I spotted this post from Jason at Involve on LinkedIn yesterday and my 1st thought was "That's Brave!"...publicly calling out your key vendors for their ineffectiveness, could lead to all sorts of repercussions, not least a public slanging match.
However, upon reflection and judging by the comments on the post, it seems that many at Involve are fed up with the way that Vendors are treating them and I have to say that it's a fairly common theme that we hear all too often when working 1-2-1 with partners.
Leicester City didn't win the Premier League last season because Claudio Ranieri turned up for training every Wednesday or bought his players Pizza and expected them to suddenly become the best in the country. He understood each individuals strengths and weaknesses and crafted them into an effective team that delivered way beyond expectations.
The same applies to any high performance environment.
One size does not fit all, and your channel programme, campaigns, compensation packages and team should recognise that.
Do your Channel Account Managers have the ability and flexibility to be able to get the most from each and every channel partner to optimise your chances of success?
It’s around this time that I tend to issue a blog looking forward to the delights of the coming year. Not this year, I wanted to share some thoughts on what would appear to be an ever-increasing challenge. I see very little evidence in the AV / Collaboration Vendor channels of our Account Managers trying to understand our business, our business pains and how we sell.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/open-letter-vendors-jason
