Distribution Dilemma
It’s only mid-week and I’ve had my fill of problems with distribution (more than one channel partner). As with all business relationships, you have your ups and downs but in the last few weeks I’ve had so many problems because of their poor account management that my job has been made significantly harder and less enjoyable.
I understand that being ’small fry’ to the big channel partners isn’t going to attract the level of account management we provide our clients with but surely I’m not being unreasonable when I say:
- If you are my account manager and you are out of the office (either ill or on holiday), let me know in advance, or worst case, via an out of office reply - also please give me a named person who I can follow up with if this is the case.
- When you are unavailable, could you find a colleague to ‘buddy’ up with? Calling the ‘piranha’ pit is not going to give me the service I am used to receiving and I’m likely to go and find another distribution partner who can help me keep my business running and who make me feel like a business and not just an account number.
- Please understand that I am not motivated by the same things you are. I am more interested in giving my customer what they need to keep their business running and not what the latest offer of the day is. Get to know my business better and you’ll be able to target me better.
- I don’t always want to talk to four people to get one job done. Account management should take this onboard and be able to puppet master the whole thing - it is a pain in the backside when I have to talk to different departments with different roles and who don’t know me from Adam.
- If I send you an email and find that I have to send another three to get you to respond then yes I am going to be pigged off. Not only is it bad form but it won’t encourage me to work with you. No matter what size of business I am to you in the big scheme of things, you don’t ignore business. Some of us want to get bigger. Some of us have dealt with you for a number of years. Bad news is more likely to spread quicker than good.
- Pull your socks up and remember that the market is changing to a services driven environment. Even Microsoft is recognising this through SaaS and you don’t make the points on ‘tin’ like we used to anymore. Please realise that you are more likely to be providing pre- and post-sales information because as the small business partner market gets bigger we’re going to need you guys as official vendor partners to use your status to get us what we need to sell more.
What I will say is that the smaller distribution partners seem to recognise this better. One particular account manager of mine ‘gets’ my business, rings me when I need him to and knows that there’s no point selling me pears when all I want to do is sell the same apples I always do (fruit is an example, Readycrest isn’t a grocer).
The bigger the vendor, the more important it is to understand what your clients want. Small business makes up such a significant part of the IT market that if you don’t get what we are about then you are going to suffer long term.
I have met so many partners over the years who feel that they are not listened to or understood by distribution partners. Some don’t even have relationships with them. I know that the bottom line is £££s but if you go burning bridges then it takes twice as much effort to bring customers back round to where you want them.
Surely it really is meant to be as good as they promise it is when they ask for your business?
Right rant over… I have more to say on this matter but it’s too specific to certain organisations.
*Update*
Andy Parkes also posted his comments in response to my blog post. Worth checking out!
I am saddened to hear that some distributors don’t operate at the same professional level that my employers and I do. As you rightly point out I do not contact you with offers that do not apply and I ensure that all my customers are looked after whatever their status.
But surely this should be standard practice across all companies, not something to be praised because a couple of companies are not up to looking after their clients properly?
But thank you all the same, its a pleasure to be praised.
Jamie (MP)
[…] How does anyone do business? March 7, 2007 at 4:11 pm | In Business, Rants | Good post today from Susanne about problems with distributors. This is something I have had to learn lots about over the last couple of years as I’ve become more involved on the business side. It’s very frustrating when your account manager isn’t tuned into your needsAn example of bad management happened recently. I’m not going to be naming names so we’ll call them “Dist X”. We have had a couple of calls and emails recently from Dist X asking why were hadn’t been using them much. First thing is we had the same thing about six months ago and we told them some of the issues were1) Everyone else gives us better credit facilities than you2) We don’t even know who our account manager isSo we got our credit facility updated and an account manager was assigned to us. This account manager then hounded us for an order. Letting us know the “offer of the day” and generally being a bit of a pain. We had a small order to make so thought we would give them a go. This is where it got even worse. Once we had placed the order the account manager did a disappearing act. Then we got our goods, but we also managed to get an Exchange 2003 media kit we hadn’t asked for. The invoice for this arrived so we asked the account manager to sort it out. They wanted us to fill out lots of paper work to return the item. The guy in charge of our purchasing wasn’t impressed with his staff having work created for them when it wasn’t their error. The account manager eventually told us to dispose of the media kit as it wasn’t worth arranging a collection. We then couldn’t fill out their returns paperwork as they wanted a serial number from the product.I’m not entirely sure where we are with this now but as a first order they didn’t really do themselves any favoursAs Susanne said we are the small customers but surely we deserve better? […]
We’re not ALL like that Suzanne
I’m currently working in distribution and doing my best to make sure that customer service gets to the top of the agenda!
Whilst it’s impossible to train everyone to answer every question that comes to them, we can pass it through to the people who can and manage the process (although I often find that getting presales or product management to speak directly to clients is often an easier way than trying to relay messages with the resulting misinterpretation it often brings.)
Not sure if you’d recall, but we have actually met before (in a previous role of mine) - good to hear you’re still out there and pushing for the things that make business work!
Mark,
Hats off to you for responding. I think it’s a real positive sign when someone takes the time to stand up and speak like you have so thank you.
I’m sure I’ll be experiencing the same sorts of things you go through shortly as I venture into the land of distribution…
Keep in touch, I may need the advice!
The challenge for me is that I’m now going to be in a position where I have to answer my own questions so watch out for a follow up to this post!