This is the tenth and final blog post regarding the 10 Things I Accidentally Learned on the Path to Growth. I saved the biggest and best until last. There is no question that the single biggest thing I have learned in how to grow a business comes down to this: it is all about relationships. There is no other single factor that comes anywhere close to driving growth as this one - a firm understanding and competency in creating, maintaining and growing relationships. From these interactions all sorts of powerful things happen. There are relationships needed in many areas - with your team, your vendors, your distribution partners, your customers, your strategic partners, media and PR folks and on the list goes. If you want to truly grow your company, or you life for that matter, you have to get this part right!
Community
Relationships for me all started with and continue heavily to focus around community. First Ingram's VTN, now HTG - but meeting with like minded folks is so very important. There is so much to learn from others in the industry, but in order to do that you have to spend time together. So being part of community is a critical component to the relationship area. What groups are you part of? For me:
•Community has provided perspective
Without it you don’t know what “good” is
•Community has provided relationships
With distribution, vendors, peers, subject matter experts and media
•Community has provided guidance
Without it the ability to stay relevant is more difficult
•Community has provided growth
6 M&A’s resulted from the relationships in communities
•Community has provided success
Without it we would still be a little technology company in the middle of a cornfield
Power of Peers
The bottom line is that there is extreme power when you become intimate with a set of peers. Here are some of the foundational things that define HTG:
•We engage other companies in the channel
•We share and give openly
•We ask for help when we need it
•We share our financials openly
•We plan together around business and life
•We execute together
•We are accountable
Not only do you learn from others, but as community goes deep, relationships become so much more. It quickly gets down to accountability and life and making sure we are doing what we intend. That is the power of true relationship - it causes us to be more than we were without it.
From where I sit
I have been blessed to be part of this industry for the last 25 years. Lots of things have happened during that time. The Internet has become main stream. Cell phones went from small suitcases to the palm of your hand. Portable pc's went from 40 pound luggables down to a few pounds. Change happens - it has been but even bigger change is coming….
The rate will accelerate as we move more and more to the cloud. And how IT impacts businesses will continue to morph and become more deeply integrated. However there remains one constant…and that is the fact that people are still at the end of the wire running things.
At the end of the day
We are in the people business. That is what we do. We sell technology and services but our job is really managing change and helping those we serve adapt to it. It won't be easy. All of us resist change at some level. But to truly have a handle on relationship we have to realize our opportunity to help people handle change. There are lots of places for us to do that:
•Ourselves
•In our business
•For our customers
•With our employees
Our success will be directly tied to how well we help people adapt to change. It really is that simple. Relationship will always win over technology because it is about people, not the bits and bytes. We must never lose sight of that fact.
The final reality and lesson is this: PEOPLE ARE THE ONLY THING THAT TRULY MATTERS. If you get this one thing right - most everything else takes care of itself. That means knowing how to build and maintain relationships. It is THE most important thing!
Showing posts with label vendors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vendors. Show all posts
Monday, January 17, 2011
Monday, December 27, 2010
Vendors Matter
This is the seventh blog post regarding the 10 Things I Accidentally Learned on the Path to Growth. There is little question that many folks in our industry seem to feel that the vendors are the enemy. Why - I am not exactly sure. But I can tell you without question that an attitude like that is 180 degrees the wrong way. Not only are vendors necessary and important - if you really want to grow - they are one of the most important factors I have seen and experienced.
So before you tune me out - listen a bit. Unless you are some super giant company - you do not have everything you need in order to serve your clients. Even Microsoft and HP use vendors - lots of them - to bring together things needed to serve their end clients. So what makes us as IT owners believe we are self sufficient and can run our business without any vendor relationships? I know the answer and it is in one word - stupidity! I know because I used to think that way a long time ago. I thought my job for the day was to beat vendors and distributors up on pricing and accuse them of trying to take my customers or take advantage of me through one of their programs somehow. Is that how you see your vendor relationships? Wrong approach - way wrong. Here are the facts as I have seen them over the years:
Vendors and Distributors exist to sell stuff
At the core of our attitude toward vendors is the failure to understand what they are in business for. Just like us - they exist to make a profit - and serve their customers. We tend to want to cut that first part out. If you want to succeed in this area - you have to understand that they are in business to sell things. And the way you embrace that is pretty obvious - you buy them. But not based on where you can find the lowest deal of the day or beat down the last penny of profit. You consolidate your purchasing and become a loyal buyer. Nothing says relationship like those two words. Get over finding the cheapest place to source products. Pick a distributor and a few key vendors and buy their products the same way from the same companies every day. I am often amazed at discussions where someone saved $10 a product by shopping. They wasted two hours of valuable time that could be used on productive work - but they got the best deal. Until they look a little more and find out that had they spend the whole day they could have saved $12. How ludicrous. We are in the value business. We sell our solutions and services based on value - not cost. We should buy the same way and quit worrying about getting every last dime out of someone. You will never grow or succeed as long as you are focused on spending your time here rather than building value for the customer.
Learn who your reps are and how they get paid
Relationships happen between two people. Every vendor has people resources that we can leverage to help drive our collective business. Your assignment is to find out who they are and build a relationship with them. It starts by buying as described in the previous paragraph. Most vendor reps are not crazy about working with companies that don't buy anything. But assuming you figure that one out and become a loyal partner - then it is time to begin the treasure hunt to find out where the people resources are. This takes determination and hard work - but is very much worth the effort. Once you build a relationship by consistently executing - you will find that these folks offer to bring resources to the table to help you grow. After all - they are paid on selling stuff. You need to ask that question and understand their compensation model - but inevitably it will have some component of sales in the mix. So find them and help them succeed. No one in their right mind won't partner with you to sell more if you are helping them earn more. This is key - building a win - win relationship. It is so powerful and I have seen significant results from learning to partner closely with vendor reps.
