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At a recent vendor-sponsored business convention, the growing divide between
a vendor perception and the channel reality could not be more obvious.
The vendor tried its best to sound upbeat in the face of the economic
slowdown and pep up the channel by talking about its pro-partner initiatives and
new product launches. It highlighted some of the initiatives it had taken to
help partners garner business during tough times, painting itself out to be the
channel's pal and not just a principal.
It was easy to believe this, given how much patting on the back the vendor
did for its channel at the event openly. It talked about the importance of the
channel and their ability to transition to newer technologies faster than even
OEMs.
But on the sidelines of the event, several partners talked about how
difficult it had become to sell the existing technology to customers, especially
smaller enterprises in India who had more or less put all future purchases on
hold. Given such circumstances, they were sceptical about going to customers
with new products.
During the closed room interactions with vendors, several partners pointed
this out to the vendor representatives as well, but all they got was assurance
through power point slides about how certain customer verticals would
immediately bite the bait for these new products.
Later a partner commented that it all boiled down to finding one sucker as a
customer, and somehow getting him to buy the product, so that the vendor could
reach their sales targets and show the world that they had bucked the
recessionary trend! That was the level of cynicism that has common place amongst
partners these days.
Vendors on the other hand believed that they had to create an air of optimism
for their partners, to boost their morale. While that is fine, the problem is
that just creating this ambiance will not really go a long way in morale
boosting.
What partners want from their principals in support when they are literally
battling in the trenches. Quite a few partners talked about wanting vendors to
work with them to close deals, by going to the client jointly and explaining the
benefits of opting for a new solution and the support that would be extended by
the principal and partner, post-sale.
Unfortunately, they also said that vendors were interested in working jointly
only for big-ticket deals, which gave them better mileage. The smaller deals
were given the cold shoulder.
Ironically, a large section of the partners continue to work with the smaller
enterprises, as the big ticket deals are handled by the tier-1 solution
providers or by the vendors directly. This simply means that the tier-2 partners
are deprived of the very support they need and are instead given incentive
schemes to achieve their targets given by the vendors.
Instead of fancy incentive schemes, what partners wanted more than ever
besides joint sales negotiations, is better post-sales support with minimal
paper work.
Now if only the vendors would listen to what the partners want rather than
shove optimism down a reluctant channel's throat.
Vinita Bhatia
vinitavs@cybermedia.co.in Page(s) 1
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