Building a reseller channel with VARS - give them what they want

As part of my role here at StillSecure I try to help set our go to market strategy.  One area that I am always learning more about is how to get channel partners, resellers and VARs more excited about working with StillSecure.  Lets face it, many VARs line up around big name companies and these large vendors can be brutal in castrating their VARs for selling competing products.  Also, many of these same VARs have to engage in cutthroat competition with other VARs of the same vendors and wind up actually fighting it out for a meager few points of margin. All the same, it is always encouraging to us when a reseller actually brings a deal to us, rather then us just "running" a deal through them.

Over the years we have tried many strategies to attract quality resellers. Mixing margin with training, co-marketing fees and other programs, we have tried many things.  Finally, we recently had a bit of an epiphany around being successful in this channel.  I think in todays market, many VARs and resellers are stretched so thin in trying to carry a plethora of different products on their line card. Many security products have grown so increasingly complex to sell, implement and support, that it is near impossible for the VARs to be up on every technology and product.  They want to be subject matter experts about security and different ways of securing their customers, but they don't want to be the subject matter expert on any one product.  If a customer could benefit from NAC, they want to know who the best NAC players are in the market, they don't want to be an expert in any one NAC product.  They don't want to have to spend a lot of time and money training their engineers and sales people on any one product.  In essence they want the vendor to do a lot of the heavy lifting.  The reseller/VAR, as my friend Michael Farnum says, wants to be the "trusted security adviser".  They own the relationship with the end user customer.  They want their vendor partners to do the heavy lifting though, including the "dirty" selling of a product.

So why swim against the tide.  Give the resellers/VARs what they want.  Don't put any requirements around sales/technical expertise or training.  Do all of the heavy lifting for the VAR.  Let them maintain their relationship with the customer as a trusted adviser.  Have them bring you in as the vendor to show how your product solves the problem.  Let the vendor worry about the install, implementation and the support of the product. Let the partner be as involved as they would like to be in the actual sale and implementation. But give the reseller/VAR a really good margin anyway.  For the privilege of allowing them to work with their customer and them, make sure they make more money from you then they would with any other vendor.  At the end of the day they want to make sure their customers get quality products that solve their problems and work as advertised, but they also want to make a lot of margin.  I guess it is really simple at that level.

So this is exactly what we are doing.  We are going to pay our channel partners a very rich margin for working with us in helping solve their customers security problems.  We won't put any constraints or program requirements around them.  We will do the lifting.  Give the parter what he wants! 

Some might say paying the VAR a high margin cuts your profits and your own margins.  True enough, but when you want to penetrate the market, the fact is these reseller/VARs own a substantial share of it.  If you can't give them what they want, you are not going to be effective.

I am interested in others thoughts on this.  Especially if you work for a reseller or VAR.  Is this the right way to go?  It is attractive to you?  Does it make sense?  Let me know.