Remember when channel partners like you were afraid of “the cloud?”
You were afraid that giving customers the option to use somebody else’s servers and storage would cannibalize and maybe even kill your hardware business. Without that, you were afraid that it might put you out of business entirely.
Well, you were right. And you were wrong.
While it can be argued that yes, Cloud has definitely reduced hardware sales, it certainly has not put partners out of business. In fact, it is spelling growth and success for partners who recognize the opportunities Cloud enables.
Customers Buy from Vendors and Invest in Partners
In his book Key Account Selling, author Mack Hanan explains the difference between being a vendor and being a partner in the context of customer loyalty. When you’re considered a vendor, says Hanan, customers are loyal to your most recent best price. When you’re considered a partner, customers are loyal to the profit you have added to their business. Hanan emphasizes that vendors deliver products, while partners deliver profits. He adds that a customer who knows you are dedicated to producing more profits for them will be more than happy to produce more profits for you.
Xerox Channel Partners have learned to augment their sales of printing equipment, accessories, supplies, and software with new services, new functionalities, new capabilities, and new ways for customers to generate more profits for themselves. So it is no surprise that channel partners are uniquely positioned to understand the Cloud and how it can benefit their customers. A partner understands the unique needs of the customer in a way that a vendor can’t, and can apply the Cloud to address specific workflow and business challenges.
From the earliest days of computing, it has always been all about the applications. This has not changed.
The Xerox Personalized Application Builder Program for Xerox Global Channel Partners
There are two fundamental ways in which the Xerox Personalized Application Builder (PAB) Program benefits Xerox Channel Partners.
- Enables those partners with software development capabilities to drive new revenue and strengthen client relationships by providing the tools, training, and marketing resources you need to create personalized solutions from office and managed print services (MPS) to production.
- Enables your fellow Xerox Channel Partners who have software development capabilities to create solutions that you can choose to sell to your customers through partnering.
Now any Xerox Channel Partner can take full advantage of applications whether or not you have software developers on your team.
For those who do, the Personalized Application Builder tools include Xerox® App Studio, as well as Software Developer Kits for MPS, FreeFlow® (workflow software) and Extensible Interface Platform so partners can meet their customers’ unique requirements, and then differentiate themselves by branding solutions under their own name.
For those who do not, Xerox continues developing a community of authorized developers. Examples of these can be found in an October 2017 article in CRN title “12 Fantastic Apps Developed By Xerox Partners To Make Doing Business Easier.”
Customer Loyalty
The biggest transition “the cloud” has created in the channel is that it has compelled all of us to think more about how we differentiate ourselves, which can only be good for our businesses. Your customers could purchase all the infrastructure products they needed from anyone, which offered you no ability to distinguish yourself.
As a Xerox Channel Partner, you are among an elite group of providers who can equip your customers with the highest quality print production products and services in the world. Only you deliver the brand of excellent service your customers know and respect. Now you can expand those services by becoming part of the Xerox Personalized Application Builder Program, setting yourself completely apart from your competition.
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