Try as you might, it’s impossible to grow alone.
You need nurturing and supporting and – in the channel – you need brilliant partnerships.
It is a dynamic commercial arena built upon the notion of mutuality: the success of one partner linked inextricably to the success of another.
For Value Added Resellers, Managed Service Providers and System Integrators, a thriving relationship with the end user market is of course critical.
However, partnering with a vendor totally committed to helping you maximise every sales opportunity is just as important.
Naturally, that’s about having access to great products, innovation and expertise.
But it’s also about a shared understanding of how best to turn all of that into tangible revenue, profitability and, ultimately, growth.
Effective partnership, it’s clear, is key.
“For us, our reseller partners are an extension of our own business - for us to grow, we need them to grow,” says Robin Hayman, Director of Marketing & Product Management at UK-based, channel-focussed voice solutions provider Splicecom, which invests heavily in helping that happen.
“We provide them with the tools they need. That’s obviously our products and services in the first instance, but we also ensure we provide them in certain ways that work for them and their customers.
“So, for example, they can take our cloud-hosted services from us; they can provide them through their own cloud platform which gives them more margin; or they can work with their customers’ own infrastructure.
“Also, there are still an awful lot of business out there that require on-premise systems so we can do that too. All of the options enable partners to differentiate themselves against other resellers, which is an important thing.”
Just as importantly, Splicecom is careful to ensure that geographical areas are not over-crowded with its resellers; ensuring they do not have to compete against each other.
“We don't like any more than three operating in the same area,” says Hayman. We find that our partners benefit from that and are able to maintain good margin as a result.”
Splicecom also deploys a suite of other measures designed to help its resellers maximise opportunities.
“It’s about constant communication,” says Hayman.
