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At the recently concluded DQ Channels SP Summit at Kathmandu, most solution
providers were curious to know how their peers were sustaining themselves in
current tough times. Most were seen comparing notes with each other about
strategic decisions the other had taken to keep his company growing, or in some
cases, just plain afloat. And yet others were seen speculating how some other
companies were doing the same.
The more successful companies shared that they were managing to tide the
economic storm by focusing lesser on transaction business and more on services
instead. This reiterates something that DQ Channels has been propounding for a
very long time.
Companies which had invested in services during good times are now reaping
the benefits of the same because they already have the foot in the door when
their customers are looking at technologies which will help them save cost,
while increasing efficiency.
Most of them set aside a certain portion of their revenues essentially to
plow back into understanding technologies that were in their infancy then, but
showed signs of promise. This forward looking ability is now acting as their
insurance against tough times and most of the people who have won the Channel
Excellence awards fall into this category.
As against this, companies that thought they would go for scaling their
technology skillsets at a later stage are suddenly finding themselves adrift in
a tight market with a narrowing fiscal funnel, which leaves them with little
chance to invest into training and improving their technical capabilities. They
now have to go through the entire learning curve but have to try to compress all
of it in the shortest time possible. It is going to be an uphill task,
doubtlessly, for them.
Another thing that most of the winners of the Channel Excellence awards-who
can easily be considered as the benchmark for the best performing solution
providing companies-did was work hard on retaining existing clients vis-a-vis
adding more names to their clientele. Often when these existing customers wanted
to procure some products, these partners instead educated them on opting for
more economical but better technology, focusing more on the customer's need,
than their own need to close a deal with better margins. Needless to say, they
ended up retaining the customer because of their ability to think out of the
box.
This is the need of the hour for all those partners who want to emulate their
successful peers. Dare to think and do differently. Someone recently told me
that partners with a conventional mindset need to be told that they have waited
and watched enough. Now is the time to take a plunge into the deep end of the
pool, but while wearing your life jacket.
I say, amen to that.
Vinita Bhatia
vinitavs@cybermedia.co.in Page(s) 1
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