At one of the two integrators I have run, we were authorised to sell for over a hundred vendors, and we had attention for about five or six.
That ratio is why this cheat sheet exists. A channel partner has two jobs with suppliers: decide where the effort goes, then get full value back from the ones you choose. I have sat on the other side too, running a global partner program at a large broadcast vendor, and my advice from both chairs is the same. Manage your suppliers deliberately, and do not sign up and wait to be told things.
What a healthy supplier relationship looks like
You will recognise it by five things:
- Communication flows both ways without prompting. You are not chasing answers, and your supplier is not constantly pushing you for updates.
- Both sides understand more than the revenue target. Your supplier knows your business model and growth plans, and you know their market priorities and product roadmap.
- Joint planning happens as a matter of course, and the quarterly business review is a real chance to line up plans.
- Both parties put in time, attention and resources as well as money.
- Problems get discussed openly, and both sides are comfortable saying what they think.
What gets in the way
Five things block most of this:
- Misaligned incentives. Your profit drivers do not match the supplier’s program metrics. The supplier pushes new products while your business needs to stay with the established solutions where you have built expertise and a name.
- Unused resources. Marketing funds, training and technical support go untouched, often because nobody at the partner knows what is available or how to claim it.
- Patchy engagement. You talk to each other only when there is a sale in sight, so nobody builds a longer-term plan.
- Reactive positioning. The supplier sets the terms of engagement and you accept them.
- Single-threaded relationships. One contact on each side, which leaves you exposed the day either of them moves on.
Agree strategy before revenue
Hold a dedicated strategy session with each key supplier twice a year, separate from the regular business review. Arrive with your company’s objectives and say how the partnership can help you reach them. Get a shared view of where each side is going first, and let the revenue targets follow from it.
Build joint account plans for your largest customers and best prospects, so the conversation moves from a general revenue number to specific opportunities where both sides have something to contribute. And share your capability roadmap, so the supplier can see where you are investing. Suppliers tend to find more resources for partners who are visibly building in areas that match their priorities.
Put structure around communication
Set a cadence. Without one, communication drifts into misalignment and missed opportunities. A simple structure fixes most of it:
- Executive to executive, quarterly
- Manager to manager, a monthly business review
- Salesperson to salesperson, or specialist to specialist, weekly operational coordination
Turn the QBR from a look back into a planning session. Yes, you have to review, but you also want to plan, so build a template that gives more time to upcoming opportunities than to past performance. Then keep a shared action plan, with an owner and a date against every commitment on both sides, and start every structured meeting by going through it.
Claim what is already on offer
Audit what is already on offer. In the programs I have seen, benefits often go unclaimed, usually because nobody at the partner owns them.
Audit each key supplier’s program properly. Write down every benefit, from market development funds (MDF) to technical resources to training, and give each one an internal owner. Plan your MDF annually, so you are not scrambling to spend it before it expires or begging for it each time. The best partners plan MDF as a budget line. Then map your team’s certifications to the supplier’s program requirements. That often opens up further benefits and improves your own delivery at the same time.
Negotiate the economics
Benchmark incentive structures across comparable suppliers, so you can see who is out of line. Suppliers often have more flexibility than their published program suggests, especially for strategic partners. If you don’t ask, you won’t get!
Ask for incentives that reward your business model. If services drive your profit, push for incentives tied to service attach rates as well as product volume. If a growth product is your thing, push for incentives that reward expanding its market. Where there is an initiative that suits the supplier’s priorities but sits outside the standard program, propose a pilot with defined success measures and present it as a joint experiment.
Consolidate your purchasing to earn tier benefits and rebates. That may mean standardising on fewer suppliers rather than spreading your volume across too many. If that means your engineers don’t get their perfect solution, so be it.
Five things to do this month
- Score each key supplier on communication, strategic fit, use of resources and financial performance.
- Book an executive-level meeting with the supplier that matters most to your business, and talk about business objectives before sales targets.
- Find the most underused resource in each supplier’s program and give it an owner and a plan.
- Rework your QBR format so at least 60% of the time goes to forward planning.
- Write down your ideal incentive structure for each key relationship, so you have a target for the next negotiation.
Your suppliers need successful partners as much as you need good suppliers. Use that.