Why Manufacturers Are The New Solutions Provider
By Alex Weinbaum, Computer Market Research
Your channel partners are no longer an extension sales team. If this comes off as a contrarian point of view, you’re right — this disconnects from conventional thinking.
In actuality, however, viewing valued channel partners is essential towards your ability to generate profit does them a disservice. It’s an example of corporate political correctness that puts you, the vendor, on a pedal stool without appearing disingenuous.
The truth is channel partners are more than just value added resellers — they’re solution providers who do more than just resell your product. They bring something you don’t offer to the table; a value proposition that reflects their customers’ needs and pain points, kind of an “X factor” that differentiates their product or service from the rest.
Perceiving channel partners as merely the middleman is an obsolete mindset, and a dangerous one at that. In a crowded, often saturated, marketplace suffused with other vendors that might offer narrowly similar margins, the frequent disconnect between vendor and partner places a ceiling on a rapport reaching its full potential.
Why The Old Way Of Thinking No Longer Applies
1.Partners are adept in multiple areas — Not only are channel partners experts in leveraging your product, they’re proficient with many other products and technologies as well. Your product may only represent a piece of their overall means to generate a profit. Hopefully, it’s a big piece.
2.Partners don’t just think bigger, they act it as well — They integrate, enhance, consult, manage, and sell your products — qualities that were once scarce and rarely expected.
3.Partners have their own vision — Channel partners’ promise or value proposition to customers may be completely different to that of your own. Before partners would harness their vendors’ underlining message as their core go-to market strategy; this is no longer the case.
4.Partners dictate the success of your product — If you sell thru the channel, you realize the importance of partners. What you may not know is how much influence your partners have: customers go to them for help; customers go to them to negotiate pricing; and customers go to them to handle issues.
How Can Vendors Adjust To The Changing Tides?
It all starts with your mindset. In philosophical terms, reality is a result of the way you interpret things. If you view channel partners as a pawn to help get you to your underlining objective, the relationship will never congeal and opportunities will never reach their full potential.
Partners no longer work for you — you work for partners. This isn’t to diminish your importance, rather it’s to spotlight your value. Think of it this way: you are a solution provider to your channel partner.
How Can You Perpetuate Your Value As A Solution Provider?
- Realize partners’ go-to market strategy, value proposition, and core message to customers — The better you can understand their customers’ needs and pain points, the more you know how to position your product and appeal to them.
- Realize exactly what your product does for them — How does your product help partners generate a profit? Is it merely an additional feature or perk? Does it optimize a certain functionality of their overall product? How does it integrate into their solutions?
- Modify your approach — Positioning new angles to partners should be an infinite strategy. Just like B2C brands continually implement new ways to communicate with their audience, you should try to do the same. Think about new reasons why/how your product can benefit partners’ target market.