May 7th, 2008
Competing with your own channel
Matt Asay has a truly fine piece out today about open source vendors competing with their own channels.
What he’s talking about are companies that sell support for “community” versions of your product. (I have no idea if John Wingert’s sales techniques work, but his picture encapsulates the sales process.)
Matt offers some great advice but there’s one bit that maybe he missed.
Partnership.
Members of an open source sales channel are really super-users. They need to be treated as such.
That means the best possible support, the best online resources, sharing of sales leads, all the commitments (and more) you give and get from your user base.
If a vendor is getting all this from you, there’s no reason why they should try and rob their partner of support revenues. It would be like taking money out of their own pocket.
I understand Matt’s idea of formalizing all this through contracts and prohibitions, but too much formality, like a pre-nuptial agreement, may keep the marriage from taking place at all.
My guess is that not all “channel partners” really start out to be in business at all. They’re users serving other users.
I know this was the case for an old college classmate of mine. He started out, way back then, just helping other people out. Now he’s a big executive.
It’s in managing a process of turning amateur support into professional relationships where an open source sales manager will really earn his mettle.
Just remember, as John’s course notes, it’s a seduction.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
