The Register has an interesting story about EMC’s latest scheme to boost channel revenues (otherwise known as ‘achieve world domination’). The True programme, introduced at EMC World in the US, seeks to encourage partners to adopt a 80-100% EMC approach by bribing, sorry rewarding, them with more cash, extra marketing funds and free training.
EMEA vice president of channel Philippe Fosse told The Register that those who go all-out for a 100% EMC model will get even “better incremental rewards”. He admitted the scheme would struggle to get off the ground in Europe because of EU anti-competitive laws but added “we are trying to find way to implement it”.
But assuming EMC did somehow manage to circumvent the EU anti-competition regime, would it actually make sense for channel partners to adopt an exclusive model with the vendor? True, they would have the chance to make more money from EMC by selling more of the vendor’s product, but that has to be balanced against the concern that they could earn less money from customers by trying to sell more EMC product.
Choice
There are two words you frequently hear in connection with channel partners, usually uttered by vendors and customers, and those words are ‘trusted adviser’ (although I’m sure some customers and vendors who have had unfortunate experiences with channel partners can think of two different words).
To be a ‘trusted adviser’ you have to at least give the impression of a level of trustworthiness. If a channel partner was to continually advocate products from a single vendor to customers for a range of solutions, they might start to wonder just what kind of ‘adviser’ that partner was. If they were to learn the partner was being offered money to exclusively sell products from a single vendor, they might start to wonder just how ‘trusted’ that partner was.
Then there’s the point that genuine trusted advisers that offer a range of products, including EMC, to customers to give them the most suitable solution for their needs, would find themselves discriminated against by EMC and undercut by EMC-only partners. What incentive would that provide for them to continue offering EMC products as part of a mixed solution?
And what would it do for EMC’s reputation if customers gained the impression it was ‘bribing’ channel partners to try and force its products on them? In the worst case, trust could be lost at both the customer and channel partner level. The irony is that the whole channel ecosystem could be disrupted or, worse still, tainted because EMC wanted its partners to be True.
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