Why is it Critical to Work with Channel Only Vendors?

You run a viable business providing technology services and consulting to your customers. Over the last several years you have seen many things come down the pipe with terms like Cloud, Self Service, Consumerization of IT, Shadow IT, BYOD. You are starting to be concerned about what the future holds for the IT & MSPs of the world like you since it’s so easy for your current and prospective customers to simply google and sign up for practically any service.

You have been to the conferences, user groups, peer sessions, and so on and when you talk to other folks in the business you understand the future is more about strategically crafting a package of solutions and services for your clients and then to start concentrating on strategic advising. Here comes the tricky part, when you go out there to evaluate the options of what to include as part of your offering you find that in some cases the vendors that you are looking into also sell direct and in some cases compete against you.

Wait, did you say the vendor sells direct and could compete with me? So how does that affect you? Can you generate a profit center or are you just adopting a “me too” product or service just to say you do it? Can your customer go to that vendor’s website or call them and get pricing? Do you go online and see that other people from companies like yours were upset when someone they were working with bypassed them and went straight to the vendor for the offering they were pitching? Does that vendor offer a support avenue for your techs to bypass the screen reader that just asks “did you try turning it off and on again?”

These are very important questions! You must research and determine your options carefully as the choices you make in these vendors will either catapult your company or come back to bite you in the behind.

Here are some reasons to adopt Channel Only Vendors:

• They won’t sell direct which means any end users that contact them will be sent as leads to their partners
• They won’t accept direct support calls that don’t come from their partners which make sure to keep end users going through their providers
• They will help train your team to do what needs to be done and won’t hesitate to jump in to make sure you are taken care of when you need extra help
• They offer a high level of the support you need so that your team spends less time answering the “basics” and get down to the business at hand
• They will help you with sales and marketing efforts as well as assist you in closing deals if you need that extra lift to push things over the edge
• They will take your input when deciding how to better their solution
• They will keep innovating and help make your company more efficient in the process
• They want you to adopt things internally so that you are confident and can show your customers that is actually works

Did you know BVoIP is a Channel Only Vendor? What to learn more?