New Sun, GE Access Plan Aims To Protect Partner Accounts

Under the plan, solution providers will identify their top 10 opportunities to GE Access, which then will coordinate a meeting with Sun to make sure the solution providers don't lose the deals, said Anna McDermott, vice president of the Sun business group at GE Access.

GE Access calls the concept "team selling," and is developing a similar program with StorageTek, McDermott said at the Boulder, Colo.-based distributor's annual New Frontiers Conference here last week.

The initiative grew out of complaints from solution providers that were losing projects to Sun's direct-sales force, especially at the end of a

fiscal quarter. About half the time, solution providers were unknowingly trying to win a customer with which Sun's direct-sales force was already working, McDermott said.

"The resellers were not engaged enough with the Sun field-sales force. We told our guys to put together their top 10 deals and we'll help set up meetings with Sun. Then it's almost impossible to lose a deal at the last second," McDermott said.

If Sun is already present in one of the 10 accounts, Sun and the solution provider will engage the customer together, she said.

Acropolis Systems has lost at least one customer to Sun, but Jim Rockwell, vice president of the Sun business group at the Milpitas, Calif.-based solution provider, said he hopes team selling will lead to more cooperation on Sun's end.

"They've put their best foot forward. We'll see where it ends up," Rockwell said. "These things usually have a habit of starting out great, then [deteriorating. There are large accounts where there is a direct-sales rep, and they're not usually overjoyed about us getting in there."

Other solution providers said the initiative should reduce channel conflict.

"It's helpful for a reseller to have great relationships with vendors," said Jim McHugh, vice president of sales at Cary, N.C.-based Strategic Technologies. "We sit down constantly with our vendor reps, but it's nice that they've formalized a way to protect customers."

Michael Walsh, director of partner marketing at Sun, called the team-selling program an "evolution" of the manufacturer's relationship with GE Access and solution providers.

"[Avoiding channel conflict has not been the easiest of processes. [GE Access has done a good job with partner planning," Walsh said. "This will help us establish partnerships early on."

To entice partners to participate in team selling, Sun also plans to award solution providers SunFunds when working with named-account customers, Walsh said.