Partner match-making requires commitment and loyalty

Calum Macleod asks how you find the ideal partner when resellers and vendors alike are so easily swayed by superficial looks

Calum Macleod: New partnerships require support from other members of your channel 'family'

We’ve all heard often enough that quality is more important than quantity, and I think this applies in the IT security business. Almost daily, new vendors appear with a supposed panacea for all ills, or an existing vendor suddenly creates a product that is actually useful – which makes you wonder about all their other products.

And at the same time, as a vendor you have a plethora of integrators to choose from, all of whom are apparently going to deliver that pot of gold.

The selection often seems based on an online-dating model. Vendors look for the integrator most pleasing to the eye; in other words those who claim to have hundreds of clients and who can count all the leading vendors as their suppliers.

Integrators, on the other hand, tend to be swayed by generous market development fund (MDF) programmes and claims of 24-hour sales cycles.

The reality is that these online marriages are rarely made in heaven, and the market is littered with disappointed spouses, dead relationships and high divorce rates.

Compatibility is important. No one can be good at everything and too often companies select products that simply do not fit with their existing portfolio.

The temptation is to try something different in the hope it will bring you a new client base but enhancing your current portfolio with products and solutions that complement your existing portfolio is, I believe, the best approach.

Introducing completely new technology to your sales force can be tricky, because they can find it difficult to understand how to position the technology with the result that they avoid doing so.

The drive for instant gratification is something that we all have and especially when it comes to technology. But just because a vendor can claim to have a few hundred clients worldwide does not mean you are going to double your sales in the next quarter.

Patience is a virtue. You need to invest in training and business development. If you have selected products that fit with your existing portfolio, you will have the necessary background to help your customers understand the benefits and plan how to use them.

Look for loyalty. The last thing you need when you start to try and build a new business is a vendor that is signing up a new partner every week. So at all costs avoid vendors whose sole presence in the market is a salesperson with a number on his or her back.

Look for vendors willing to be patient that will invest in your organisation. These are the ones that will assist you in sales processes, providing the necessary support to your staff in positioning the technology for the customer.

Commitment is not a four-letter word. My most successful partners have been on paper the least likely to succeed. They may not have the biggest marketing budgets – or even any budget – or run events at expensive hotels but they have been committed, hard-working, focused, and most of all determined to work as a partnership.

It is better to be a big fish in a small pond than a minnow in a pool full of sharks. But if you feel a technology fits your specialist knowledge go for it. Your commitment and skills are often much more valuable to a new vendor than the marketing glitz that many larger integrators might use to hide a lack of specialist skills.

So as an integrator or reseller be prepared to consider new technologies that enhance your current offerings and invest resources on developing those opportunities. After all, I am sure many of you experienced your parents’ disapproval of your intended when you first brought them home. But when you’ve got the right partner they all love him or her in the end.

So next time you introduce a new product to your clients, perhaps imagine trying to sell it to your mother.

Calum Macleod is regional manager at Tufin Technologies