Participate in their programs
Vendors spend millions and millions of dollars on our behalf. The sad reality is that most of us don't take advantage of those investments. We don't like what they are offering for this reason or that - so we just ignore them. Bad decision. We need to not only understand what our key vendors are doing to support the channel - we need to participate in every possible way whether it is exactly how we would like it or not. It is their money after all. They are spending it on our behalf. We don't get to decide how. But they do care about our participation. They very much care about how involved we are in taking advantage of their investments. And they do keep score. Not getting much attention from your vendors? Begin by looking at your support and participation in their programs. More often than not you are getting what you deserve based on your committment.
Provide customer evidence
Vendors really love customer success stories. And in our IT channel two tier distribution model they have a difficult time getting those because we are in the middle. If you want to win some big points with both field reps and folks at corporate offices of your key vendors - capture and write success stories on how their technology delivered by you made a difference. That is like gold to reps and gives them some great evidence to bring back to their company. You can use it with your customers too - so it is something we should all be doing anyway. Just be sure to include your vendor reps and help them look good with their managers.
Get your team trained
It amazes me at how many partners complain about having to invest in training to get attention from vendors. Is it really that difficult to understand. It not only prepares us to actually sell their products as designed, to install them the best possible way, to succeed with their programs and use their references - but it also shows loyalty and our willingness to put skin in the game. Do I ever think some of the training is a little worthless? Yep. Do I think most training could be done better? Yep. Do we participate and get our people trained? Absolutely. Why? Because it shows that we are committed to the technology and company we are representing. It is part of learning how they intend to help us succeed. We need to bite the bullet and get our people trained, and then use what we learned to sell and implement more solutions.
Plan and be accountable to them
One of the most important things you can do to take vendor relationships to a whole different level is to truly plan together. Each year in the last quarter we hold our annual vendor planning session. We invite our top 4 or 5 vendor partners and our disty partner to the table - all at the same time - with our management team to strategize for the coming year. This has turned into one of the most important things we do to drive relationship with our vendors. It is a day and a half to two days focused on how we collectively grow each others business. There are competitors in the room - but we are clear that our approach to the market is solution selling and we sell products from a few vendors to build our solutions so they have to learn to play together in the sandbox. It opened some eyes the first time we did it. Some were pretty quiet and careful - but over the years it has become a true collaborative time and vendors leave knowing our collective approach. We also make committments to them, and they to us, that both sides are accountable for. We do quarterly reviews to make sure we are on track through the year. You have to be transparent and accountable if you truly want to make vendor relationships work.
There are lots of ways to engage vendors. Here are a few ideas we have utilized:
•Marketing Development Funds (MDF) - come in a variety of shapes and sizes
•Technology adoption programs
•Rapid deployment programs
•Beta programs
•Case studies – video and print
•Advisory councils
•Technical and sales training
•On site visits where we have corporate folks in our office to see what really happens
The bottom line
If you want to truly grow your company - you have to get this area right. I have seen NO company of any size do it alone. There always is a very strong and deep strategy to leverage vendors as part of the growth. You just aren't going to get there if you don't embrace them. They truly are a great resource and ally if you build deep relationships. It is work. It takes time. But it is very much worth it. Get after it and don't listen to the majority who will never figure this out. Go deep and find out just how far great vendor relationships can take you on your path of growth!
So before you tune me out - listen a bit. Unless you are some super giant company - you do not have everything you need in order to serve your clients. Even Microsoft and HP use vendors - lots of them - to bring together things needed to serve their end clients. So what makes us as IT owners believe we are self sufficient and can run our business without any vendor relationships? I know the answer and it is in one word - stupidity! I know because I used to think that way a long time ago. I thought my job for the day was to beat vendors and distributors up on pricing and accuse them of trying to take my customers or take advantage of me through one of their programs somehow. Is that how you see your vendor relationships? Wrong approach - way wrong. Here are the facts as I have seen them over the years:
Vendors and Distributors exist to sell stuff
At the core of our attitude toward vendors is the failure to understand what they are in business for. Just like us - they exist to make a profit - and serve their customers. We tend to want to cut that first part out. If you want to succeed in this area - you have to understand that they are in business to sell things. And the way you embrace that is pretty obvious - you buy them. But not based on where you can find the lowest deal of the day or beat down the last penny of profit. You consolidate your purchasing and become a loyal buyer. Nothing says relationship like those two words. Get over finding the cheapest place to source products. Pick a distributor and a few key vendors and buy their products the same way from the same companies every day. I am often amazed at discussions where someone saved $10 a product by shopping. They wasted two hours of valuable time that could be used on productive work - but they got the best deal. Until they look a little more and find out that had they spend the whole day they could have saved $12. How ludicrous. We are in the value business. We sell our solutions and services based on value - not cost. We should buy the same way and quit worrying about getting every last dime out of someone. You will never grow or succeed as long as you are focused on spending your time here rather than building value for the customer.
Learn who your reps are and how they get paid
Relationships happen between two people. Every vendor has people resources that we can leverage to help drive our collective business. Your assignment is to find out who they are and build a relationship with them. It starts by buying as described in the previous paragraph. Most vendor reps are not crazy about working with companies that don't buy anything. But assuming you figure that one out and become a loyal partner - then it is time to begin the treasure hunt to find out where the people resources are. This takes determination and hard work - but is very much worth the effort. Once you build a relationship by consistently executing - you will find that these folks offer to bring resources to the table to help you grow. After all - they are paid on selling stuff. You need to ask that question and understand their compensation model - but inevitably it will have some component of sales in the mix. So find them and help them succeed. No one in their right mind won't partner with you to sell more if you are helping them earn more. This is key - building a win - win relationship. It is so powerful and I have seen significant results from learning to partner closely with vendor reps.
