Brother Canada has released its first channel program in two years to better communicate with its 4,000 plus partners across the country.
Partner communications “has always been a challenge,” said John Robertson, commercial division manager distribution/I.S. for Brother Canada, based in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Que.
The goal of the new program is to provide timely information to a wide range of partners be it direct marketing resellers, VARs, system integrators, system builders or computer retailers, Robertson said.
Called Brother Canada’s Reseller Partnerships Program, it is made up of six key elements:
ENews is a regular email newsletter informing the partners about hot buys, promotions, and clearance products.
Kiosk is for online retailing. Through The Business Network, this XML-based e-catalog will always update partner Web site with the latest Brother product and promotions information.
Point-of-sale materials and support will bring the channel Brother specific in-store display materials. It will also aid online storefronts with digital banners.
Dedicated sales support will give Brother partners access to an inside sales representative.
Professional training and education will give partners access to Brother technical staff as well as offering Web-based training and seminars.
And, service authorization and support for qualified Brother partners. The company will be opening up its national network of service centres to the channel and offering lifetime toll-free technical support.
The automatic updates delivered by The Business Network will still enable resellers to charge its own prices. “This is just info delivery from Brother. Resellers need to make money selling the product and we need to manage the channel properly with supplies and services,” Robertson said.
The Kiosk portion of this plan, Robertson added is basically a pipeline between Brother and the reseller.
“The kiosk tool is designed to get the supply business in front of the customer so the reseller does not have to make the investment in updating the Web site all the time,” Robertson said.
The company has 12 inside sales reps for the channel to use on a daily basis.
“Today we are in the digital age and getting back to people or getting answers from a Web site FAQ (isn’t enough). The extra support is critical,” Robertson said.
This new program will be able to work with distributor incentive programs. “Distributors can add to the flavour of the program. The base structure is for marketing resources and other tools to drive business. But independent distributors can offer rebates and special extended terms to the program enabling resellers to differentiate themselves. We do not want to talk about price all the time. We want to talk about relationships,” Robertson said.
Robertson hopes this new program will increase reseller profitability. Currently, the margins off the product are between 10 to 12 points. Supplies are hovering around the 25 per cent mark, while warranties are upwards of 80 to 90 per cent.
“A large reseller who understands (the program) and is able to maintain it they can really fine tune the margins on services contracts,” he said.