General Consultant Discussion

Anyone received a call from Sage Sales regarding signing up for a new ""initiative"" that would have Sage selling eight products directly into your existing customer base after conducting a ""business requirements analysis""? I received a call from Marc Piva today on this. Products include CRM, Fixed Assets, Sage Intelligence, Inventory Advisor, Mobility, ABRA. On some products, reseller gets 20%, on others 10%. Sage does all the training/implementation. Sounds like the end of the channel to me.

Interesting, as it is happening without my signing up for anything. Client called today to say Sage called trying to sell them CRM, F/A, etc. Her comment to them was 'if you could please fix my portal password, I am good'. What Sage seems to always be missing is that if this client needed F/A or CRM, we would have already discussed it. The result of the call ended up being one more reason for my client to be annoyed by Sage. I had to apologize.

This is an ongoing cross-sell program. They've segmented the partners and there is a segment where Sage goes direct to the customer. I don't know what their criteria is.

At the partner meeting before the Atlanta Customer Symposium, they talked about how the lower end of the channel (I think ones with less than 50 customers, though I may be off on the exact number) had much lower maintenance retention. Probably the same criteria used to segment the VARs for selling direct. And I did try to point out that isn't it an amazing coincidence that the VARs who make no money on maintenance renewals seem to have the lowest retention rate...

Just matter of time before the larger VAR's start getting some assistance.

Sage has specifically addressed this with me that it does not apply due to our number of clients (over 50). We do have a separate partner growth manager that I talk to periodically to formalize our own defined initiatives. They are tracking those initiatives closely, however. I'm playing the game, so don't expect any direct contacts at this point. I don't know how anyone else in this group feels, but I'd like to see the group (90 Minds/Oasis) become more of a force and have an agreement that would possibly shield our members from the direct contact.

@JohnHoyt I think it would be very difficult for 90 Minds to shield all members as Sage is likely looking at the statistics vs any type of promise that we'd market to customers. The train is rolling and I don't think they're going to stop and re-group. It's possible however that a good offense is the best defense. The group could proactively schedule webinars and offer invites to members. I find that generally Sage does a fair to poor job of marketing these products. In this case members may find that Sage creates some curiosity in the customer and the member can then come in and perhaps make the sale. The highest value add that 90 Minds can provide (my opinion): a. Marketing b. Experience (assuming that at least some of us have worked with the add-ons) It's hard to know for how long this push to cross sell will continue. If the past is any guide (and it usually is) then there will be a slow down after the low hanging fruit is picked (about 6 months) and a gradual full stop about 12-18 months into the effort.

@WayneSchulz I agree with your assessment, and you know more about of what can be practically accomplished through this group. As I mentioned to @MoiraGoggin, unlike the average small business partner, most members of this group are regularly in touch with their customers, so the first call after Sage contacts them is to the reseller.