Taking an established vendor's solutions to market is one thing and something that many MSPs and VARs do. But building a strategic relationship and becoming a recognised and experienced partner is a much bigger task, but one that has many benefits.
Building a strategic and recognised partnership with a major technology vendor could be massive for a channel partner. Having a good relationship has many benefits, such as getting early access to new product developments, news and updates, being referred to new prospects or being given access to marketing development funds to support new business growth.
If you're looking at ways to strengthen relationships and boost your profile with a major tech vendor, for example, Microsoft, AWS, Oracle or IBM, then you've come to the right place. In this post, we look at some of the ways you can increase engagement and build awareness of your practice.
First Things First: Think About Your Objectives
Don't just go into this blindly: think properly about what it is you want to achieve and then how you're going to do it becomes easier. Objectives could include things like:
Gaining vendor recognition - having vendor contacts recognise you as an excellent reseller partner.
Promoting your efforts - ensuring that vendor contacts know what it is you're doing.
Being invited to apply for funding or join programmes - being seen as strategic partner that is worth investing in.
Building Our Your Stakeholder Map
Before we commit to any exercises, we need to understand who we're targeting and why. There will be certain people who you definitely want to engage with at a vendor as they may be primary decision-makers. However, there are also individuals who can champion what you do. These people are, in some respects, more important longer-term than engaging with decision-makers because they become ambassadors of your brand, and when opportunities come up that you are not aware of, they can put your name forward. Additionally, as these individuals move up the chain and become decision-makers themselves, you've already created a strong ally. So, considering both of these stakeholder types as well as your objectives are key.
Utilising Your LinkedIn Profile
As the largest B2B social network and one used by a large proportion of channel businesses as a way to engage and communicate with customers, prospects and stakeholders, LinkedIn is our top recommendation.
We've discussed at length, across multiple other blogs, about the importance of building your network and not just talking into the same voids. There is no point in sharing news or updates aimed at a particular audience if they're not within your circles. To get them there, you can simply identify who those people are and connect with them. From there, sharing content has a much greater chance of reaching them.
When it comes to posting, think about the types of updates you will share and why they would be interested. For example, did you achieve a new designation or accreditation? Don't be afraid to post about it. Even if you currently lag behind competitors in that arena, it's important to show that you're putting in the effort. Vendors will appreciate that as you're showing your commitment to them, and they recognise that some accreditations are not easy to achieve.
Email Newsletters
Emailing is a great way to update vendor contacts in a quick, easy and engaging way. Whether that's on an adhoc basis, when you have something you update on, or in the shape of a regular newsletter: weekly, fornightly or monthly. Email newsletters are a great engagement tool as you likely have a selection of contacts within your emails or CRM already, and you're not reliant on taking additional steps, such as connecting on social, for example.
In building your mailing list, don't be afraid to invite your vendor team to subscribe, particularly if it's one of the larger vendors with dozens if not hundreds of people who might be interested in what you do. As we've discussed above, there will be multiple layers of stakeholder that you might want to impress; and engaging them all could be advantagegous. Not to mention, email marketing is generally free or very low-cost.
Make sure your communications with a vendor team are meaningful, or you might find your emails sent to junk, deleted or unsubscribed from. And don't forget to track where possible: being able to see who has opened and clicked is going to be critical to ensuring that your stakeholder mapping stays up-to-date, and that you can identify who are your biggest supporters, as well as who you need to put more effort into, or try different methods of communication with.
Creating Content
Content underpins everything we do in marketing, and trying to showcase your brand presence, strengths and commitment to aligning with a vendor is in itself marketing.
Think about what content you can share across channels, for example, LinkedIn or email and what the intended purpose is. Avoid sharing content for content's sake: make sure every post, email or 1-1 conversation is meaningful and is informed by an objective.
Here are some pieces of content you could think about sharing:
- Create vendor-specific case studies - a great way to showcase your commitment and expertise, particularly where you've given a customer an excellent experience. By doing so, you're not only positioning your business in a positive light, but you're showcasig that the customer has had a great product or solution experience too.
- Repurpose vendor content with your own spin or thoughts - vendors spend hours upon hours of time creating content. By using it in its entirety, or repurposing parts, you help them to increase its reach and get their brand message across. If you've built up your audience of vendor stakeholders, chances are some of them will see that you're sharing too.
- Execte vendor-targeted ads - if budget is no issue, you could consider running some LinkedIn Ads. Where the vendor audience is 300 individuals or more, you could execute a small-scale ad campaign to ensure that your message gets in front of a mass vendor audience. Given the size of the audience, this shouldn't cost you too much, and will definitely expand reach.
- Create an end of year vendor impact or achievements report - a detailed report (or even one-pager) can help to showcase the impact you've had. Vendor teams will appreciate the efforts you've gone to, and it could win you some brownie points.
Requesting Event Support
A great way to build profile and improve your relationship is by hosting an event and inviting a spokesperson along to come and talk, for example to present around product or solution updates, or take part in a panel or roundtable. Before you do this though, you should think about your confidence levels when it comes to getting a good amount of people there. The last thing you want to do is get a vendor contact to come along for only a small people to attend.
Vendor attendance will do you a world of good with your existing or net new prospect attendees too, so there are many benefits from this approach.
MDF Funding
Applying for marketing development funds does not mean you'll get them, but the process of submitting a formal request or proposal will almost guarantee you'll end up in the inbox of somebody with influence or decision-making power on the vendor's side. They may reach out to you to ask for further information around ROI, which allows you to potentially have a 1-1 conversation and build a rapport. If your request is rejected, think about how you could still make meaningful use out of the engagement: use it as a chance to gain feedback about your proposal, or to find out what they think you need to do to get there. From there, you can continue to engage by giving them updates along the way when you make progress against their feedback. Evidencing your commitment to them is key.
If you are lucky enough to have an MDF big appoved, you will need to ensure ROI for your activities. If you don't, you run the risk of the relationship you worked so hard for going backwards. Think sensibly and strategically about what goes into your proposal.
Engage in PR
PR and thought leadership are two effective methods of building your brand position. If you have something interesting to say where you can add your own expertise on a topic or theme, considering drafting a thought leadership piece and sharing it with channel media titles. Your piece should be based around a common challenge or opportunity within the channel. Leading with something product-focused probably won't land as well as you'd like. And remember; it shouldn't be a sales pitch. Let your expertise and credibility do the talking here. Thought leadership is a top-of-funnel piece, not a direct lead gen tool.
Similarly, if you've got some news; whether you've won an award, achieved a hard-to-get accredition or competency, acquired or merged with another business, or launched a new product or service, consider whether issuing a press release is the right thing to do.
Enter Vendor Awards
If you think you've got what it takes to get shortlisted or even go on to win an award, don't be afraid to enter. There is almost guaranteed to be something you can enter. When doing so, think of every evidence point that you can add to give weight to your entry. Think about every metric you could measure rom marketing and brand awareness building to conversion and customer satisfaction. The more facts and figures you can give, the better. And when providing data, if the comparison data (i.e., year-on-year data) shows strong growth, don't be afraid to include it.
In summary, there are plenty of opportunities to build your profile, and most won't cost the world. Ensure that your engagements are meaningful: every communication point is key.