Participate in their programs
Vendors spend millions and millions of dollars on our behalf. The sad reality is that most of us don't take advantage of those investments. We don't like what they are offering for this reason or that - so we just ignore them. Bad decision. We need to not only understand what our key vendors are doing to support the channel - we need to participate in every possible way whether it is exactly how we would like it or not. It is their money after all. They are spending it on our behalf. We don't get to decide how. But they do care about our participation. They very much care about how involved we are in taking advantage of their investments. And they do keep score. Not getting much attention from your vendors? Begin by looking at your support and participation in their programs. More often than not you are getting what you deserve based on your committment.
Provide customer evidence
Vendors really love customer success stories. And in our IT channel two tier distribution model they have a difficult time getting those because we are in the middle. If you want to win some big points with both field reps and folks at corporate offices of your key vendors - capture and write success stories on how their technology delivered by you made a difference. That is like gold to reps and gives them some great evidence to bring back to their company. You can use it with your customers too - so it is something we should all be doing anyway. Just be sure to include your vendor reps and help them look good with their managers.
Get your team trained
It amazes me at how many partners complain about having to invest in training to get attention from vendors. Is it really that difficult to understand. It not only prepares us to actually sell their products as designed, to install them the best possible way, to succeed with their programs and use their references - but it also shows loyalty and our willingness to put skin in the game. Do I ever think some of the training is a little worthless? Yep. Do I think most training could be done better? Yep. Do we participate and get our people trained? Absolutely. Why? Because it shows that we are committed to the technology and company we are representing. It is part of learning how they intend to help us succeed. We need to bite the bullet and get our people trained, and then use what we learned to sell and implement more solutions.
Plan and be accountable to them
One of the most important things you can do to take vendor relationships to a whole different level is to truly plan together. Each year in the last quarter we hold our annual vendor planning session. We invite our top 4 or 5 vendor partners and our disty partner to the table - all at the same time - with our management team to strategize for the coming year. This has turned into one of the most important things we do to drive relationship with our vendors. It is a day and a half to two days focused on how we collectively grow each others business. There are competitors in the room - but we are clear that our approach to the market is solution selling and we sell products from a few vendors to build our solutions so they have to learn to play together in the sandbox. It opened some eyes the first time we did it. Some were pretty quiet and careful - but over the years it has become a true collaborative time and vendors leave knowing our collective approach. We also make committments to them, and they to us, that both sides are accountable for. We do quarterly reviews to make sure we are on track through the year. You have to be transparent and accountable if you truly want to make vendor relationships work.
There are lots of ways to engage vendors. Here are a few ideas we have utilized:
•Marketing Development Funds (MDF) - come in a variety of shapes and sizes
•Technology adoption programs
•Rapid deployment programs
•Beta programs
•Case studies – video and print
•Advisory councils
•Technical and sales training
•On site visits where we have corporate folks in our office to see what really happens
The bottom line
If you want to truly grow your company - you have to get this area right. I have seen NO company of any size do it alone. There always is a very strong and deep strategy to leverage vendors as part of the growth. You just aren't going to get there if you don't embrace them. They truly are a great resource and ally if you build deep relationships. It is work. It takes time. But it is very much worth it. Get after it and don't listen to the majority who will never figure this out. Go deep and find out just how far great vendor relationships can take you on your path of growth!
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Someone Else Who Gets It
I write often on the importance of working strategically and through partnerships with vendors. HBR (Harvard Business Review) posted a great piece from Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos.com, that made me stand up and cheer. Zappos sees it the same way as HTG does. Vendors are not the enemy and need to be treated like our best friends – as partners we cannot live without – as keys to our success – as critical components to a winning strategy. This article entitled “A Lesson From Zappos – Follow the Golden Rule” really hits the key points and says it better than I – so take the time to go and read this in full.
I do want to call out a few key statements in this article:
I could not have written this article any more clearly than Mr. Hsieh has done it. We truly grow and succeed based on how well we are able to build and maintain and nurture our relationships. We want to focus on the customer, but I am here to scream that there are equally important relationships with our vendors and distribution partners. And the sooner you learn that – the sooner you will start to truly grow and succeed. If you don’t get it – as the article states – you will like find the “death spiral” most retailers find.
Relationships matter; and few are as important as those you build with your key vendors. Get them right, invest in them wisely, and they will take you far. Fail here and you can start planning for your next job!
I do want to call out a few key statements in this article:
- Ultimately, each party is out for the same thing: to take care of the customers, grow the business, and be profitable.
- We found it much easier to create alliances when partners aligned themselves to the same vision and committed to accountability
- It all begins with the Golden Rule: Treat others as you'd like to be treated
- We realize the importance of communication, and if our partners are trying to reach us, we need to be responsive
- If we created true transparency in our business, not only would they help us, they'd benefit as well
- Negotiations at Zappos are a bit different as well. Instead of pounding vendors, we collaborate
- We know there’s no way we could’ve achieved our success as a company without our vendor’s commitment and passion, so every year, we like to show a little gratitude
- All of this is because of the trust we’ve built….we respect and value our relationships
I could not have written this article any more clearly than Mr. Hsieh has done it. We truly grow and succeed based on how well we are able to build and maintain and nurture our relationships. We want to focus on the customer, but I am here to scream that there are equally important relationships with our vendors and distribution partners. And the sooner you learn that – the sooner you will start to truly grow and succeed. If you don’t get it – as the article states – you will like find the “death spiral” most retailers find.
Relationships matter; and few are as important as those you build with your key vendors. Get them right, invest in them wisely, and they will take you far. Fail here and you can start planning for your next job!
