it for a quick buck, the prgrammes mean nothing - but one thing that works is GOOD RELATIONSHIPS with TRUST and that's what counts as they carry through the good times and the bad.
Enjoy selling via the channel - take the odd deal direct - give discount outside the partner programme - but never tell anyone - while at the same time be a man of your word and don't lie - you always get found out. :-)

Posted by Too long in this Industry | 30 Jul 2009

Strong foundations are the basis for success

An effective channel partner programme is vital to the success of any vendor and its success depends on good relationships and strong foundations. A good channel partner programme doesn't need fancy packaging or gimmicks, it's about generating value for all parties.

As the market leader in the network video market, our products speak for themselves. But the success of our channel is based on the fact that we recognise its importance to our sales strategy. We understand that relationships with our channel partners are long term, we view our partners as an extension of our team and we invest in these relationships.

We have a training academy for our channel partners and over 9,000 of our partners have graduated through the academy since 2005. Lead-sharing, marketing support and relevant, targeted training are all vital elements of our channel partner programme. Our goal is to support our partners in developing a successful business.

Too much time is spent on redesigning, repackaging and selling channel programmes with hollow promises. The key to success for all parties is to keep it simple. In a nutshell, good training, good relationships and open and honest communication is the key to a successful channel partner programme.

Phil Doyle, managing director, UK & Ireland, Axis Communications

Posted by Phil Doyle | 24 Jul 2009

The program needs to be to mutual benefit

My belief is that vendors need to have a structured channel programme. It is needed in order to ensure that the development of the market is driven by the vendor and partner working together to mutual advantage. It is important that as a vendor we provide partners with a framework to guide and develop their business in line with ours within a flexible structure that will allow them to take advantage of opportunities available to them - at minimal cost and maximum speed.

A channel programme must not be inflexible or used as a vendor money-making machine or act as a barrier to prevent partners from working profitably with the vendor. Instead, the programme should counter these sometimes common problems by making sure it respects the 'value add' of the partner. It's about a well thought-out guide to the relationship that will add value to the partner and guide their business development. A successful programme will require genuine built in benefits and will be re-enforced by regular dialogue between partners and vendors.

A smart vendor will continually evaluate their business model and have a readiness to evolve at the core of their channel programme in order to keep up with market developments. At Siemens, we believe communication is key to achieving this, whether through our bi-annual partner satisfaction survey, partner council meetings or simply picking up the phone for a catch-up.

If you have a well thought through programme and communicate with channel partners, then even in a tough market there are routes you can take to pull you through the difficult times and keep on track to enable additional business growth

Posted by David Dyer | 20 Jul 2009

Service models will drive partnerships

We see an opportunity in developing channel relationships in the world of SaaS models, and think that relationships will evolve in-keeping with this model. SaaS offers both vendor and partners the opportunity to drive recurring revenues with reduced risk, shifting expenditure from CAPEX to OPEX.

The evolution of our channel will be one of continuing to engage with them on incorporating a high level of end user pull activities and strong direct lead generation activities. This sales support will underpin any successful channel strategy, and we hope will it continue to serve our channel well. At CRYPTOCard we have always focused on sales engagement as opposed to a pure technology push with our channel partners. This has, in our view, helped channel partners improve margins by focusing on customer 'pain points' rather than low margin tick box selling.

Posted by Gary Marsden, VP Business Development, CRYPTOCard | 20 Jul 2009

Reward and Protect

The most important thing all manufacturers must do to build and maintain successful channel partnerships is to equip Partners with sales & technical skills around their products and to reward & protect the Partners investment in each sale. How a manufacturers' Partner Programme addresses these critical issues varies greatly depending on product complexity, price and available margin, markets addressed, and a host of other variables.

The better job a manufacturer does in understanding the critical business drivers of it's existing and prospective Partners, the better they can design a Partner programme that delivers programme benefits that have true value to their Partner community. Whether these benefits are delivered via a single or two-tier model or via a single or multi-tier Partner programme is less important than ensuring that the benefits drive toward a shared vision and set of business goals.

In general, I see an increased level of expectations and demands being sought by both manufacturers and Partners in the channel. The single biggest value a Partner can provide is the extension of reach into a customer base that a vendor could never reach on their own. A channel programme needs to be focused on helping Partners to build a growing and profitable business while solving critical business issues for their customers.

Posted by Richard Marquez, Vice President, Worldwide Partner Sales, LogLogic | 15 Jul 2009

Whatever the label, nurture the channel to get the best

Whatever the label vendors give to their partner programmes, simple steps encourage quality partners to register and healthy relationships to form that benefit both sides.

