Archive for the ‘SMB’ Category

How many of your channel partners think to do credit checks?

Monday, December 7th, 2009

Been doing some year-end interviews with channel executives that I know, to get a sense of the trends that I should be covering or at least watching in 2010. Had a particularly enlightening conversation with Janet Schijns, vice president of global channel programs for the Motorola enterprise mobility solutions group.

My discussion with Janet reminded me again of the serious potential for disconnect between the people running channel programs at massive high-tech companies and the people running day-to-day operations at those companies’ channel partners. This disconnect is nothing intentional, mind you, it just happens.

This one is a biggie, though. Janet, who used to run a small channel consultancy before joining Motorola, realized that many (almost all in fact) of Motorola’s business partners were NOT performing simple credit checks on potential account prospects before launching into full-blown sales campaigns.

Sounds really basic, huh, especially as many SMB VARs grapple with ballooning accounts receivable? But the fact is, many partners get so excited about the potential within a particular account that they often fail to overlook the true potential of that account to pay their bills on time.

So, if you want to add value to your channel program heading into the New Year, make it easier for your partners — of all shapes and sizes — to figure out if a customer prospective has the money to back up their technology buying intentions.

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Posted in Business Management, Business Planning, Channel Partner Programs, SMB, high-tech channel | No Comments »

Without changing the fundamentals, HP revs small-biz strategy

Friday, March 6th, 2009

As promised in my blog post from earlier this week, I wanted to offer up a link to updates related to Hewlett-Packard’s SMB VAR initiative. This story comes from my colleague Barbara Darrow, senior news director for Tech Target’s channel news service.

There’s lots of information about new product, but the business gist of her article is HP’s decision to adopt a new SMB Elite designation, that will allow IT solution providers to position themselves as trusted advisors capable of meeting the specific needs of these companies.

The new specialization will be effective May 1. PLUS HP is now allowing ALL of its U.S. partners (roughly 25,000) to take advantage of deal registration. Too bad it took the rough economic climate for the company to realize that this just makes sense. Any partner that helps a company win a new account should be rewarded. Especially now. Although, sadly, it does technically mean that mega-retailers could also try to apply for winning deals, too, so HP’s channel managers need to be really careful about which deals they approve.

I really like the overall spirit of this move, because it reinforces what I’ve believed for a long time: that vendors should do a better job of helping partners that have high potential but don’t have a long track record or gazillions of sales. Because it is easy to do so, many high-tech companies overlook the hidden influence of these partners.

By opening up deal registration AND allowing partners to earn an SMB nod they can use to market themselves, HP also is providing more specific tools that will help the channel more deeply penetrate a market that has historically been underserved. A market that HP estimates at an astonishing $68 billion.

So far, so good, Ms. Kelly!

Posted in Business Management, Business Planning, Channel Partner Programs, SMB | No Comments »