Saturday, September 12, 2009
How We Engage Vendors
This is the fifth post based on the keynote I delivered at the Ingram SMBA in Charlotte in late August. The topic revolves around the specifics of how to leverage the vendor resources available to the channel. Many partners don’t take advantage of these tools and miss the opportunity to get their fair share of the vendor investment. Don’t be one of them – take advantage and get more than your fair share. Vendors can help you in many ways, so consider these thoughts:
Marketing Funds (MDF/Distributor/Performance)
Most vendors set aside a significant amount of funding to hand out in a number of ways to their channel partners. Some of it normally comes through MDF (market development funds) that are earned based on sales of the vendor’s products. Distribution funds are provided through distribution and are normally handed out based on a proposal – more of a one off system of funding. Each vendor and distributor has their own system of handling these types of funds. Many vendors also offer funds that are proposal based and funding is based on performance. These funds require a written plan, execution and proof of performance with ROI. Based on that ROI – funding is provided after the fact. In every case literally millions of dollars – many millions – go unused by the channel because partners do not apply for and execute marketing properly.
Technology adoption programs
Vendors call this different things but this refers to the broad bucket of programs where products are placed in live customer environments during development and testing. Some of these programs are funded by the vendor, some are not. They give partners the opportunity to learn technologies early and get a head start on their competitors. These programs can be software or hardware, but always include the possibility of some customer or partner pain as the technology is tested. At HTS we have participated in dozens of these programs and find it is a valuable tool for our engineering team as well as our customers.
Rapid deployment programs
Many vendors also offer programs to drive adoption of new technologies in the marketplace. These can be funded or may just be based on reduced costs to the customer. But these again give a partner a competitive advantage in getting their company up to speed on new technologies and helps customers implement these cutting edge technologies in their environment. Microsoft is particularly fond of these types of programs and HTS has again participated in many of these for the benefit of our team and customers.
Beta programs
Beta programs are a bit more difficult to get involved in. These require a deep relationship with engineering and product teams and a history of performance in providing strong feedback and design specifications. They can be extremely valuable in keeping your engineers engaged and challenged, and the right customers are also excited to be able to help in the development process. It is not for every partner or customer, is seldom funded, and can be something that causes everyone to pull their hair out. But it has been a great way to keep the HTS engineering team challenged and growing.
Case studies – video and print
One of the areas that can be extremely effective in many ways is the creation of case studies on your customers. Vendors love these as it gives them customer evidence that can be used to validate their products and services. But as partners, not only do these help build a relationship with vendors, but they also provide fantastic marketing tools that can be used on websites, print materials and blogs. These are easier than ever to produce with the advent of inexpensive video cameras and quality color print devices, yet so many partners have no case studies in their marketing bag of tricks.
Advisory councils
Many vendors have advisory councils made of active partners in their partner base. These programs vary widely from vendor to vendor, but they are always effective in helping take the relationship much deeper. One does not get selected to serve just by sitting back and waiting for an invite. You have to proactively participate in the vendors programs, get acquainted with the vendor representatives, and show how you will add value to the company if you are invited to serve. These councils are very limited in size so it is not something that all can achieve, but more often than not, if a partner is deeply engaged with selling a vendor solution and works to add value to their partner programs, they can work their way on to an advisory council over time.
Technical and sales training
Vendors spend millions of dollars of field resources designed to help drive sales. These resources are both sales and technical in nature, and are paid to help partners grow their business with the vendor. Too many times partners are unwilling to make their team available for training. This sends a bad signal to the vendor and is not a solid way to build relationships with that vendor. Not only should a partner make their team available for vendor training, but they should be proactive in seeking that training and creating valuable ways to drive that relationship with the field deeper.
On site visits
One of the most important ways to build a strong vendor relationship is to invite them to your office. Take them on customer visits. Help them get the kinds of experiences that will help them grow and bring back value to their company. It is powerful to help vendor reps continue their path to promotion and often some field experience with a partner goes a long way to that end. At HTS we have had literally hundreds of vendor staff – from field sales and technical resources to product development and HR folks – spend time in our offices with our team. We have taken them on customer visits, spent time in roundtable and brainstorming sessions, and provided them the kinds of experiences that help make them better at their jobs. While we don’t get paid for that time, it is an investment in the relationships that takes us up a notch in terms of our engagement and it always comes back to us in many ways.
Sell their stuff
So the real way to take advantage of a vendor relationship really comes down to selling their products and services. The more exclusive or focused you are on them, the more they are willing to invest in you. There is NO substitute to selling their stuff. If you really want to go deep with a vendor – get serious about selling their products. Market it, get trained in it, learn how to support it, but most of all sell it. The more you do the deeper your relationship and the deeper the investment will be in your company.
Vendor relationships are not rocket science. They do involve us getting active and off our fannies and participating and working at it. Vendor relationships are not just holding your hand out and asking them to give you stuff. It doesn’t work like that. It is about understanding their programs, diving in completely and working to help make sure they are successful. There are many other things that vendors offer that we have not covered in this post. But a relationship with a vendor is really just like any relationship – it has to be about giving and realizing that as you give, the receiving takes care of itself. We have found that to be true every time.
Marketing Funds (MDF/Distributor/Performance)
Most vendors set aside a significant amount of funding to hand out in a number of ways to their channel partners. Some of it normally comes through MDF (market development funds) that are earned based on sales of the vendor’s products. Distribution funds are provided through distribution and are normally handed out based on a proposal – more of a one off system of funding. Each vendor and distributor has their own system of handling these types of funds. Many vendors also offer funds that are proposal based and funding is based on performance. These funds require a written plan, execution and proof of performance with ROI. Based on that ROI – funding is provided after the fact. In every case literally millions of dollars – many millions – go unused by the channel because partners do not apply for and execute marketing properly.
