What vendors want

A while ago, I wrote about the main expectations that resellers should have of their vendor partners. Here I would like to highlight the flipside; what I believe channel partners can do to make themselves integral to the plans of their manufacturers and publishers and stand out from the crowd.

Outside of the tier one vendors, where enhanced scrutiny, red tape and even legislation can prevent bias, it would be na?ve to suggest that those responsible for running the partner based revenue streams don’t have their favourites. Of course they do. And many of them can make a real difference to how an individual salesperson fares against target that month. On occasion, introductions can also be made which change the shape of a quarter or even a fiscal year.

So what do partners have to do to become the chosen ones with their vendors?

• Know your place!

 Okay I am being facetious with my wording but the sentiments are important. Partners are so-called for a very good reason. Even with huge discrepancies in company sizes, revenue figures or market presence, in a real partnership, neither side should be exerting too much pressure on the other. It must be about give and take, not who wears the trousers. In the same way as vendors shouldn’t expect their partners to jump through unreasonable, needless or costly hoops, resellers need to be wary of making enemies within their vendors.

It’s important for partners not to have the attitude that they are the vendor’s customer and then adopting the “customer is always right” mentality. Most of the time, a partner only actually makes a purchase when they have a PO from an end user, so that should be the single aim for both parties. Of course things can get frustrating at times and vendors often get things wrong, but if you retain your professionalism and dignity at all times, you will get a lot more air time than the blusterers, whingers and shouters.

• Follow up leads and provide feedback.

 I would suggest one of the most frustrating things for vendors is potential business disappearing into a black hole. On the other hand, partners who become well-known as a safe pair of hands when dispersing leads will prosper. I would expect partners to make contact with any prospect customers they have been passed in good time (within a day at very most) and copy me in, perhaps BCC, on any email contact. If not, a quick note or call to confirm follow up is polite.

Of course the onus is also on the vendor to pass on qualified leads rather than reams of meaningless spreadsheets. Wasting a partner’s time is as cardinal a sin as their not following up a lead. Quite simply, it’s about respect for each other.

• Engage with us.

 It does not go unnoticed when partners don’t attend events, webinars or training that vendors put on for them. A good vendor will understand the pressures resellers face in dealing with lots of solution providers and only request their time when they have something genuinely important to tell them (ideally with partner revenue growth as the intended outcome of whatever is being planned). But, when they do, there is little more demoralising than embarking on often lengthy organisational and logistical projects, for the eventual attendance figures to be disappointing. And these things can cost a lot of money too, which means less in the pot for everyone.

Use these events to get to know us, ensure you meet your peers. Iterate your value to us, your USPs, why people buy our product from you and not the next partner. Come and present your company at our next sales meeting perhaps. Carry out marketing activities with us. If you run a successful campaign, rest assured that word will get around and your reputation will be greatly enhanced. All these things matter.

• Understand our product.

 In the same way as you’d hope the waiting staff in a restaurant know what they’re serving, sales certifications are important in making sure the people who are normally the first point of contact possess a good understanding of a product. However, what gives us most confidence in a partner is if there are a handful of people within the company who are profoundly technically versed, too.

Vendors need partners for their real world experience and knowledge of related products and services. But most of all, we want you to know our products inside and out. We want you to use them internally. We want your engineers to be passionate, constantly reminding customers and prospects why our competition doesn’t even come close. Coming up with new and fresh ideas about how and where to implement our kit. Providing top quality feedback and asking questions that really make our developers think, pushing our product forward.

Technical people, as we all know, are also the best sales people when they show this sort of passion. They instil confidence, not only in us as vendors, but also in their own salespeople. And, for this reason, it’s the responsibility of vendors to recognise and appreciate the best channel techies any way they can.

• Keep the lines of communication open.

 All relationships die without regular feeding. And, in a business context, this means face time. Relationship building can only happen with regular personal interaction so, please, give us access! Allow us the time and space to train your guys. To work with them and help them. If you really want to partner with us, please don’t charge us money or set unrealistic restrictions on what we can and can’t do with your company. That’s not a partnership, that’s a recipe for disappointment.

Do you agree? I’m sure there’s more – feel free to let me know what I’ve forgotten in the comments below.