During this downturn, how many times have you heard voice overs from your channel partners like “We just don’t have the budget for that right now.” or “That’s a great idea but let’s try it in six months when we have the budget for it”? When times are tough and businesses are looking for ways to survive tough economic times, they’re not going to spend valuable dollars on new ideas, products, or promotions. They may love the idea, but be too scared to pull the trigger. So they use the old line “It’s not in the budget right now.” Listening to this again and again can break you. It’s your job as Super VAR not to let him.
One way to get around this hurdle is to work with parts of your channel to develop ideas and solutions that benefit everyone, and use only a fraction of each of their budgets. INSTEAD OF APPROACHING YOUR CUSTOMER WITH YOUR SERVICE OR SOLUTION THAT IS UNIQUELY YOURS, IMAGINE HOW THAT CUSTOMER WOULD FEEL WITH AN ENTIRE TEAM WORKING ON SOLUTIONS THAT WILL IMPROVE THEIR BUSINESS. The value of that alone is going to win points with your customer and they, in turn, will have solutions to provide to their end user.
There are two elements at play here: the first is the backlash you receive from your client due to budget constraints; and the second becomes a product of the first: how to deliver the solutions within the constraints of your customer.
First, to address your customer pushback, focus on the value of what you have to offer. You know that you should no longer sell your products, you should sell the solutions that your customers long for. Yes, their products are part of those solutions. But simply becoming a printer that prints 15 pages per minute or ink lasts one line. A trip to the moon and back doesn’t mean those features will solve your customer’s problem! If you can demonstrate to your customers that they are buying solutions that, ultimately, will save money in their final results, you will understand why your services are valuable and find the money in the budget to use it. You are changing your perception and, therefore, changing the way you see your budget in the process.
Once you’ve convinced your customer of the value of what you have to offer, how do you provide this solution as cost-effectively as possible? Leverage your channel partners. Like never before, it’s now critical that you work with your channel partners in your marketing efforts to provide valuable products, services and solutions. Talk to your customers. Discover your needs. What are they willing to spend their budget and what, if they had more money, would they like to sell? It is the last one you want to perfect. What do your customers dream of providing to their end users that would make work more productive and fiscally successful in warehouses, hospitals, nursing homes, or large industrial companies? If a Warehouse Manager DOESN’T KNOW WHERE HIS INVENTORY IS OR IS CONTINUOUSLY SCREAMING OFF, What Solutions Can You Provide – With Your Channel Partner Team – To Take Your Warehouse Asset Management Into The 21st Century?
Now turn to your channel partners. How can they solve this together? Does a partner offer exceptional service plans on an automated asset management system that you sell? Perhaps another partner can provide various payment options to spread the spend within your client’s budget. Can you work with your channel partners to combine some of their marketing budgets to, in turn, deliver more value to a collective program or service that will benefit them all, and offer it to your customer at a fraction of the cost due to the associations involved? ? Do you have more than one partner offering a discount? And when you combine all those discounts, will you offer incredible savings for your customers? The key here is to find creative ways of working along with its channel partners. You all have your strengths. Bringing all of those strengths together makes you a powerful VAR who clearly has great resources. Customers this. Your suppliers will be impressed. As you find creative ways to overcome budget constraints, look for end-to-end solutions for your clients, not just quick fixes or a patchwork solution. You are the solution provider. Lead the position for its customers and with its channel partners, to find the best solutions, together.