Technology adoption programs
Vendors call this different things but this refers to the broad bucket of programs where products are placed in live customer environments during development and testing. Some of these programs are funded by the vendor, some are not. They give partners the opportunity to learn technologies early and get a head start on their competitors. These programs can be software or hardware, but always include the possibility of some customer or partner pain as the technology is tested. At HTS we have participated in dozens of these programs and find it is a valuable tool for our engineering team as well as our customers.
Rapid deployment programs
Many vendors also offer programs to drive adoption of new technologies in the marketplace. These can be funded or may just be based on reduced costs to the customer. But these again give a partner a competitive advantage in getting their company up to speed on new technologies and helps customers implement these cutting edge technologies in their environment. Microsoft is particularly fond of these types of programs and HTS has again participated in many of these for the benefit of our team and customers.
Beta programs
Beta programs are a bit more difficult to get involved in. These require a deep relationship with engineering and product teams and a history of performance in providing strong feedback and design specifications. They can be extremely valuable in keeping your engineers engaged and challenged, and the right customers are also excited to be able to help in the development process. It is not for every partner or customer, is seldom funded, and can be something that causes everyone to pull their hair out. But it has been a great way to keep the HTS engineering team challenged and growing.
Case studies – video and print
One of the areas that can be extremely effective in many ways is the creation of case studies on your customers. Vendors love these as it gives them customer evidence that can be used to validate their products and services. But as partners, not only do these help build a relationship with vendors, but they also provide fantastic marketing tools that can be used on websites, print materials and blogs. These are easier than ever to produce with the advent of inexpensive video cameras and quality color print devices, yet so many partners have no case studies in their marketing bag of tricks.
Advisory councils
Many vendors have advisory councils made of active partners in their partner base. These programs vary widely from vendor to vendor, but they are always effective in helping take the relationship much deeper. One does not get selected to serve just by sitting back and waiting for an invite. You have to proactively participate in the vendors programs, get acquainted with the vendor representatives, and show how you will add value to the company if you are invited to serve. These councils are very limited in size so it is not something that all can achieve, but more often than not, if a partner is deeply engaged with selling a vendor solution and works to add value to their partner programs, they can work their way on to an advisory council over time.
Technical and sales training
Vendors spend millions of dollars of field resources designed to help drive sales. These resources are both sales and technical in nature, and are paid to help partners grow their business with the vendor. Too many times partners are unwilling to make their team available for training. This sends a bad signal to the vendor and is not a solid way to build relationships with that vendor. Not only should a partner make their team available for vendor training, but they should be proactive in seeking that training and creating valuable ways to drive that relationship with the field deeper.
On site visits
One of the most important ways to build a strong vendor relationship is to invite them to your office. Take them on customer visits. Help them get the kinds of experiences that will help them grow and bring back value to their company. It is powerful to help vendor reps continue their path to promotion and often some field experience with a partner goes a long way to that end. At HTS we have had literally hundreds of vendor staff – from field sales and technical resources to product development and HR folks – spend time in our offices with our team. We have taken them on customer visits, spent time in roundtable and brainstorming sessions, and provided them the kinds of experiences that help make them better at their jobs. While we don’t get paid for that time, it is an investment in the relationships that takes us up a notch in terms of our engagement and it always comes back to us in many ways.
Sell their stuff
So the real way to take advantage of a vendor relationship really comes down to selling their products and services. The more exclusive or focused you are on them, the more they are willing to invest in you. There is NO substitute to selling their stuff. If you really want to go deep with a vendor – get serious about selling their products. Market it, get trained in it, learn how to support it, but most of all sell it. The more you do the deeper your relationship and the deeper the investment will be in your company.
Vendor relationships are not rocket science. They do involve us getting active and off our fannies and participating and working at it. Vendor relationships are not just holding your hand out and asking them to give you stuff. It doesn’t work like that. It is about understanding their programs, diving in completely and working to help make sure they are successful. There are many other things that vendors offer that we have not covered in this post. But a relationship with a vendor is really just like any relationship – it has to be about giving and realizing that as you give, the receiving takes care of itself. We have found that to be true every time.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Getting Along With Vendors – They Are Our Best Friends
This is the fourth post based on the keynote I delivered at the Ingram SMBA in Charlotte in late August. The topic revolves around the VAR relationship with vendors. Too often we tend to see it as a confrontational relationship. That is exactly the opposite of the way it should be if we want to succeed. All relationships need to be win-win and this one in particular. Vendors can help you in many ways, so consider these thoughts:
Consolidate purchasing to fewer vendors
There is power in buying from few vendors. A few years ago HTS purchased from 166 different vendors in a given year. It was no wonder our ordering was complex, RMA’s were impossible, tech support for our team was overwhelming, and our bottom line was certainly challenged. By limiting the number of vendors you work with, you can drive more sales which is what gets you noticed by and ultimate supported by vendors. They work with people who sell their stuff. So by consolidation you can help make it a deeper engagement.
Learn who your assigned reps are
This takes some effort, but it can be done. You need to know who supports your account at your key vendors. That includes field resources, inside sales people, marketing managers, and anyone else who is charged with working with your company or companies like yours. This takes a little Sherlock Holmes investigation and persistence, but it can make a huge difference when you are working on a special deal or want some type of interaction.
Understand their compensation plan
The single most important question to ask your vendor reps is how they are compensated. Without that you are shooting in the dark. You need to know if they are aligned though their comp model with your needs. If not you are fighting a losing battle. You need to look for additional resources in the company that do align to your model and customer focus. If so you need to work hard to help they succeed. Everyone responds to success with compensation. People do the things that cause them to be paid more. So find those out and do them.
