It is always sobering to find out how your partners really feel you manage them.  So, to get some feel for the real issues in account management, we polled the top managers of five large IT distributors.  Here we report on their comments and outline the main account management questions and issues which suppliers should be addressing.

Interestingly, all the distributors said there were marked differences in how vendors treated them.  There was also a broad consensus about how specific companies behaved. Some have appalling reputations for ineptitude.  Others are judged moderately competent!

Distributors used emotional terms like "friend, slave or customer" to describe their relationship with different vendors.  How you manage your major accounts will determine your corporate identity and reputation in the channel.

Just listen to Fabian von Kuenheim, head of Magirus, a large Pan-European workstation distributor:  "One of three vendors, company A, sees me as a customer, the other as an outsourced fulfilment service and the third as a slave."

"The one who treats me like a slave throws my business plan in the bin."

"The one who treats me like a slave throws my business plan in the bin. It simply slices up its European target, divides it into countries and then allocates an arbitrary figure to me.  If I don't hit my target, they get on the phone and ask: "Why don't you buy more?"  This company is not interested in my ideas.  Anything we suggest is ignored or we are told to put it into next year's business plan."

Many suppliers still struggle to see why they should bother with any meaningful relationship which goes beyond the quarterly sales plan. Yet this reaction from Von Kuenheim clearly shows the problem with a "wham bam, thank you ma'm" approach to account management.   Magirus is an innovative distributor.  Yet Von Kuenheim knows that there is no point in trying to work with a supplier like this to grow its marketshare. 

He contrasted that with two other companies. The first simply saw him as a customer.  As such, it took the view that as customer he was always right.  It therefore tended to respond fast to new ideas.  But the lack of involvement meant that it missed some opportunities.

A second company saw him as an outsourced fulfilment function.  It was terribly interested in all Magirus's internal procedures and worked with von Kuenheim to reduce costs and maximise opportunities.

"In three and a half years all the channel managers and all the presidents for Europe in all my top 20 vendors have changed at least once."

This shows how and why suppliers need to look beyond sales.  What should suppliers be measuring in account management relationships?  In many cases companies need to put a value on the quality of the relationship, the ability to reach new markets, cost of sale or how far the partner is promoting his brand.  One thing is certain. If you reward your account managers purely for hitting quarterly sales targets they will behave accordingly.