Two of the most sensible are to promote low barriers to entry (i.e. not charging high fees for certification like certain large vendors do) and deal protection to preserve partners' margins and reward VARs that invest in high quality sales teams.

At its core, the relationship is built on respect and the mutual recognition that both sides will gain from a sensible partnership.

Posted by David Spate, Sales and Marketing Director, EMEA Disk Solutions, Overland Storage | 13 Jul 2009

Price transparency in the channel is a must

Price transparency in the channel is an area which vendors need to pay more attention to. Over the last few years the resellers we have spoken to feel increasingly frustrated that they are frequently asked to pay for additional add-ons after they've bought into a security solution. Too often vendors are offering several levels of support and charging different rates for them, without making this clear to resellers when they sign-up. This raises the price to end-users and can often put a strain on security budgets. It's really important that resellers are aware of the extra fees that can arise when they make a purchase and it is up to vendors to be honest with resellers about their pricing models. By being upfront, vendors can strengthen their relationships with partners and improve their reputation, making them stand out in the channel.

Posted by Rakash Gupta, managing director, PineApp UK | 13 Jul 2009

Face to face interaction is always the best

Channel programmes are only as good as they are RELEVANT to serving both partner and customer needs. Sustainable success is dependant upon timely review, modification and simplification of programmes. Without feedback from partners, programmes will struggle to deliver value to both the reseller and vendor. We solicit feedback through online tools and through face to face interaction at events such as partner summits where we can really dig into what partners need and value. At Novell, we've made major enhancements to our global channel programme based on feedback from our partner network and we constantly review how the programme is running to ensure it's relevant and producing benefits to all involved. Too often vendors fall into the trap of making programmes unnecessarily complicated, failing to achieve the 'buy in' of resellers. Investment in training is also crucial, even in this tough economic environment. Training should be 'on demand' so resellers can pick and choose the training they need when they want it so they can offer a better level of service to the customers they serve. 'On demand' training is particularly important when recruiting new partners that need to quickly get up to speed as it enables quicker time-to-revenue. At the end of the day, all elements of a partner programme should be relevant to the customers that are being served. If they don't improve the level of quality and service delivered to customers, then the "programme" has failed.

Posted by Dan Veitkus | 13 Jul 2009

Working together

There has been much discussion recently about how the channel should evolve during times of recession, and beyond.

A proactive approach to building a successful channel business should work in parallel with all channel programmes that vendors put together.

However, rather than solely focussing on the end result of revenue, vendors should consider the following:

The longevity of their customer relationship - is there the capability within the product set, and the channel, to develop and expand the offering to the customer?

Such as, being able to embrace new mechanisms of delivery such as SaaS

Building credibility within chosen verticals - developing a channel programme whereby resellers are incentivised on delivering customer reference sites or other elements that bring credibility and reputation to the brand.

Building a channel programme whereby the focus is on working with a focused number of specialist resellers

A targeted marketing programme -encompassing a fuller campaign to include PR, AR, channel and customer references, applicable messaging, and appropriate call to action

A tiered channel system for margin and value add - this has always been around, but a truly reflective programme, which is practised in reality, rather than just on paper, is a necessity

These pointers are not rocket science, nor are they new. We all know that one should value and nurture our client base and that, as a vendor, we need to develop solutions that evolve with our clients business in order to keep them. The one's that do, are more likely to ride out the turbulent times, and see in the good.

We all want resellers who can be self-sufficient, focussed and technically trained, and we want to be able to reward them for their efforts. Ultimately, all channel programmes, be it today or in the future, need to be more partnership-driven.

The vendor needs to provide a foundation upon which the reseller has the opportunity to build a successful business. This can be achieved through investment in training, incentives in margin, brand awareness in the market, proactive sales and marketing support. In conjunction to this, the reseller needs to provide focus, motivation, proactive sales and marketing activities to compliment the vendor programmes, thereby forging a good working relationship with the vendor. By doing this, we have a much better chance of getting through this recession, together.

Posted by Olly Carter, EMEA channel director, Proofpoint | 10 Jul 2009

The future is all-inclusive

Channel programmes stand the greatest chance of success if vendors can ensure that they are all-inclusive : i.e. they don't just favour an exclusive number of larger, more established partners. Distributors clearly have a role to play here in bridging the gap between vendors and their often substantial partner bases.

