Q: How does Coraid work with their channel?
A: Coraid has a completely channel centric business and transacts 100% of our business through our partners. The channel is our eyes and ears to the customer, our primary mechanism for delivering services and a key constituent in providing feedback about our products, pricing and policies.
Q: Why does Coraid have such a strong channel focus?
A: The IT market has changed dramatically in the last ten years in many ways, but one of the most fundamental ways is the role that the channel plays in the value chain. Today, vendors are rarely able to cultivate strong and lasting relationships with their customers with the exception of the largest manufacturers who can dedicate entire sales teams to their largest customers. Channel partners, on the other hand, truly own the customer relationships over the long term. A strong channel partner can deliver value over many years across many IT functions and as a result they truly understand and empathize with the customer. We recognize this trend and understand the logic and efficiency of developing a sales model that is consistent with the market we operate in today. We will staff and manage our own Coraid sales team, but their primary function is to recruit, enable and assist our business partners.
Q: What does Coraid look for in a channel partner?
Quality Over Quantity: we will be focused on developing a manageable set of high quality partners – we will be selective based on fit and commitment.
Technical Expertise: we are looking for partners that have hands-on domain expertise in storage and virtualization.
Mutual Investment, Mutual Rewards: partners will need to invest in our program, in our equipment and our training, and we will invest in them with sales support, marketing support and leads.
Q: What kind of margins should partners expect to make in the Coraid program?
A: Selling Coraid EtherDrive technology will represent a compelling financial proposition to the reseller community. Partners in the highest level of our program can expect to receive margin levels in accordance with other top technology Partner Programs on hardware and will have the opportunity to register deals to protect their margin.
Q: Does Coraid offer Professional Services? What about Partners, can they offer services to Coraid customers?
A: Professional services isn’t core to our business and we won’t be making large investments in developing this capability. We look to our business partners to offer these services and will encourage them to do so. We do believe that in order to train our partners to effectively deliver services, we need experience doing it ourselves, and for that reason, we may deliver services to end customers from time to time
Q: What kind of financial investment will I need to make to become a reseller?
A: Entry in our Partner Program will require a one-time fee to cover the purchase of one of our SRX units. Partners will be required to train at least one member of their staff to be a technical expert in Coraid technology by completing our training program. Additionally, it’s our expectation that partners will make further investments in sales training, marketing collateral and events and additional demo units as justified by their continued success in our program.
Q: How do I get started selling Coraid?
A: Once you sign our agreement, you should make sure you received your SRX demo unit and coordinate your technical training with your Corporate Sales Representative (CSR). Once you are trained, you can work with your CSR to coordinate joint selling to your installed based or discuss a joint marketing and joint prospecting plan.
Good luck and good selling!
Partner Central
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