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On March 5-9, over 250 resellers and
100 vendors converged on New Orleans for
the CMP Solution Provider XChange. Core
Strategies and several of our clients
attended the conference and had an opportunity
to interact and discuss the prevailing
channel trends for 2005.
On Sunday, VARBusiness Senior Editor
T.C. Doyle and Toni Clayton-Hine, managing
director of CMP's Institute for Partner
Development (IPED), showcased new thoughts
to consider when bringing a new technology
partner into your business.
While some companies build a portfolio
by getting behind the hottest new products,
this is often a strategy fraught with
pitfalls. Of course, getting in on new
technologies can result in higher margins
during the early phases of product availability
and adoption. But, the chances are good
that margins will fall quickly and, soon,
price wars will ensue.
Deciding which products to add to a product
portfolio can be tricky for some resellers.
Many want to get in on the wave of high-margin
emerging technologies but are fearful
of the risk. As a vendor, you need to
mitigate that risk and provide a channel-ready
value-proposition that your channel partners
can use to sell to their end-users.
When asked how they decide which new
products to add, an interesting answer
came from a solution provider whose primary
business was in networking. He said the
first thing they look for is a product
that fits their business model. And, even
though storage is still hot, he was not
interested in new storage technologies
because it does not fit his core business.
For storage, he collaborates with other
solution providers who have a storage
practice.
For Core Strategies, this was quite encouraging.
For years we have been encouraging vendors
to develop programs that help solution
providers collaborate based on their unique
specializations. This trend among resellers
seems to have become a powerful strategy
to ensure their success and longevity.
Read
T.C. Doyles' complete story on the
Sunday session.
Another highlight of the event for me
was the opportunity to attend the vendor
breakout on Monday, March 7th presented
by Toni Clayton-Hine. Toni's session focused
on how to work more effectively with solution
providers to help them become successful.
Toni focused on the three essential elements
that vendors and partners must work on
together – The 3 P's:
- Product – How do you make your
product "channel ready" for your partners?
Have you thought about the total ROI
for training the technical staff at
your partners? What investment do you
as a vendor need to make to get your
partners ready?
- Process – What tools do you
have in place for proving ROI –
both to the partners and to their end
users? How do you determine how many
resellers you need based on your average
sale size? What am I doing to give my
reseller a competitive advantage?
- People - What process do you have
in place to develop the relationship
with your partners?
Toni also confirmed the fact that we
have been stating for some time: "only
30 percent of resellers said that their
vendor help them build a business plan."
That means that 70 percent of you are
not taking the time to be proactive with
your partners. Maybe you don't have the
skills or the money to do this. But once
again, the need for joint planning was
highlighted at this year's XChange.
If you need help with this critical phase
of the relationship with your partners,
Core can help. Our "Routes to Market –
Channel Advantage" workshops are a powerful
tool for joint planning with your key
partners. As Toni stated, a relationship
with a partner is like a marriage—first
is the courting phase followed by dating
and marriage. Planning is a critical part
of any relationship and we can help.
Find out more about the "Channel
Advantage" workshops.
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