The DNA of a Good Security Distributor

Having set up Sapphire fourteen years ago and been working in the security industry since 1984 I believe that I’ve sufficient track record and grey hairs to offer my perspective on the security market today and some of the ‘good’, ‘bad’ and plain ‘ugly’ practises that I see vendors and distributors adopting in dealing with the channel.  I’d also like to think that, because Sapphire has also dabbled itself in distributing the odd product, I have something of an inside track on the channel value chain and how it operates.
‘The Good’
Starting on a positive note I’d like to share an example of what I consider to be ‘best practice’.  A couple of years ago we decided to rationalise our product lines and the distribution we worked with, to enable us to focus on a few key products. Having taken this decision we weren’t about to be seduced by the next new distributor or vendor who came knocking at our door.
However, one company, Vigil Software, successfully managed to change our mind, but not be battering us into submission or tempting us with the prospect of unachievable revenues, but by demonstrating a commitment and understanding of our business and impressing us with their range of best of breed security products that fitted our customer set of government, health, legal, criminal justice and utilities sector. What’s more their knowledge extended beyond the products themselves to a real understanding of the issues that are important to our clients like government regulations such as GSI Connectivity. This level of understanding is so rare amongst distributors and even amongst many vendors that it encouraged us to evaluate their security products because of the added value that they could bring.

‘The Bad’
You may be reading this and thinking but don’t all distributors and vendors offer this added value? In my experience, no. At Sapphire we like to practise what we preach and we use the products that we sell internally in our own business, which means that we develop a high level of competency that helps us sell and support our products and enhance our consultancy services. Yet, for many distributors their knowledge of the products they distribute is less than our own. Our experience of just some of the basic elements of customer service such as returning calls within a reasonable space of time is notably lacking.
Another annoying trait is the persistence with which they demand reports on sales pipelines, forecasts and vast investments of time and money to train up sales and technical teams even before you are authorised to make a single sale. These issues and others have, in the past, prompted us to choose a product that isn’t going through distribution over one that is. We really don’t look to a distributor for after sales support or to provide us with a credit line, what we’re after is something more basic – a knowledge and understanding of our business.

‘The Ugly’
In order to avoid fitting into this category there are a few basic ground rules that vendors and distributors would do well to consider.
Firstly, choose your reseller partners carefully. Many vendors and distributors seem to focus on getting the most resellers possible on the basis of ‘the more the merrier’. Most resellers actually want to minimise the number of vendor and distributor partners they deal with, so choosing a reseller partner is a bit like choosing a romantic partner – you need to make sure that you have compatible expectations from the relationship before you forge ahead. Like any good relationship it’s also important to take time getting to know each other. Being based in the North East of England as we are, a regular trip by an account manager generally represents a significant investment in time and money, but is an important aspect of building a meaningful relationship. 

A Marriage of Minds
There are ample examples of failed vendor and distributor relationships along the way for Sapphire, but the relationship with Vigil stands out because it has shown us that there are distributors out there who can add substantial value.   They didn’t pressurise us to take on as many of their products as possible, but opted instead for the long game and invested their own time and energy in building the relationship and working alongside us in customer deals to close business. 
 
So the thoughts that I’d like any distributor or vendor out there reading this article to take away with them are these. Be clear about what sort and number of channel partners you’re looking for.  Do your homework about your potential channel partners and make sure that there is some common ground between your proposition, the market we serve and the sort of business we are. And if you’ve done all this and you really feel that we’re the right partners for you, then don’t expect us to jump through a dozen hoops of committing resources to getting up to speed on your products until we’ve jointly proven that there is some mileage for  both of us in the relationship.