Partners’ ‘general’ satisfaction with profitability doesn’t signal economic balance. Vendors need to look at the bigger picture.
Technology vendors are always refining their partner programs to achieve productivity and revenue growth. They adjust discounts, rebates, incentives, MDF, certifications, enablement, and support to motivate partners and improve sales performance.
But what they don’t always measure is whether the total economics of the relationship work just as well for the partner. Partners don’t evaluate vendor relationships just by looking at front-end margin or back-end incentives. They look at the entire economic opportunity. What additional revenue can they create around a vendor’s products? What costs does the vendor help them avoid? What expenses must they absorb to participate in the relationship?
Through its research, Channelnomics finds that partners are generally satisfied with the profitability of their vendor relationships, yet that doesn’t mean those relationships are economically balanced. What it does mean is that partners are largely accepting of the economic structures that vendors have established, often because they have limited alternatives if they want to participate in those ecosystems.
