Profitable Partnering – How ISVs Can Reach Out To Distributors
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
Experts weigh in on creating successful ISV channel partnerships.
At the inaugural ISV IQ Live! Conference held February 24 in Santa Ana, CA, nearly 150 channel executives gathered to address the topics of raising capital, partnering, and marketing. One panel, Profitable Partnering” featured three vendors and one distributor executive discussing channel partnerships.
Participants included Gregg Brunnick, Director of Product Management and Technical Services at Epson America; Walker Thompson, Director of Alliance Management at Vantiv Integrated Payments; Mark Fraker, Vice President of Marketing at BlueStar; and Marc Solomon, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at Worldpay. The session was moderated by Business Solutions Magazine President Jim Roddy.
The panelists addressed what ISVs need to know about how to reach out to distributors and others to establish partnerships. For Solomon, the best way to approach a vendor or other distributor is electronically. “That would entail going to any of our intellectual properties and sending us an email, or simply use any of the forms that we have on our sites as these correspondences come directly to our marketing and business development team, and then we reach out to you.”
Solomon cautioned against pushing a demo of your software, however, saying, “What we want to do is find out what your DNA is. That’s what’s more important to us. Then we’ll go sit down and have a demo of the product. But when you call up, don’t show us a demo. Let’s just talk and have a cup of coffee and find out a little bit about one another.”
Brunnick said there are a number of ways for ISVs to get in with Epson, with the most obvious connection through trade shows and events. “That’s where you’ll generally see large numbers of salespeople, along with select managers. Any one of those people from Epson can put you in touch with the correct person.
“We also see a lot of cases where ISVs will look through press releases, and they’ll see who is being quoted. I will get pinged on LinkedIn about two or three times a month, from an ISV in particular, who is just looking for the right person inside of Epson America.” Brunnick then redirects them to the appropriate salesperson or partner person. He advises, “The big thing to me is just stay persistent and keep leveraging your network.”
Thompson explained at Vantiv, because the entire organization is channel partner-centric, “It doesn’t take many steps to reach one of us. We also have a business development arm that’s outwardly facing, trying to also obtain your attention as well.” Whether an ISV reaches out via a phone call or email, it doesn’t matter. “Every level of our organization is open to partnership and contact. Reach out.”
And Worldpay also is accessible, says Solomon. “I’d say, in general, go to our website. On our website, we break it down, depending on what type of partnership or what you’re trying to accomplish. It walks you through how you can get to the right people. Again, LinkedIn is also a great place to reach out to all of us.” Worldpay also tries to do a lot of trade shows and events, probably attending one or two shows every week, somewhere in the U.S.