Account Control Freaks

I’m learning that the degree of control a supplier exercises over accounts sold by their indirect sales teams varies drastically.

The dichotomy was pointed out in a discussion between press/analysts and Avaya dealers attending the Avaya 2010 Conference & Expo last week. One of the companies in attendance, Shared Technologies, is a very large Nortel dealer. But seeing the writing on the wall, the company signed on about a year ago to sell Avaya’s products. The bet turned out to be a good one since Avaya now is acquiring Nortel’s enterprise business (pending regulatory approval). However, executives at Shared Technologies said the merger of the two companies’ channels – one of the major synergies of the deal – is not going to be simple. That’s because while Nortel was largely hands-off with its channel by allowing them free reign to sell and service the accounts, Avaya’s partners adhere to a much more rigid process that involves getting advance approval to sell accounts and pitching Avaya’s professional services.

The net-net is Avaya retains much more control over dealers’ customers than does Nortel. As a result of their respective approaches, these gearmakers have attracted very different types of channel partners in terms of their capabilities and expertise.

It’s certainly understandable that a supplier would want account control. It would help them to be top of mind with the customer with the goal of upselling more and more products and services into the account. I mean really, do you want your representatives – even indirect reps – selling your competitors products into the account? I think for most companies, the answer is no.

But I am not sure that is the best decision for the partner, his customer, or even the supplier.

Here’s why:

• Customers want to buy the best solutions to fit their needs and are looking for well-informed if not unbiased solutions providers with knowledge of a range of options.
• Partners that provide said solutions, then, are more likely to have the trust of the Customers when it comes to purchasing a solution.
• Suppliers that are endorsed by Partners that are trusted by Customers, then, have greater credibility with the Customers, which are less likely to look at competitive offers.

I suppose getting here requires Suppliers to reject the idea that they can provide the best and total solution to the Customer in all instances. It also requires them to think about competing on the merits of their service and price for the Partners’ loyalty. But in too many cases, that seems to be too much effort. Instead, it’s much easier to just wrest control of Customers away from Partners. However, this move takes away Partners' incentive to sell the Suppliers’ products/services.

So, it seems to me that Suppliers can’t have a solutions provider channel and account control too.