“Manufacturers are trying to get their brands into the marketplace, and solution providers are trying to understand the simplest and most effective way to go to market that will deliver the most profits,” says Kirk Robinson, vice president of channel marketing at Ingram Micro North America. “They try to meet in the middle.”

There’s much riding on getting this right. According to Robinson, some vendors are attuned to partner needs and some miss them by a mile.

For most solution providers, vendor management begins with the customer. Whether your company targets small, midsize or enterprise businesses, you first need to discover their needs and address them with the right technology solutions.

Vendor management is more than a technical endeavor, however. The ultimate goal is to create a win-win relationship: In return for actively supporting a vendor’s technology, program and priorities, your company receives special treatment, such as extra marketing resources, stellar technical support and precious referrals to prospects. By being a team player, you become a go-to partner.

“Go-to partners can increase their business reach without added infrastructure costs,” says Jim Manley, vice president, VAR sales, Ingram Micro North America. “What better way to build credibility than to walk into a customer’s door accompanied by a Cisco, HP, IBM or Microsoft?”

Establishing a win-win relationship takes commitment, careful planning, focused execution and the right distribution partner. It also requires a personal touch. While vendor programs specify formal benefits, there’s considerable wriggle room that becomes clear when you get to know your vendor contacts.

“Smart vendor relationships are a two-way street, where both vendor and partner personnel reach out with a genuine desire to understand one another’s goals and priorities,” says Margo Day, vice president, Small and Midmarket Solutions and Partners, at Microsoft. “It’s the basis for a foundation of trust that moves the relationship forward.”

We will see this dynamic play out in the three solution providers profiled here. Ranging in revenues from $2 million to $80 million, their companies are different, but each has improved its business prospects through savvy vendor relationship management.

Northwest Computer Support:
"We win together, we lose together."
After a low in 2001 when it lost 40 percent of sales, Northwest Computer Support has racked up 24 consecutive quarters of revenue growth, and in 2007 will bring in more than $10 million. No single factor accounts for the resurgence of the SMB-oriented solution provider, but smart vendor relationship management has helped.

Northwest has grown by working closely with vendors in security, messaging and mobility practices. It has shown a willingness to invest in strategic vendor initiatives, doing testing and early deployments of new products such as Microsoft Windows Vista, Exchange 2007 and now Windows Server 2008. It has been successful at filling seats with prospects at vendor marketing events. All of this has earned a measure of gratitude from the vendor community, as well as valuable client referrals and other bottom-line benefits.

Northwest’s major vendors are Hewlett-Packard,Microsoft and Symantec, all Gold-certified, and WatchGuard, Expertcertified. “Our strategy in choosing vendors is not to have seven firewall vendors, for instance, but to pick one and become an expert,” says Tom Rash, president. “We invest pretty deeply in our lead vendors, because we focus on the value of our expertise in making solutions work.”

Deep investments are one way to get a vendor’s attention, which ties in nicely with Northwest’s partnership philosophy: The more you give, the more you are likely to get. “We want to be our vendors’ go-to partner for whatever we’re partnering with, a partner they trust to place any leads they have, an enthusiastic partner for new products and a willing resource when they need case studies,” says Rash. “Being a good partner means learning what’s important to the vendors and investing in that.”

You first have to get on the radar screen, of course, which means assigning a top executive to handle vendor relationship management. At Northwest, that person is president Rash. One key to success, he says, is perseverance in championing your company at every level in the vendor organization.“They say they want partners,” Rash quips, “but you have to work really hard to get their attention.”

From there, it pays to engage with your lead vendors in every way possible, such as attending quarterly partner meetings, participating in webinars,working together on joint marketing and alerting them to customer wins. It also doesn’t hurt to provide feedback on what’s working and what’s not in vendor programs.“Being a good partner means giving useful feedback so they can be successful,” says Rash.

As an example of this process in action, Rash works closely with his area sales manger and area general manager at Microsoft. These relationships aren’t built on social interactions, but on “working collaboratively to expose opportunities that will benefit Northwest and Microsoft,” says Microsoft’s Day. “Because we understand one another’s priorities,we are each in position to help the other achieve their goals. It’s a powerful way to do business.”

Then there’s the loyalty factor. “If a partner such as HP brings us to the dance, and the customer likes us but decides to go with another solution,we would not sell the other solution,” says Rash. “We win together; we lose together.”