Cisco's Keith Goodwin On Channel Leadership

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If only more vendors knew how to treat their VARs, partner satisfaction scores would be through the roof. Unfortunately, some vendors have gotten lost in the process, with the end result being a disjointed solution provider program, communication efforts that rely primarily on newsletters and revenue enhancement programs that amount to next to nothing.

However, not all vendors are clueless; the cream always rises to the top—and generally gets noticed. Cisco Systems Inc. is one vendor always singled out for praise by its partners, a fact that's substantiated by Everything Channel's own Annual Report Card research.

1. On The Money: Help Your Partners Grow

Although it sounds intuitive that a vendor would take its partner profitability seriously, that's not always the case. Cisco focuses on top-line growth that helps partners grow revenue but ensures that they have margin and profitability.

"We made changes several years ago when it became apparent that if we were going to invest in new technology, it had to improve profits for partners to invest in it," said Keith Goodwin, senior vice president of Cisco's Worldwide Channels organization. Goodwin is responsible for the strategy supporting Cisco's San Jose, Calif.-based business with more than 60,000 channel partners. "We looked at how they generate profitability and margin and we launched programs to address those areas."

The Value Incentive Program (VIP) was one product of Cisco's internal evaluation. It's directly aimed at building profit and margin around unified communications wireless security. The vendor has written checks to partners for more than $2 billion worth of training.

"Any partner you ask will say VIP supports profitability," Goodwin said. Cisco partners in the Annual Report Card gave the vendor the highest marks in the Revenue Profit Potential criterion, beating the average industry competition in Wireless Infrastructure, VoIP, SMB Networking Hardware, Network Security Appliances and Network Infrastructure.

2. Listen And Learn

According to Goodwin, partners recognize that Cisco has put effort into honing its communication, and often say Cisco is a good listener. For example, the company hosts Partner Executive Exchange twice annually over a three-day period.

"We use those forums to shape strategies, through forums and initiatives. We came up with VIP, but partners shaped the details of that program. We use forums to shape ideas. But we also get responses to questions like, 'What can we do to help you grow faster?' " Goodwin said. "Last year, I got a consistent answer: Talent. So we're helping them find and develop talent."

According to VARs surveyed in the Annual Report Card, Cisco communicates well with its partners. Respondents gave the vendor the highest marks in the Communication criterion, beating out average industry competition in the category, in Wireless Infrastructure, VoIP, SMB Networking Hardware, Network Security Appliances and Network Infrastructure.

3. Technology Transitions

Partners want a program they can trust will lead them into providing the "next big thing" for customers, with a certain degree of support. "We led the transition to the IP world. We led the transformation to VoIP and unified communications," Goodwin noted. "Today, we are leading with collaboration."

Vendors that lead technological transitions and have solid programs can ramp up growth as markets move from startup to acceleration. "We want to enable partners to be in a position to take advantage of that acceleration. That's where the margin and profit are," he said. "We build channel programs to support partners to do that.

Next: The Real World—Practice What You Preach

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