Vendors have realised that without loyal partners their survival might be at stake. This is why they are leaving no stone unturned to befriend partners and keep them happy. But is the channel truly happy with these overtures? Is vendor loyalty a thing of the past?

The crux of any business is profitability and so it is with the channel business. But apart from profitability, channel also helps customers in showing them right directions. Against that backdrop and the growing competition in the market, channels need to partner new and emerging vendors, like many solution providers have done in the past (finding that doing so augments growth and increases margins).

It is also observed that adding new vendors provides building blocks to larger new solutions. But vendors on the other hand are trimming their channels and often replacing or dropping resellers.

It's imperative that the channel also gets its business more aligned with the specific vendor policies. There is no doubt that a loyal partner is the ultimate weapon the vendor has while battling competition. But are the vendors doing their bit to ensure that their partners stand by them when it is moot?

Innovate to stay
There could be multiple reasons why a partner can shift his loyalties. Vendors working with them should bring in the most innovative products and technologies that creates an impact on the people, forge relationships based on trust and understanding with the partners, bring in learning and training initiatives and create an ecosystem that is aligned to growth for the partners.

Sharing his thoughts, Anoop G Nambiar, Country Manager-Business Partner Organization, IBM India/South Asia said, “We do understand that a sustained and colla­borative relationship is quinte­ssential for developing and building a partnership which is mutually beneficial to both the partner and the vendor. IBM has taken the initiatives like the periodic training on products, sales incentives as well as various platforms that gives partners direct access to us. We launched the Partner Sales Service Center in India across four regions to provide channel partners with services specific to sales opportunities. All of these help us connect with our partners well.”

IBM is also focusing on factors such as partner ennoble­ment, training and scalability. The IBM STG University is one such initiative, which has training and certification program that enables channel partners to better understand IBM's system portfolio and also reiterates their commitment to channel partners.

Nambiar further added, “Over the years, we have watched our partners evolve and play a larger role than before in the overall IBM business. We have put in place a series of initiatives that facilitate not only the partners working with IBM, but also partners working with partners. As we go forward, success will be about partners having to collaborate to grow and evolve.”

For effective collaboration, IBM has launched the 'value net connections', which is part of the 'Partner World' tools for partners. There is a place to develop a value net, right from selection of partners to deciding how to develop a solution and go-to-market and generate demand. Initiatives comprise a number of offerings like incentives, co-marketing funds or special benefits from IBM.

Sharing his thoughts on the issue, Kandarp Jhala, AVP-National Channels, D-Link India noted, “While partners are loyal to one brand, they would continue to talk to others. This is very critical for a partner's growth. Even as they continue to build their strategies around the products and solutions of one vendor, partners need to work with others in order to grow to the next level. This would help them in expanding to new geographies, verticals and market segments. We must keep in mind that partner exclusivity is only for a particular product category most of the time rather than the whole portfolio.”

D-Link India has devised a structured empowered partner program, which gives partners enough room to reach out to new technologies and do business while also enabling others to reach out to new growth areas and benefit from the same. Jhala believed that growth is a key driver for channel-vendor partnerships and multiple vendor tie-ups would become the order of the day given that customers look for holistic solutions.

According to S Ram Prasad, Business Manager-Consumer Product Group, Epson India, vendor loyalty is built over a period of time because of brand image, the product performance, quality of systems and people in the organization besides consistency and transparency of policy. “Today we are in a customer-driven market and partners need to provide a choice to their customers, which means they cannot survive with just one vendor or brand. More than the shifting of loyalties customer fulfillment is a key factor for partners to work with multiple brands and vendors,” he said.

Alamuri Sitaramaiah, Director-Sales and Marketing, Fluke Networks, India said that multiple factors that affect are technology, fit, price, ease of purchase and support. According to him the channel-vendor partnership that is best able to cater to the above and become the customer's choice consis­tently provides the basis for channel-vendor loyalty.

“While the vendor needs to work on product, price and promotion, the channel needs to work on the marketplace ie the customer account. This makes for a winning combination and repeated wins create loyalty,” said Sitaramaiah.

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