Participate in their programs
Many partners don’t realize that most vendor reps have a number of areas they are measured in their compensation plan. Often getting partners activated and engaged fits in there somehow. While VARs often see the meetings, trainings and events as very optional, for a vendor rep they often are a significant metric toward their comp plan. So support your rep – find out again how they are paid and make sure you are there if participation is a factor.
Provide them customer evidence
Another area that likely impacts vendor compensation is the ability to generate customer evidence that shows their engagement with partners. Companies need a pipeline of evidence to drive their marketing engine, so it is important to be proactive and provide that to your rep on a regular basis. Strong case studies and evidence also rapidly gets passed up through the management ranks as it makes the field reps look like they are doing a great job out there supporting their partners and joint customers. So take the time, be disciplined, and capture evidence that can help everyone look good. It also makes great marketing material for you to use internally as well so it is another win-win opportunity.
Get your team trained and certified
This is a critical part of building a deep vendor relationship. Most vendors are looking for signs of commitment to their products and solutions and nothing spells committed quite like making significant training investments in your team. Often you can get help from the vendor in defraying the costs, but you need to be focused on making time and availability to get it done and keep it current.
Know their partner success model
Every vendor has a different model for their partners to use in order to succeed. Their partner programs vary and are all over the board in terms of commitments, benefits and requirements. But it is up to us as a partner to understand those programs and leverage them to build strong relationships. Most of the time they are pretty good and lead a partner to success with the particular vendor. So get involved and engaged and learn and follow the playbook.
Spend time planning with them quarterly
It is important to spend time planning with your vendors on a regular basis. I believe an annual plan is critical, and then quarterly reviews to measure and tweak it make it valuable to all. There are many ways to develop these plans. We use an offsite annual retreat to tackle the process. Vendor reps from our key partner organizations are at the table together with our management team to lay out the plan for the next year. We have found that model to be very valuable to both HTS and our vendor partners because everyone sees and understand the focus and initiative we will be following. Having routine follow-up and ROI reporting is critical to keep that going, but it is worth the effort.
So now you have some ideas on how to engage vendors effectively. Make it your intention to build deep and profitable relationships with your vendors. It can make a significant impact on your bottom line and really lead to more success. They truly are not the enemy, and should be treated as a valuable asset to your company.
Consolidate purchasing to fewer vendors
There is power in buying from few vendors. A few years ago HTS purchased from 166 different vendors in a given year. It was no wonder our ordering was complex, RMA’s were impossible, tech support for our team was overwhelming, and our bottom line was certainly challenged. By limiting the number of vendors you work with, you can drive more sales which is what gets you noticed by and ultimate supported by vendors. They work with people who sell their stuff. So by consolidation you can help make it a deeper engagement.
Learn who your assigned reps are
This takes some effort, but it can be done. You need to know who supports your account at your key vendors. That includes field resources, inside sales people, marketing managers, and anyone else who is charged with working with your company or companies like yours. This takes a little Sherlock Holmes investigation and persistence, but it can make a huge difference when you are working on a special deal or want some type of interaction.
Understand their compensation plan
The single most important question to ask your vendor reps is how they are compensated. Without that you are shooting in the dark. You need to know if they are aligned though their comp model with your needs. If not you are fighting a losing battle. You need to look for additional resources in the company that do align to your model and customer focus. If so you need to work hard to help they succeed. Everyone responds to success with compensation. People do the things that cause them to be paid more. So find those out and do them.
Participate in their programs
Many partners don’t realize that most vendor reps have a number of areas they are measured in their compensation plan. Often getting partners activated and engaged fits in there somehow. While VARs often see the meetings, trainings and events as very optional, for a vendor rep they often are a significant metric toward their comp plan. So support your rep – find out again how they are paid and make sure you are there if participation is a factor.
Provide them customer evidence
Another area that likely impacts vendor compensation is the ability to generate customer evidence that shows their engagement with partners. Companies need a pipeline of evidence to drive their marketing engine, so it is important to be proactive and provide that to your rep on a regular basis. Strong case studies and evidence also rapidly gets passed up through the management ranks as it makes the field reps look like they are doing a great job out there supporting their partners and joint customers. So take the time, be disciplined, and capture evidence that can help everyone look good. It also makes great marketing material for you to use internally as well so it is another win-win opportunity.
Get your team trained and certified
This is a critical part of building a deep vendor relationship. Most vendors are looking for signs of commitment to their products and solutions and nothing spells committed quite like making significant training investments in your team. Often you can get help from the vendor in defraying the costs, but you need to be focused on making time and availability to get it done and keep it current.
Know their partner success model
Every vendor has a different model for their partners to use in order to succeed. Their partner programs vary and are all over the board in terms of commitments, benefits and requirements. But it is up to us as a partner to understand those programs and leverage them to build strong relationships. Most of the time they are pretty good and lead a partner to success with the particular vendor. So get involved and engaged and learn and follow the playbook.
Spend time planning with them quarterly
It is important to spend time planning with your vendors on a regular basis. I believe an annual plan is critical, and then quarterly reviews to measure and tweak it make it valuable to all. There are many ways to develop these plans. We use an offsite annual retreat to tackle the process. Vendor reps from our key partner organizations are at the table together with our management team to lay out the plan for the next year. We have found that model to be very valuable to both HTS and our vendor partners because everyone sees and understand the focus and initiative we will be following. Having routine follow-up and ROI reporting is critical to keep that going, but it is worth the effort.
So now you have some ideas on how to engage vendors effectively. Make it your intention to build deep and profitable relationships with your vendors. It can make a significant impact on your bottom line and really lead to more success. They truly are not the enemy, and should be treated as a valuable asset to your company.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
ConnectWise Rocks!
