How many of your customers understand your full potential?
In the last post we looked at the role cloud providers have in enabling customers to execute ideas to have a tangible impact – or bridging the innovation execution gap. For some, that may seem like a significant step – from selling cloud to supporting transformation. Yet in many ways, the two are almost interchangeable – the right cloud environments support the applications businesses need to drive their transformation agendas and thrive in disrupted markets.
Of course, there’s always a space between theory and reality. We have to remember that while as partners and vendors, we live and breathe the transformational power of cloud every day, for our customers it’s not their core business. So, they need us to provide that perspective, to demonstrate how those objectives, which might seem like pipedreams with their current technology stack, can be achieved.
That’s why the providers and partners that make up the VMware Cloud Partner Program (VCPP) are so vital. They are in a position to understand the customer’s pain, articulate the solution and deploy it effectively.
The challenge is overcoming perceptions that being good at one thing precludes people from delivering on other areas. In my last post, I talked about the need for partners to become multi-cloud specialists. That doesn’t mean being able to offer private and public and on premises – it means that even if you only deliver one type of environment, you are open and willing to connect with others, to support customers get the best use out of multiple types of cloud.
But how do you get your customers to realise and understand your full potential? You need to be able to answer the following:
1. Do you understand what your own potential is? You might have spent years building a business selling one particular solution, you may have evolved from hardware reseller to services consultancy – whatever your journey, you need to ask yourself what your potential is. Look at your target market, see what they’re asking for and then identify what support you need to bridge that gap.
2. Are your current customers the right customers for you? For a multitude of reasons, some enterprises may be resolute in only taking one approach with partners. For many that’s fine, but if you have ambitions to offer more than just one service you need customers with goals to match.
3. Do you have the right vendor support? You are your customers’ gateway to the technology they need to achieve their business goals. To do that, you need to offer them the right access, coupled with expertise and knowledge. If you are stuck with vendors that lock you in or fail to provide adequate support or training to your staff, then you are going to struggle to deliver the breadth of services your customers need. You need to work with vendors that are as committed as you to delivering the right solution, irrespective of who’s developed it.
4. Can you prove your transformation experience? It can be hard to take that first step, but it doesn’t always have to be exact like-for-like experience. At VMware, we’ve undergone our own transformation, using our own technology – it’s a great way of showing we know our solutions work. If you’ve undergone a similar process, there’s experience to share with the customer. If you’ve done something for a customer in a different sector, that’s proof you know what you’re talking about.
5. Can you move from specialist to transformation partner? For most partners, the way into any enterprise is on a smaller project. The trick is then to be able to scale up within the customer’s business and demonstrate your value in other areas, using the credit you’ve earnt by specializing. As I said before, that may not mean offering different services, but showing how what you offer is receptive and enabled to connect other parts of the customer’s operations as part of a wider environment transformation.
Despite the constant talk, we are still, in the most part, at the beginning of the digital transformation conversation. We need to be working with partners in order to make our customers aware of the potential available, to see us all as true advisors, and not simply as suppliers of specialist bits of IT. It’s the only way enterprises will be able to kick start their transformation and realise their business goals.
I will be delighted to continue the conversation at VMworld. I look forward to seeing you in Barcelona!