Distributors need to invest in their product management teams, recruiting talented employees that can work closely with vendors to provide training programmes, sales incentives and product support for their channel partners. Ultimately, it's about helping resellers of all sizes to get proactively involved with vendor channel programmes and acquire the necessary accreditations and skills to achieve sales success.

Posted by Mark Wilson, commercial director, CCI Distribution | 10 Jul 2009

Vendors need to police their programmes

The key to maintaining an effective channel programme is a system of ongoing review and management throughout the life of the programme.

Vendors need to strictly monitor their programmes regularly to ensure they add real value. Tasking vendor account managers to work closely with their resellers, laying down goals in a business plan and monitoring them at least quarterly is a simple way of policing the programmes. Vendors need to be prepared to make some tough decisions, or they risk losing credibility with the channel.

Distributors can be the enablers in this process, helping resellers with their business plans or conducting audits on behalf of vendors. Ultimately, accreditations and partner programmes remain the responsibility of the vendor and one size doesn't fit all. Resellers are all vastly different in nature and partner programmes need be tailored to reflect this.

Posted by David Ellis, director of e-security, professional services and training, COMPUTERLINKS | 10 Jul 2009

Vendors: Get Real!

With over 15 years' experience working closely with resellers and vendors on a day-to-day basis, currently on behalf of BI vendor, QlikTech, I have learned that both vendors and resellers can profit handsomely from joint marketing campaigns - but they must work in true partnership. This means that vendors must bear a few things in mind.

- It's important for vendors to understand the particular nature and constraints of the reseller's business, and to work with resellers as individual businesses with specific needs. This means a real grass roots understanding of how each business operates.

- Resellers must be able to adapt marketing campaigns to suit their own market and customer base. One size doesn't fit all. For example, vendors should ensure that global marketing campaigns can easily be given a local flavour.

- Vendors should never forget that resellers are primarily interested in fulfilling their own business objectives - and it is the role of the vendor to facilitate this by making the working partnership easy and profitable. Vendors should be flexible and supportive to help resellers reach their goals.

- Similarly, where vendors are investing heavily in channel marketing support resellers must expect to share results, both successful and not so successful, so that everybody can learn from them.

Posted by Lucy Keightley, Alliance Marketing Manager, QlikTech UK | 10 Jul 2009

Standardising Global Reseller Programmes

Two specific things stand out when considering how reseller programs will, or at least, should, evolve in the future. The first is the importance of standardising global reseller programs as much as possible, similar to what Dell has done recently, as they can be unnecessarily complicated and typically only cause confusion among vendors and partners, not to mention end users. Also, old-style partner tiers are less important nowadays when the focus should be on properly segmenting programs by a reseller's target business -- in Nitro's case, for example, that would break down by consumer/SOHO, SME, large enterprise, and the public sector.

Secondly, it's imperative to make it easy for partners to do business with you by facilitating the most effective and efficient processes possible when it comes to channel transactions and other channel support -- from online reseller sign-up and approval to instant partner portal access for online ordering and tracking, license management, access to sales and marketing materials, online training and certification, and so on. By providing a simple way for partners to do business with you (primarily by providing everything online), you automatically free up valuable time and other resources to develop the more strategic side of each reseller relationship.

Posted by Sam Chandler, CEO, Nitro PDF | 08 Jul 2009

It's good to talk, but it needs more

Partner programs create a strong link between vendors and their VARs but that link is weakened if VARs do not see tangible benefits to them in the medium- to long-term. The program must go beyond being a simple communication channel (although that is greatly needed). VARs need to feel that they are in the program not only to help the vendor sell its products but also to benefit in terms of business growth, access to resources and just recognition of their efforts to increase sales and revenue. GFI Software is at present tweaking its Partner Program for the UK and US and is strongly focused on giving the support and rewards that partners require and expect; this includes an equitable approach to dealing with VARs and a greater range of services - at no cost to them - to assist them throughout the sales cycle.

Posted by David Kelleher, Communications and Research Analyst, GFI Software | 07 Jul 2009

It's time to evaluate channel programmes

The whole question of whether channel programmes today are working is an interesting one. Take the networking space as an example. In the last 12-months alone, some vendors have entered bankruptcy, there's been a spate of mergers and others have tightened their margins. All of this has left little opportunity for resellers to make a decent return on customer deployments and has left many resellers at a crossroads in relation to their sales strategies and future partnerships.

