Going Global: The Channel’s Expanding Horizons
… an exclusive partnership,” Basani said. Always verify the provider’s true on-the-ground presence in target regions, and get local references, because given the importance of end-customer relationships, getting locked into a bad deal could stop a global support initiative in its tracks.
Basani had similar advice about distributors. Just getting on a catalog, while an easy step, proves little. He said to ask about experience selling similar products and heed red flags, including not committing resources (marketing, training, certification) or a lack of a strong ecosystem of downstream channel partners.
EiQ, which earns about 10 percent to 15 percent of its revenues from outside the U.S, has added some 35 new channel partners in the past year.
NetEnrich is also careful about adding new partners from the 10 to 30 prospects it evaluates each month. About half of these convert, but not without vetting. “It takes a couple of months,” Joseph said.
Avoka’s Tonder agreed: Take it slow, and be selective.
“We treat partners the same way we treat new employees,” Tonder said. “An understanding of the banking process is table stakes. Ideally, new channel partners have multiple, complimentary facets to your own team’s.”
It’s important to audit the engineering and support capabilities of not only your partner but the international providers they do business with, and know how these organizations coordinate with their own channels, said Manic Enterprises’ Carmanico.
“Ask a lot of questions, and get the answers you need,” Carmanico said. “The more work you do up front, the less you’ll be surprised.” Like Tonder, Carmanico said training new partners is worth the time and expense.
Unfortunately, the size of the firm isn’t a guarantee of competence. “Sometimes, the biggest are the worst,” he said.
451 Research’s Hanselman says companies need to be strategic, not reactive, when it comes to adding international partners — and that long-term planning should precede vetting new channel distributors or masters. He cautioned about making decisions about international expansion based simply on what a competitor is doing.
“You can do vetting, but you have to have clearly established goals about any new market,” said Hanselman. “Just because a competitor showed up there, doesn’t mean [that market] fits with your business.”
Survey Respondent Profile
Of the 184 survey respondents, 86 percent said they currently work for a U.S.-based solutions provider in the indirect IT/telecom channel (agent, VAR, MSP, systems integrator, technology or strategic consultant). Agents represented 30 percent of this group, followed by managed service providers (16 percent) and VARs (15 percent). Respondents were weighted toward organizations with fewer than 50 full-time employees (70 percent) and annual revenues of less than $10 million (60 percent). Midsize organizations ($10 million to $249 million) were slightly more represented than large ($250 million-plus), at 22 percent and 18 percent, respectively.
Ellis Bookeris a familiar name in the computer trade press, where he held senior editorial posts at a number of A-list IT publications, including CMP’s [now UBM’s] InternetWeek, Mecklermedia’s Web Week and IDG’s Computerworld. At Computerworld, he led the paper’s internet and electronic commerce coverage in the early days of the web and was responsible for creating its weekly Internet Page. Most recently, Booker was editor-in-chief of Crain Communication Inc.’s BtoB magazine. He ran BtoB, as well as its sister title Media Business, for a decade.
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