One of the “benefits” of my role as CEO at HTS and Founder of HTG is to attend dozens of industry events all over the country each year. This past week was in Orlando at the ConnectWise partner summit and I want to share some thoughts on this company and event. First let me say that there have been a few things in my 23 years in the industry that have made a huge difference for us:
1. Getting involved in industry affinity groups – first VTN and then growing into peer groups through HTG. What we have learned from our peers has made our business.
2. Learning to work with vendors. Once we finally figured out that vendors were not the enemy but our most important allies, and began to treat them that way and create relationships where we were just as concerned with their success as our own, we began to share in that success.
3. Putting the right tools in place. And at the risk of letting Arnie get a big head, ConnectWise is at the top of that list at HTS. I was a little slow getting there, but today, take it away and I am shutting down. It is the business operating system at HTS and soon for HTG2.0 (thanks Arnie).
The goal of the ConnectWise summit this week was to find “one”. We do that in our peer groups each meeting – what is your one thing – that gem you just have to take home and put to work immediately. You see many of us in the VAR channel are great at making lists and a little slow on the execution – like never. So this approach is a very good one and I hope you figured out your one and have already started to implement it. You HTG’ers better report good progress on that at your next meeting.
My one thing really had nothing to do with the conference at all (sorry CW) but it became clear as could be because I was blessed to be there. It is to focus more of my time building relationships with people in this industry and not only give ideas and best practices to them, but to receive more from them in return. In other words to carve out time to connect even more. We do a lot of that through the peer groups we call HTG. But like any good thing, we sort of get complacent and it was obvious to me as I was blessed to rub shoulders with so many this week, that I have to make time to learn from peers even more. There are so many brilliant folks in our industry, vendors and partners alike. And too often I still try and figure it out on my own – how stupid. There is bound to be someone, and likely many, who are ahead of me and have already made the mistakes and figured it out. So lightbulb goes on and says duh – spend some time each week just talking with folks to pick their brains but also to share something of value. So expect some calls from me.
I also just want to say thanks to Arnie and the team for building a great product. We are quick to point out the flaws, and we all know there are some, but it is really a great tool and I appreciate the quest to continue to make it better. Don’t forget to keep that support improving along the way, because exactly like that OS that prevents us from doing work when our pc won’t boot – for many of us today we are dead in the water if our CW business system isn’t running. So we are putting our trust in you and your team….don’t let us down.
The other thing I want to say is thanks for a fantastic conference. It is THE best partner conference there is in the industry bar none. And I go to a lot of them. Content is great – always a couple fantastic keynotes that are right on target – vendors are relevant and really want to engage – Arnie’s talk is always full of a good Dell bash or two – but the thing that separates this from all the rest is the quality of the partners that attend. There is no other conference anywhere that is completely made up of partners who share a common goal of growing their companies and are serious enough about it to make the investment not only in the time to be there but the money to put the right tools in place. ConnectWise is a great value and worth every cent, but let’s face it, it isn’t cheap. But if a partner spends the bucks to put it in place, there is a 99.9% probability they are serious about their business and in no way a lifestyle partner that just wants a job. I consider it the CW filter and as we recruit new HTG members there is no better place to find the quality that is exactly what we are looking for. So thanks for that. Christy and your marketing team do an unbelievable job of putting on a first rate event, but it is the quality of your partners that make it worth attending.
So this is a long winded way of saying thanks to the ConnectWise team and also encouraging all who were there to share what you learned with your own teams at home and with others, but most of all to get after that “one thing” and get it done. That is how we can change our companies and the industry. Together we can make a difference!
1. Getting involved in industry affinity groups – first VTN and then growing into peer groups through HTG. What we have learned from our peers has made our business.
2. Learning to work with vendors. Once we finally figured out that vendors were not the enemy but our most important allies, and began to treat them that way and create relationships where we were just as concerned with their success as our own, we began to share in that success.
3. Putting the right tools in place. And at the risk of letting Arnie get a big head, ConnectWise is at the top of that list at HTS. I was a little slow getting there, but today, take it away and I am shutting down. It is the business operating system at HTS and soon for HTG2.0 (thanks Arnie).
The goal of the ConnectWise summit this week was to find “one”. We do that in our peer groups each meeting – what is your one thing – that gem you just have to take home and put to work immediately. You see many of us in the VAR channel are great at making lists and a little slow on the execution – like never. So this approach is a very good one and I hope you figured out your one and have already started to implement it. You HTG’ers better report good progress on that at your next meeting.
My one thing really had nothing to do with the conference at all (sorry CW) but it became clear as could be because I was blessed to be there. It is to focus more of my time building relationships with people in this industry and not only give ideas and best practices to them, but to receive more from them in return. In other words to carve out time to connect even more. We do a lot of that through the peer groups we call HTG. But like any good thing, we sort of get complacent and it was obvious to me as I was blessed to rub shoulders with so many this week, that I have to make time to learn from peers even more. There are so many brilliant folks in our industry, vendors and partners alike. And too often I still try and figure it out on my own – how stupid. There is bound to be someone, and likely many, who are ahead of me and have already made the mistakes and figured it out. So lightbulb goes on and says duh – spend some time each week just talking with folks to pick their brains but also to share something of value. So expect some calls from me.
I also just want to say thanks to Arnie and the team for building a great product. We are quick to point out the flaws, and we all know there are some, but it is really a great tool and I appreciate the quest to continue to make it better. Don’t forget to keep that support improving along the way, because exactly like that OS that prevents us from doing work when our pc won’t boot – for many of us today we are dead in the water if our CW business system isn’t running. So we are putting our trust in you and your team….don’t let us down.
