How To Team With A Vendor

So, are you Bonds, or are you part of a team? Because, like all smart VARs, you know you'll never deliver a championship fiscal year if you don't think like a team player--and that means communicating with your vendor partners so they know what you need from them, and you know what they expect from you.

"Healthy, profitable partnerships require mutual goals, an investment of time, an effective communication channel and a supporting infrastructure to help make them work," says Kevin Jackson, sales and operations vice president for Campbell, Calif.-based solution provider Corsa Network Technologies. "Reaching agreements on overall priorities, setting rigorous requirements for resource commitments--such as product access, training, technical and marketing support--and constantly sharing information with all levels of the vendor organization are what it takes for a successful partnership."

Jackson says he looks for business viability, brand visibility, vendor credibility, lead generation and a technology road map when selecting vendor partners. "We partner with vendors that are leaders in their industry, have a complementary offering to ours, develop a synergy in goals and create new benefits for customers," he says. Jackson believes an alliance shouldn't simply be a way for one partner to get sales leads. "It is a joint effort to drive new opportunities in which both partners share the risks and the rewards," he says.

Tom Gobeille, CEO of Bellevue, Wash.-based Network Computing Architects, believes in addition to complementary offerings, intelligent solution providers need a vendor partner they can trust. The key, he says, is to establish a need and commitment on both sides and to build credibility. "You've got to be able to fully understand the vendor's product and represent the vendor to your customers," Gobeille says. "Be an extension of the vendor's sales force and their technical engineers."

Gobeille also believes it's important to pay attention to a vendor's market reputation and to stay away from one that oversaturates a market, calling it "a deal killer." "We also look at the stability of the company," he says. "Whether public or private, the quality of their funding resources is critical."

The trick, some believe, is to think of the solution provider as an extension of the vendor. In effect, the goal will be to co-brand your efforts. "We link our Web site to the partner's Web site, so that when a customer reviews our site, they will be sent to the product literature at the partner's site," says Bruce Ligerman, president of LogiTel, a New York-based solution provider. "Our e-mails to customers contain attachments that are provided by the partner and are typically specifications, white papers or ROI calculators that the customer can review."

The net result: maximum information that benefits your customer--or potential customer--and reinforces your worth.

LogiTel likes to pick partners recognized for leadership; these are pure-play vendors that focus on a particular technology. "[They] demonstrate greater investments [in a specific technology] and enhancements than partners that offer a broad range of products," Ligerman says. "We select partners with several years of experience and proven technology."

Turnabout Is Fair Play
All good teams are a balance of give and take. So far, we've addressed what VARs look for in a good vendor partner. But it's also important to know what types of solution providers a vendor thinks would make good partners. In effect, what do you have to give to be a good solution-provider partner?

Harvey Storms, director of channel marketing at Seattle-based Aventail, which provides SSL VPNs across a variety of vertical markets, including health care, financial services and the government, cites five characteristics: 1. A VAR worth partnering with is one that knows how to clearly articulate its core competency in its marketing materials. "Oftentimes," he says, "a VAR's Web site is the first place vendors will look to get initial details on a prospective VAR." Vendors like knowing that the VAR has created the right vendor profile to pursue based on the needs of the VAR's customers. It's important to vendors that VARs already understand their market vs. just learning the market, Storms says.

2. A VAR worth partnering with can articulate its ability to provide technical/consulting services in specific or multiple technology disciplines or your specialty service practice. Storms says vendors like to see that VARs are technically capable of providing key support and services to their customers and are interested in ways to create additional revenue streams.

3. A VAR worth partnering with demonstrates an undying entrepreneurial spirit. "Vendors expect VARs to push for the best margins, tempered with understanding the need to map into the vendor's channel composition, which requires adhering to a structure based on their program definition," Storms says. "The best VARs provide feedback on tools and programs that they would like to see in place to support their businesses. They also fully leverage opportunities offered by the vendor and are aggressive in showing their commitment to meet requirements."

4. A VAR worth partnering with is one with unsurpassed expertise in a technology or vertical market. "In markets where VARs carry multiple competitive products, vendors feel more confident knowing that the VAR knows all the technical aspects of the products, what's best for the customer and will know which product they lead with," Storms says. "In addition, because VARs can be such an amazing technical resource, vendors appreciate feedback on ideas, plans and product betas to continue enhancing and growing their product lines."

5. A VAR worth partnering with touts its installed base as its prized possession. Whether the VAR sells a vertical or horizontal solution, vendors are impressed when VARs highlight the key sales they have closed and the breadth of their installed bases, including their marquee accounts, Storms maintains, especially when they have sold solutions complementary to the vendor's solution. In addition, if a VAR already has an established relationship with its installed base, vendors realize that the probability of securing a meeting with a key decision maker within the VAR's existing accounts is much higher, he says.

One other piece of advice: Developing a mutually established plan for accountability can ensure all of the mentioned tactics are implemented continuously and on time. "Get a clear understanding of who is accountable at every level," Gobeille says.

To play it safe, Brett Johnson, president of the Johnson Advisory Group, a Rio Rancho, N.M.-based solution provider, puts his partners on what he calls "a vendor track." Johnson says the vendor-track system is similar to project tracking because both use "predetermined milestones...to reach a desired result [or] goal."

"The vendor progression track is then revised during my biweekly account review that allows for corrections and adjustments as needed to stay on track to hit my desired target," he says.

There you have it, a strategy for picking the right partners and getting the most out of them. Now, don't forget to play nice.