Many vendors and partners believe that the key cornerstone of any venture is trust but according to Rajiv Ghatikar, vice president & GM for ASEAN/Australasia, Siemens PLM Software, there is another word that is even more vital, and that is “performance”.
“Trust is very necessary but it shouldn’t be at the expense of performance,” stresses Ghatikar. He observes that ‘performance’ is tied closely to a partner’s lifecycle with its various phases of infancy, maturity and lifestyle. “The concept of the lifecycle phase as well as the partners’ lifecycles itself, need to be understood to have a successful partner community. Vendors have to constantly keep their partners hungry and motivated. No one wants to be stuck with partners who are unmotivated so partners have to ensure partners don’t fall into ‘content-mode’. This is done with new ideas and then introduction of new products/technology.”
He observes that the partner space is very niche and technical. Elaborating on this, he says, “A lot of vendors have partners that tend to be part of their eco-system for a very long time. This has its advantages such as they know how the vendor thinks and ticks but it is important to inject new blood into the channel eco-system too – partners who think and plan around competition, who think competitively and who can inject new ideas. Everybody needs a breath of fresh air every now and then.”
Siemens PLM Software in ASEAN and Australia is a 100% channel-focused and driven company. “We believe this is the way to go as there is no competition with a direct sales force. Partners need not fear cannibalization which eats into their hard work, accounts and margins,” states Ghatikar.
This strategy is closely tied to the company’s vision to enable success. “We want to be seen as THE partner-centric PLM vendor. Enablement for us equals success and profitability for all. This is why all on my team live and die for our partners. It’s our living,” he emphasizes.
So just how does Siemens PLM enable its partners? This is a very key question, says Ghatikar. He shares that the company enables its partners by:
- Implementing training programs
- Helping partners with lead generation
Here, he observes that partners need to be extremely focused on the products and the services/expertise that is built around them. “This is why a key focus of ours is to help our partners with new ways to position our products and their services,” he explains.
This takes us back to the drive and the hunger of partners which is closely aligned to how Siemens PLM selects its partners and their expectations of them. Expanding on this Ghatikar says, “The first question I ask a partner is, ‘How hungry are you?’. From their answer, you know what is expected from their side as well as what to expect from them and how to engage. Next, I look at where their core competency or competencies lie because this supports their hunger.”
Ghatikar also notes that giving freedom and space to partners is very important. He adds that this is fine as long as measures are in place and more importantly, followed, and partners are focused enough. “This is why an action plan is very important. Some partners don’t want too much visibility while others just want to spend more time on selling. We respect this to a limit as it’s also very important to be in constant communication and to meet up face-to-face at least once a month,” he elaborates.
Some other challenges that Ghatikar notes exist in the channel community is the fact that very often, partners complain that prices are too high. “However, they have to understand this is sometimes out of the vendors’ hands as end-user pricing cannot be controlled,” he says.
Another common issue with partners is that they often under-invest in sales and over-invest in technical processes which should be the reverse. Ghatikar shares that during the company’s global sales kick-off meeting in October 2008, they had a prominent sales guru present there. “He asked the question, ‘How many of you wanted to be a sales person when young?’ No one raised their hand. Then he asked, ‘How many of you are accredited with a sales degree?’ Of course, no one raised their hand,” says Ghatikar. “It’s the greatest irony of sales which is a key function in any organization. Yet, no education curriculum addresses it. However, in any company, a sales person is there to generate consistent performance.”
What this all shows, Ghatikar points out, is that with selling, you can’t just wake up one day and say you want to be a sales person. “It just doesn’t work this way. Selling is all about understanding how to build relationships, knowing how to position yourself and having the skills in selling such as knowing how to handle the various processes that come with sales (such as quotations, proposals), knowing how to value-add and most importantly (and here is what most sales people lack) – having discipline. Sales people need to have the discipline not only to sell but have to do this every day. They also have to do the necessary follow-ups on time and review their pipeline every single day. It’s not rocket-science but doing all this consistently is vital.”
The other buzzword they use in Siemens PLM but which is often overlooked by many is ‘focus’. Explaining this, Ghatikar says, “No one can do everything, therefore focus is needed and a strong focus at that.”
He finds that focus is quite closely tied to culture. “Asians feel that doing two things is not enough and want to have more on their plate. However, no one can be the best in everything – this is a myth. It’s important to pick a few focus areas that are closely linked to your core competencies,” Ghatikar shares.
Siemens PLM is in the midst of recruiting new partners. Ghatikar refers to it as a targeted recruitment. He says, “We are recruiting for example in niche areas, for example, in terms of geographical coverage. We are looking for complementary coverage and are ensuring there is no, or at least minimal channel conflict. In addition, we are replacing partners who cannot cover what we want or who are under-performing. It is a very painful, time-consuming process, but it needs to be done.”
The company has a global recruitment team that overseas the whole recruitment process. Ghatikar shares that the company focuses on partners who are very software-based. On the enterprise side, partners have to have ERP competencies and skills. Those with CAD/CAM expertise are also a draw. “We are targeting partners of different backgrounds depending on the products they want to carry. Another strategy we have here is to get partners within the PLM niche and then work on their CAD/CAM skills” he says.
Right now, Ghatikar’s focus is a lot on Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam. Singapore is a location which Siemens PLM has a huge market-share and in which they are deeply entrenched. According to Ghatikar, the company is very focused on pushing more heavily into the PLM space here and because of this are more focused on PLM than CAD/CAM partners but are also still looking for good partners in this area.
In Malaysia, the focus is on the CAD/CAM side which Ghatikar says in under-penetrated in the country. “This means there are huge opportunities here for us and it is also a good place and time to start focusing on PLM.”
The company sees Vietnam as a country with a strong potential in both PLM and CAD/CAM. “Vietnam is still in the early days in these spaces but it’s a good time to make investments. Vietnam is also a country with strong manufacturing potential which is what we are strong in and also a space where we play very well in. We are therefore looking for partners here but are not yet heavily focused on recruiting. We’ll start looking into this in the next few quarters,” says Ghatikar.
India is also a country which Ghatikar says holds a lot of potential for Siemens PLM but another team handles it. “There are a lot of opportunities for longer-term growth in India. Also, as the potential in India is huge for us, we view it as a separate country to handle. It is also a country with very different dynamics and because of all these reasons we keep it separate to maintain our focus.”
“The partner business is one which is hard to set up and manage, but if done well, the benefits are numerous. The hard work never ends though,” concludes Ghatikar.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
