Warning Notice to Vendors and Distributors

This warning notice needs to be conveyed to all vendors and distributors that hope to sell their products to and through the SMB IT Reseller channel.

SMB IT Resellers tend to be a talkative lot. They get most of their business through word of mouth. They talk to each other about the ups and downs of running and business focused on the SMB channel. As such when a vendor or distributor starts to do the wrong thing by us, news travels fast. When the vendor continues to do the wrong thing despite attempts by the community to correct the vendors directions, then news travels even faster. Ultimately SMB resellers are time poor and will take the path of least resistance to get to the objective they need to obtain. This will involve dumping products and services from vendors that just don’t get it or have shown that they are not interested in “getting it”. I feel that this is about to happen with one large communications vendor that wants to push into the SMB IT channel right now. I’ve had a number of talks with them along with other concerned community members and they still don’t get it. We’re happy to put some time into building the relationship with you, but if you don’t show us the same respect then ultimately it’s not going to work.

You have been warned. Failure to care for the SMB IT Channel will result in the channel avoiding you. That will cost you business and reputation. Talk to us. Listen to us. Give us what we need to work better with you.