Want To Find The Right Vendor Partner? Ask The Right Questions.

By Bob Skelley, vice president of global channel, Infinio

Any number of things can doom a technology partnership. There’s no such thing, really, as the perfect relationship. Everything comes with some compromise, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing; it’s just the nature of the business. Companies need to be very strategic about how they want to add new technology partners to their portfolios. Despite the give and take required to enter into the right partnerships, there are a few terms on which you must insist.

It doesn’t always come down to technology, either. Entering into the right deals for your company comes down to a thorough understanding of a vendor’s partner program and a careful analysis of its technology’s adoption curve within the market. To be successful, you’ll need to balance the two ideas against the investment required by your organization.

How To Vet Your Partners

On countless occasions, I’ve heard from solutions providers that partner relationships haven’t become as fruitful as they expected. Everything seemed great at first. After a few months, it simply took too long for deals to reach approval. Or sales teams didn’t provide support. Or there weren’t enough marketing resources available. These are all problems that short circuit partnerships and prevent solution providers from maximizing the value of their relationships. If you are a smaller team, then these issues could be very costly for your organization and set you back months. These are the issues that make analyzing your potential partner’s channel program critical — it’s not just about the technology. You need to identify vendors willing to provide you with as much information about their partner programs as possible before formalizing any business relationship.

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