VAR Face Staffing Problems

The hot topic among solution providers is not necessarily which vendor is the most channel friendly or fields the best technology: It's how to find and retain key sales and technical personnel. That's the word out of the Xchange Solution Provider conference in San Diego. (The conference is hosted by CMP Media, CRN' s parent company.) Not to belittle the aforementioned vendor-focused themes, but partners say they are increasingly preoccupied with A: finding and B: keeping good technical and sales personnel. This is no mean feat. A panel of solution providers—all members of CRN's inaugural Fast Growth 100—took to the stage Thursday morning to give their take on the state of the business. Believe it or not, retaining people means more than giving them more money, according to Michael Axelrod, managing director of e-Brilliance, Conshohocken, PA. "We are a systems integration company—our value is our people. It's critical that people in our organization stay sharp. People in technology want to grow professionally, they don't' want to be stagnant." That means training and education in hot new technologies is key and that is something vendors can help their partners on, he noted. "Through our partner relationships, they can get more skill sets," he noted. The downside of all that career development is that the more an integrator invests in training personnel, the more attractive that personnel becomes to rival integrators, or even the vendors themselves. "The flip side, the potential negative, is as you give them additional knowledge, it increases their value. The key is to put programs together that make them want to stay," Axelrod noted. Another retention force is discretionary power for techs and sales people. Ned Yousefzadeh, president of Santa Monica, Calif.-based Micro League has been able to fund a vendor management specialist largely out of the discounts and other money that the person in that four-year-old position has saved and earned. Vendor partners can also help even small VARs get demos of new technologies as long as the VAR is willing to make some noise. "The squeaky wheel gets greased, said Billy Merchant, sales manager of ProSys Information Systems, Norcross, Ga. "If you offer to do some services on the side, but [getting demos] is easier if you have marketing money," he noted. The other big rule of thumb for solution providers is to stress their own expertise and brand over that of their vendor partners. While vendors see partners as extensions of their brand, its important for the partners to retain their identity, their customer relationships, and to reinforce the value they represent to the end users, panelists said. "We represent ourselves as an individual. The problem was [before] we looked too much like Microsoft and so we influenced only Microsoft accounts and maybe the customer wants a solution, not the product name. Now we do a much better job talking about all solutions," said Terry Calloway, president and CEO of Data Technique, Pittsburg, Kansas. It may be easier for a VAR to ally with a name-brand vendor, because customers know the name and may feel more comfortable buying into that familiar vendor. "It helps you sell the product. When the product name recognition is there, the heavy lifting mostly done by manufacturer, so the sales cycle is shorter," said Yousefzadeh. On the other hand, product cost will be higher because of that marketing overhead and there will be less of a differentiator for the partner because so many are selling that product, he added. Bill Adams, vice president of ACS Services, Easton, Mass., stressed the ownership issue. "I let the tech team choose what they want to use. If we want to switch from this product to this one, we ask why? There are debates and once we pick the product, it's this guy's baby. We set the ground rules, then they all get involved. We want their feedback," Adams noted. ACS also plays up the competitive nature of sales people by setting up rewards based not just on deal closes but on other milestones, for setting appointments, posting results etc. "With sales guys, it's not all about compensation, it's about keeping scorewe have a board up..so if you're not selling anything you feel like a jerk," he noted. If there's one laggard in the group, others will say "if you can't close it, we'll do it and we'll split it up," he noted. Several audience members asked for tips on finding good new hires, and the pros on stage acknowledged the difficulty of that task. "It's a great market for people out there. The kids coming out of college don't' have the real-life experience you need. I'm going through the same problem now. You need to build a database of people and use your current people to find new hires," Axelrod noted.