CHALLENGES OF DUAL DISTRIBUTION AND HOW TO OVERCOME THEM: HIGHER SUPPORT AND ADMINISTRATION COSTS

Two distributors mean potentially overlapping efforts in support and channel management. The vendor might need to provide duplicitous training, onboarding, and account management resources – essentially maintaining two parallel relationships. There can be increased labor costs to cover the broader channel, since you may need separate distributor managers or engineers working with each partner. Additionally, if both distributors are selling to the same customers, you might end up duplicating customer support or technical assistance.

Mitigation: To keep costs in check, look for economies of scale and specialization between the distributors. One strategy is to centralize training and certification for both distributors’ teams together – run joint enablement sessions so you don’t expend effort twice. You can also provide an online portal where training materials and support knowledge bases are shared by all partners, reducing the need to answer the same support questions separately for each distributor. On the vendor side, ensure your channel account managers handle both distributors (if feasible) so that one team has visibility into both channels, rather than siloed teams that never talk. This can cut down overhead and foster a “one team” mentality even with two partners. Finally, set clear expectations with the distributors on how to escalate issues: perhaps whichever distributor brings the deal takes Tier-1 support, and only escalates to the vendor or the other distributor for specialized help. With thoughtful planning, the incremental cost of a second distributor can be kept modest, especially relative to the additional revenue generated.