The other thing I want to say is thanks for a fantastic conference. It is THE best partner conference there is in the industry bar none. And I go to a lot of them. Content is great – always a couple fantastic keynotes that are right on target – vendors are relevant and really want to engage – Arnie’s talk is always full of a good Dell bash or two – but the thing that separates this from all the rest is the quality of the partners that attend. There is no other conference anywhere that is completely made up of partners who share a common goal of growing their companies and are serious enough about it to make the investment not only in the time to be there but the money to put the right tools in place. ConnectWise is a great value and worth every cent, but let’s face it, it isn’t cheap. But if a partner spends the bucks to put it in place, there is a 99.9% probability they are serious about their business and in no way a lifestyle partner that just wants a job. I consider it the CW filter and as we recruit new HTG members there is no better place to find the quality that is exactly what we are looking for. So thanks for that. Christy and your marketing team do an unbelievable job of putting on a first rate event, but it is the quality of your partners that make it worth attending.
So this is a long winded way of saying thanks to the ConnectWise team and also encouraging all who were there to share what you learned with your own teams at home and with others, but most of all to get after that “one thing” and get it done. That is how we can change our companies and the industry. Together we can make a difference!
Friday, February 22, 2008
Working with Vendors
We had a great day yesterday in our HTG peer meeting sharing about business and life. One thing keeps coming up over and over the more time I spend with partners - the frustration of trying to work with vendors. I had numerous conversations with partners yesterday and most every day for that matter, about how they struggle to be connected to the vendors their very business depends on for success. It is a strange phenomenon. Vendors are very dependent upon us as partners to sell and support their products for success as well. So it really is a situation where both parties need the other to succeed. But somehow there are so many breakdowns in that relationship it just seems to be a mess for many most of the time. Partners get frustrated and jump to the next vendor thinking the grass has to be greener over there only to find the same end result. The reality is that a partner-vendor relationship is about people and that is a very complicated affair. It is really not all that different than being in a deep friendship or marriage - you have to work at it and not give up. Marriages fail because people decide it is not worth working through the problems to get to the other side. There has to be something better. Partner - vendor relationships fail for the same reasons. They consist of imperfect people who don't always do what is expected (even though those expectations are not clearly defined by either party). They consist of change in personnel and programs and direction by both companies. They are a moving target that require a lot of determination and hard work. But if I was going to sum it up in one word - success in building a vendor relationship requires one thing - COMMITMENT. From both sides - moment by moment and day by day. It is not always going to be pleasant or fun. It will be frustrating. But as partners we need to make wise choices on who we will go to market with, select a handful of go to market partners, and then make a deep commitment to get connected and stay committed to them. We can't move with every change in the wind. We have to be honest when we are frustrated and work with them to resolve it. We also need to be grateful when things are good and thankful when their products and programs have a positive impact. I hear a lot more whining than I do gratitude from the partner community. It is like vendors "owe us" or something. They don't owe us any more than we owe our customers. Certainly we don't like to think of that relationship that way. I treat my vendors like a customer, as that is what they truly are. We are blessed to have deep relationships with our key vendors - Microsoft, HP, Sonicwall, Ingram and a few others. Building those has taken many years and a lot of work, and the process never ends. People change and it is a continual process of going deeper and wider in each of those companies. But it is well worth it. We are blessed to have great vendor partners. It is a win win for both of us. It can happen. But it starts with a commitment and then rolling up your sleeves and getting to work.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Have you hugged your vendor or disty partners lately
Today I took time to send out my annual Christmas greetings to the vendors and distribution folks in my life. I have been doing that for the past 4-5 years now. Sent out a few hundred emails today to the list of folks I know and communicate with on a somewhat regular basis. Probably less than 10% actually respond, although a surprising number do. But I get comments when I see or talk with them for months after the holidays about my email and the family stuff I share. Here is the reality - vendors are people too. They are just like you and me and have wants and needs and struggles and issues. They have families and friends. They have to pay bills and go to work. The thing I have learned is I need to treat them like a customer, not a vendor. Too often partners look at vendors and think it is a one way ticket to their pocketbook. Bad answer. My approach is to value them as a person, to care about their family and approach them like I would my best customer. I want to know their spouse and kids names, their birthday and any other thing that helps provide a way to connect. It is called caring. People do business with people who care about them. It works with customers and equally well with vendors. People is what life and our business is all about. All the other stuff will happen if we learn to care. What better time to reach out and make a difference than right now - at Christmas. Drop an email to a couple of your vendor partners and just tell them thanks. It is the least you should do!
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Have you connected with your Microsoft Field
Monday I made a trip to St Louis - a short day trip - to meet with the area general manager of the North Central region for Microsoft. I also was able to meet with another manager who oversees the PAM and PCM resources in NCA. It was a great visit. We talked about HTS and HTG and again found out how important it is to market ourselves to our vendors. As much as we work with Microsoft I am continually amazed at how many touches it takes to get the message out about who we are and what we do. It was a revelation that we actually sell software - the feeling was that we were influencers but in fact we actually transact over 300K in licensing ourselves plus influence a bunch more. So it requires us as partners to reach out and make sure our vendor partners understand who we are and what we do. That is our responsibility. Too often we want to just sit in our offices and wait for vendors to figure it out. That is crazy. Is that how you deal with your customers - sit and hope? Some may but that is not the formula for success. We need to be partners with our vendors. That means we build a relationship and we reach out and do things. So I encourage you to take time to meet with key vendors and help them understand your business and goals. I am confident my three hours in St Louis will be one of the best investments I will have made this month. I also followed up and called a few other folks in the region when I got back just so I could deliver the same message to them. Market thy company to your vendors and disty partners. It is critical for your success.
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