Resellers should evaluate whether the current agreements they have in place with vendors presents a viable long-term strategy. In particular, they should ask themselves:

- Is a vendor's product over-distributed? If so, the long-term prospects for decent margins will be slim.
- Are they actively investing in the UK market? If a vendor is pulling resources out of the market, what is the long-term viability of the partnership?
- Does the vendor's products provide cross-selling opportunities? In the current economic climate, diversifying portfolios is critical to survival.
- Does a vendor's distribution strategy suit the reseller's own strategy? For example, does it work with a Value-Adder Distributor that can add value to deals and therefore increase revenue opportunities?

Resellers across all sectors should look at each of these areas and thoroughly evaluate whether or not their vendor truly fits with their long-term sales strategies. Times are hard in the IT channel, and Resellers must ensure that they have the optimal strategy in place to ensure their survival and long-term growth prospects.

Posted by Jeff Prince, Chairman and CTO, ConSentry Networks | 07 Jul 2009

Maximising Potential

Partners are looking for the easiest way to get a return on their investment in any vendors program. Partners sign up to a channel programme because they see the potential to make a profit. If a vendor can offer low costs of entry into their program it will be attractive to any potential partners. One way of achieving this is making training material freely available so engineers can access courses in their own time rather than attending expensive training courses. Extreme Networks has recently opened up all their training material so partners can access material free of charge. This has a benefit to us as well, as partners will train more engineers; I think you will see other vendors following this.

Posted by Stephen Jamieson | 07 Jul 2009

Channel programmes: Blind bureaucracy or value add?

Far too many channel programmes are over engineered and add a significant overhead to the reseller for little to no perceived benefit to them. We get enough of this from the government without vendors adding to the problem.

The primary goal of the channel programme should be to enable resellers to become totally self sufficient, as that is the most profitable business model for both the vendor and partner. The vendor should then reward those resellers that become totally self sufficient. This frees up resources on both sides to develop the relationship and the business, and address the challenges quickly and effectively when they arise.

The KISS principle - Keep It Short and Simple - works.

Posted by Neil Robertson, CEO, Compleat Software | 07 Jul 2009

New Thinking Is Needed

Vendors that already enjoy a healthy channel performance commonly lack agility to take new products and services to market effectively through the channel. New, innovative solutions can get bogged down for months as the vendor struggles to communicate its message effectively enough to sales people on the front line who are focusing on hitting their goals.

Smaller, newer vendors are fighting for airtime in an already overcrowded channel where Distributors carry dozens of vendor lines and Resellers rarely take on a new vendor as a direct relationship.

Each vendor must look at its own scenario, REALLY understand what is happening and how to effect change and then implement an innovative solution to grab the audience's attention.

Unfortunately, these things take time and a lot of vendors measure their people on quarterly results and reshuffle the org chart every two years, so longer term thinking can be rare.

Posted by Antony Young, Director, Demuto | 07 Jul 2009

Focus on reseller relations

Vendors are starting to work more strategically with their channel partners, particularly around the mid market tier, which is greatly received. We've noticed much more proactive interaction with even the larger vendors such as Microsoft and Dell.

MDFs need to be focused on the resellers and not the distributors. Long-term growth needs resellers to be attracting more end users - distie focus days are great for getting quantity of kit out into resellers that can stock pile products - but VARs tend not to be able to respond in this way.

As resellers, we need to be able to grow longer-term, more strategic relationships with our clients and we need to be able to get a more long-term strategy in place with vendors, rather than what sometimes appears to be knee-jerk reactions to gain a short-term up lift in sales.

Posted by Dan May, Operations Director, ramsac limited | 03 Jul 2009

A little from column A and a little from column B...

With HP, Microsoft and co they have their benefits but they have their down sides too, when you don't get the support you expect. But you can always argue with anything. The thing is it is wonderful if it is followed through with the level of service that's expected.

Posted by Colin Stephens, purchasing officer, OGL Computer Services | 02 Jul 2009

Gaps in the programmes

We are a channel specialist and what we find is that there are gaps in a number of vendors' programmes. That's something we have identified and would help them become more defined.

Posted by David Pilkington, sales and marketing consultant, The Planet Group | 02 Jul 2009

changes could be made

We try to make vendors look at their channel incentive programmes and reseller rebates that they are looking to integrate. We think that this year you can save money by driving it online.

Posted by Dan Kelly, BDM, and Kevin Chamberlain, BDM, of Corporate Rewards | 02 Jul 2009

VARs can be self-sufficient

For us they are a waste of time; we may be a bit unusual, but we are very self-sufficient and are happy to be left alone. I would like to see vendors go away and stick to making products.

Posted by Jess Thompson-Hughes, managing director, React Technologies | 01 Jul 2009