Uncertainty has become the new normal and it continues to take a toll on companies as they navigate maintaining business continuity amidst supply chain, public health, and economic challenges. However, over the last two years, solutions and strategies have emerged to help companies mitigate these impacts. For channel partners to continue to succeed in the 2022 business environment, they must build strong supplier-partner relationships, adapt to changing circumstances, and expand their total solution.
1 Build strong relationships
In the post-covid world, building relationships requires more effort and attention. Now, businesses must be more intentional with a hybrid approach of meeting partners in both virtual and in-person environments. Rather than allowing physical distance to be a barrier to communication, partners are shifting to interact with decision makers in a more digital way. Virtual meetings make it easier to connect and allow teams to scale purposeful conversations and regular touchpoints with partners. As a result, in-person interactions are becoming less frequent and less necessary for addressing pain points.
In addition to proactively communicating through digital means, it’s vital for partners and suppliers to be transparent with each other – even if the news isn’t favorable. By nurturing partnerships through open, two-way communication, partners and suppliers are better equipped to communicate honestly with one another and problem solve together. Building and maintaining trust among partners allows for challenges to be addressed early and strengthens the relationship in the long run.
2 Be flexible
Flexibility goes hand-in-hand with proactive, transparent communication. Simply put, business is not the same as it was before the pandemic. Given supply chain challenges, many industries are functioning in new ways – and on difficult, and sometimes unpredictable, timelines. When partners and their customers are flexible, they can find new and possibly more efficient solutions.
Adapting to uncertainty also means placing greater importance on maintaining flexibility in rollouts. By employing an open mindset, channel partners can more easily work together through these challenges.
3 Expand the total solution
As the technology industry and the number of innovations in the market grow, channel partners will increasingly have to juggle many solution offerings and sourcing partners. By focusing on the total solution, bridging hardware, software, connectivity and more, channel partners can be more successful in meeting their customers’ needs.
Another aspect of expanding the total solution can be bringing on a solutions engineer to support the team. Solutions engineers can also work with distributors to ensure partners are adding technology that will supplement and enhance their current offerings.
Ultimately, while there may be challenges for channel partners, ScanSource is also seeing unprecedented innovation from its supplier partners. Exciting new technologies are transforming the way businesses work and presenting opportunities for the future of the channel. No matter the challenge, solutions will arise and the channel partners that are quick to adapt will succeed.
