Mitel Wants Single-Vendor VARs - Executive Partnering
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As part of the operational review, Mitel provides executive partnering, where
an executive is assigned to spend several days with a partner to understand the
company’s entire sales and operations processes. This was expanded when
Inter-tel and Mitel merged and now covers areas such as recruiting and training
personnel, accounting procedures, inventory management, and customer support,
he said.
Partners have really embraced this aspect of Mitel's EBP program, Chapman
said. "What happens in the long run is VARs create a special
relationship with the executives who have come out to their site. The
executives become like a mentor," he said.
Some of the other EBP benefits include access to Mitel's marketing and sales
initiatives, Chapman said. Mitel uses its large call center to offer
telemarketing-based lead generation for its partners, he said. The
company runs the "telemarketing blitz" campaigns for one week on
behalf of partners, and at the end of the month delivers customer leads to the
partners.
McKersie said he became a Mitel EBP after feeling there was a lack of
assistance from other vendors. "Mitel has been giving me the support I
need so I can more easily support my customers. I lost that with
Avaya," he said. "If a vendor stops the support, it makes it
difficult to support end users when they have a problem." With
approximately 3,500 customers, McKersie said the support and the communication
with Mitel is critical to his business.
Partnering with Mitel also will help him grow his business in 2008, said
McKersie. "It wouldn't be a stretch to say I could increase business
by 20 percent this year when I get ramped up on the new products," he said.
Even in the slowing economy, he believes there's opportunities created by the
Mitel and Inter-tel merger. "There are people buying, and Mitel is
going to help me get to the customers with its sales support and new
products," he said.
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