Modern channel partners expect more flexibility, speed, and resources from vendors to deliver customer experiences.

We’ve seen distributors and vendors increase their investment in channel partners this year. Master agents such as PlanetOne have increased their staff and created new tools for partners to sell. These changes show that suppliers must work with partners to provide solid customer service.

2 Trends Meet

Chris Werpy is the chief operating officer of Arizona-based master agent PlanetOne. He stated that 2020 has not only accelerated but created higher expectations. DevOps was a well-known concept in IT, and agile IT was a popular choice for this year.

PlanetOne’s Chris Werpy

Werpy stated that IT had adopted the “slow is now broken” model. IT began to change its process and improve the way it procured services. Now they are acquiring the next generation of services.

Take the IT internal evolution and multiply it by adding remote workers. The sales process has been greatly accelerated by remote work. Technology buyers no longer need to bring multiple vendors into their offices in order for them to evaluate their solutions.

Werpy stated, “You remove the windshield time, the travel time, and the complexity of trying juggle multiple schedules.” It’s now much easier to collaborate after months or even months of all this. You can stack back-to-back meetings as a salesperson for the first time because you aren’t driving to the next meeting. You can be more efficient.

Customers have increased their expectations of how fast their technology providers can service them. Channel partners need to rise to the occasion. Werpy stated that clients now demand instant access to information and resources. Vendors, distributors, and master agents need to speed up in order to position their partners well.

“We are in technology. Technology can fail, but the right time to respond, fix, and resolve is what keeps businesses sticky and drives brand loyalty and customer loyalty,” stated Ben Niernberg (executive vice president, MNJ Technologies).

VAR/MSP Perspective

MNJ and Niernberg believe that partner experience is more than just material resources. Niernberg stated that the channel will move towards a more holistic experience for end-users when OEM, distributor and resale partners collaborate in a “bidirectional relation.”

Niernberg stated that traditional VARs frequently ask for rebate money or funds. It was a one-sided relationship.

However, the vendor must show flexibility in order for this two-way street exist.

Niernberg’s Illinois-based MNJ Technologies, which is based in Niernberg, has entered into a partnership agreement with Ingram Micro (and Microsoft). According to the Illinois-based VAR/MSP, it wanted to connect with customers in a new way.

Microsoft and Ingram have both agreed to this shift in how we engage with customers and go to market. It’s not the way VARs do it. It created a unique experience both for our salespeople and, ultimately, for our end users,” he stated.

Many channel partners are not afforded the same flexibility from vendors. Niernberg stated that one of the greatest challenges for a growing company was to remain flexible and adaptable as it grows in size.

We struggle the most with companies that don’t offer that flexibility, decision-making, and independence. He said that they are often the most reactive, the last to change, and the most difficult partners.

Heading into 2021

The channel played an important role in helping businesses adapt to remote work. IT’s first priority was “keep the lights on”, so to speak.

Werpy stated, “Your first instinct is to ensure that all employees can work.” “… Everyone has connectivity. Everybody has access. Once you are able to glide, all these projects will still be available. What are our plans now that we are dispersed?

Werpy says that we now all need to move on to a new phase. He stated that the most successful partners have reexamined the actions they took in 2020 and are now looking at how they can make long-term changes in 2021.

It is “strategic” by nature.

“It is the responsibility of the partners to ensure that their customers are not stuck in this world of “everything’s going well”. Let’s get strategic. Let’s work together to help your business thrive and keep it running, he added.

Avant Communications vice president for research and analytics Ken Presti said that partners can help customers get the most out of technology and address their problems.

Presti stated that they also collaborate closely with customers’ IT departments in areas such as installation, optimization, and support. They even offer user training, which is based on the complementing strengths and weaknesses of their respective teams.

Read the original article here.