Q & A
EDITOR ’ S
While COVID-19 has changed many things , the essence of what makes a great partner programme remains the same . Partners are , and will always be , reliant upon good relationships and strong communication . A fundamental understanding of partner and customer needs is vital if vendors want to run the best channel programme which enable partners to grow with them . And to maintain trust and transparency , vendors need to maintain regular dialogue with the channel and respond to their concerns and challenges .
MATTHIEU BRIGNONE , VP PARTNER SALES , EMEA / LATAM , PURE STORAGE
Additionally , it ’ s important to always keep an eye on the incentives being offered and adjust as appropriate . At Pure we believe that the success of our partners is our success so we need to work together to achieve this .
The first step is to become customerobsessed . If partners can understand the business your customers operate in — the opportunities and challenges — they is more likely that you will be seen as trusted advisors and true partners , rather than box pushers .
The second point is to work with vendors who offer technology that widens the total addressable market ( TAM ) available . Those who have innovation at their core , who embrace emerging technologies and offer solutions which are simple , flexible and solve customers ’ challenges .
The third key element is making the pivot to As-a-service offerings . Over the past 12 to 18 months , technology decision-makers have rightly been preoccupied with how to economise their environments in the face of external tumult . Irrespective of whether they chose to operate fully in the cloud , onprem or hybrid , they sought IT models that could deliver ‘ cloud-like ’ benefits — lower total cost of ownership ( TCO ), enhanced operations and a simplified experience .
We have seen many of our partners use this power-of-cloud angle to differentiate themselves by explaining to their customers how they can enter a new age of innovation while taming costs by using As-a-service models . Many customers still want onpremise technology and partners who can differentiate are those who advise and help customers decide which workloads to run in the cloud and what to store on-premise based on their individual needs .
At Pure we believe that the success of our partners is our success so we need to work together to achieve this .
Today , more than ever , customers are looking for a partner who understands what they are going through . It is critical that today ’ s training programmes focus not only on product knowledge but on the soft skills – everything from value selling to negotiation – that can help sales teams have more productive conversations and build rapport with end customers . In the last 12 months we have made a number of enhancements to our programme to provide partners with increased incentives , marketing , support and training solutions so they can support their customers and grow their business with us . For instance , we launched our WaveMakers programme , an invitation-only , global technical partner community , that provides individual partners with extra resources to help them succeed , accelerate and expand sales while curating a unique technical community they can interact with and depend on .
We are seeing an acceleration in customers demanding true flexible consumption models when looking for data management solutions . The pressures of the pandemic have only accelerated this need : business services need to be scaled and available on demand , to provide both financial flexibility and real competitive advantage . •
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS Issue 44 53