Vice President of Sales, Northern Europe at Sophos.
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The channel, a primary distribution system for many tech vendors, has long been a crucial route to market and integral from a business development perspective. In recent times, it has seen significant change. This has been driven in large part by the proliferation of technology. Take cybersecurity as an example: 20 years ago, there were perhaps five or six core vendors, whereas today there are hundreds, if not more. Within this increasingly competitive landscape, partners have realized a need to become more strategic—and this has only increased the importance of the channel for vendors, making it essential that they demonstrate this value through building genuine two-way relationships which benefit both parties equally.
A Shifting Landscape
Firstly, partners have had to move away from a sell-all catalogue-based approach and instead become specialists in a specific field, subsequently consolidating the number of vendors they work with to prioritize those that offer the most value in return. At the same time, many partners have also taken a service-based approach, marked by the advent of managed service providers (MSPs) in the last decade. There’s no sign of this trend slowing down either, as MSPs continue to leverage experience and service models as a way of building value for their customers.
Both of these examples demonstrate how the onus has shifted. Being a channel-first business brings with it significant benefits, but only if the relationship is truly a two-way partnership. While certain vendors may simply “drag and drop” a deal into their partner’s lap, in an increasingly services-oriented landscape, the true worth for end users comes from knowing that they have the ongoing support of a close vendor-partner relationship.
From a vendor and business development perspective, too, it’s important to understand the support partners provide throughout the sales process. Increasingly, end user organizations not only want but rely on advice from channel partners, who provide an agnostic viewpoint. So it pays to ensure that your partners are deriving true value from their relationship with you.
How Vendors Can Offer Value
The question for vendors, then, is how to demonstrate this value within a crowded marketplace, where standing out isn’t easy. Key to this is recognition. Firstly, of the increasingly vital role that partners play within the sales ecosystem, and secondly, of partner business strategies, so you’re able to understand how best to help them achieve their goals. This can then translate into providing the relevant support to partners through tools like regular health checks, pre- and post-sales engagement and sales and marketing resources.
Such support is essential in helping partners optimize profitability, but it arguably should be considered the bare minimum. In order to truly set yourself apart, it’s important to go back to how the channel has changed, as highlighted above, and support partners in making these transitions. For example, within the fast-paced cybersecurity landscape, vendors can help partners stay ahead of the game through competitive intelligence sharing, as well as product and threat training—in other words, truly enabling them to specialize and develop expertise in their particular field.
It’s also important to support partners as they evolve their services offering, particularly as end user organizations look to stretch their budgets further by outsourcing the more complex elements of IT infrastructure. Within my own industry, we’re seeing the growth of cybersecurity-as-a-service, and through developing our own offering, my company has been able to dovetail with our partners to start or expand their MSP services with different service tiers and threat response options that cater to their individual requirements. Whether they don’t have security operations centres (SOCs) of their own, or simply struggle to recruit and retain talent, this helps our partners subsidize what they already offer end users.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, the relationship between vendor and channel partner should always have been seen as that of two equal partners. Whether that has been the case in reality can be debated, but regardless, the balance has now firmly and clearly been reset. With this in mind, vendors must deliver a mutually beneficial partnership that encompasses solutions, services, support and ultimately profitability.
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