Numbers Don't Always Point You The Right Way

I find far too many vendors today are focused on finding the top solution pro-viders in a given category, believing if they can just get that finite number to embrace their product, they will gain share. What ends up happening is they spend an inordinate amount of time and resources trying to identify those solution providers and recruiting that finite crew.

Does it make sense? It is a strategy that, in my opinion, is best-suited for manufacturers that do not know how to develop a market and really need to follow and catch the scraps. It is also an expensive strategy that, quite frankly, has no guarantee of success but that can absolutely look like a no-brainer from a cursory examination of the statistics. If the data tells you, for instance, that 10,000 solution providers sell the majority of storage solutions in North America, it's easy to believe you need those 10,000. But if your competition already has them and has a huge leg up, how do you wrestle them away?

If those 10,000 VARs have already built a storage business, what's so compelling about a new vendor's offering that would lead them to completely ditch what they have been selling and incorporate someone else's product into their solution? These solution providers already know how to fish, and they've been doing it with somebody else's bait and are quite successful. Will they add to the bait bucket? Perhaps, but they sure as all hell are not going to just throw the bucket overboard and load up with an entirely different baitfish. Wouldn't it be better, easier and less costly to recruit new solution providers or those with less of a business in the storage area and work with them to build a larger offering? That's a win-win.

Microsoft is a company that I believe understands this and consistently takes over markets by putting competitive product in the hands of large numbers of resellers—some of which are already in the competition's camp, but most of which are not. It makes markets bigger and captures share by thinking beyond the obvious.

If you sit back and think about how to gain market share in a category, it's easy to convince yourself you need more from those that already sell that category. But I'm convinced it's less costly and more effective to teach those that don't already dominate how to attack.

Vendors that build a blended plan to recruit both solution providers with strong category positions and, more importantly, those that have the ability to move into and grow the category will always be more successful than those focused solely on partners selling the competition.

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