What do you love/hate about your VAR?

This is gonna take a while…
It’s funny that you wrote about this today. I wrote a little thing about resellers which I scheduled to show up later this week. Don’t worry, it’s a good thing.
What do I hate about my VAR? Let me count the ways! Contrary to popular belief, I own and maintain my own commercial license of SW. So every year when I have to write that damned check and think of exactly how much help my VAR has provided, my blood boils.
I hate that my VAR employs at least one total technical loser. He failed the tech support test 3 times after he had been doing tech support for a year. This guy was hired when I was there and was a waste of space then. They keep him on tech support and fail to reward other people with talent and skills.
I hate that my VAR thinks becoming a salesman is a PROMOTION for an engineer!!
I hate that there is no one at my VAR that has even the faintest idea about surfacing for me to bounce ideas off of. On the other hand, I kind of like it because it means that they hire me to teach all of their plastics, surfacing, and mold classes.
I hate that my VAR doesn’t encourage AEs to dig deeper and select a specialty.
I hate that my VAR is totally driven by sales, and seems to have no work ethic related to the product.
I hate that my VAR is made up of a bunch of individually good people, but somehow winds up as an organization far less than the sum of the parts.
I hate that one of the owners of the company has admitted to resenting engineers. What a freaking business to be in if you resent engineers.
I hate it when people tell you they’ll get back to you and they don’t.
I hate it when you throw tech problems into the great black hole and you never hear from them again.
I hate that tech support people see their first duty to be goal keeper – keep any bugs reports from slipping past them.
I hate that the first thing a tech support guy is thinking is how to get off the phone.
I hate that my VAR sees tech support as overhead to be minimized rather than an opportunity to help a customer.
I hate that SW in general is so tight with information, especially about limitations of the software. It is important to know what it can’t do as well as what it can.
Sometimes my reseller is very helpful with user groups, and sometimes I just can’t figure out why there is no user group within an hour drive of their main office.
It wouldn’t matter so much, except that I know I only make money by providing value, and I can’t get by by faking it. When I write that check, I wish there were ANYTHING else legal that I could do with the money where it wouldn’t be completely wasted.

Hi Jeff-
I laugh everytime I visit my VAR and they’re all wearing long sleeved white dress shirts, sometimes with ties. They look like Used Car Salesman.
I grimace at the turn over rate of employees at my VAR.
I guffaw out loud when they always ask me if I’m ready to purchase another seat of SolidWorks. The silence is deafening right after I say no (for the 50th time).
Devon

OK, here’s what I like about my VAR:
They recommend me to Clients, muchos gracias!.
Their Technical Support is improving.
Devon

Our company has service contracts with both local VARs. We purchased seats from both. One is 100% SolidWorks focused, and the other one sells other CAD packages as well. The one that’s 100% SolidWorks focused is not 100% customer SATISFACTION focused as is the other VAR.
We just had a DriveWorks presentation from one VAR. I suggested getting the same sales pitch from the other VAR. I was thinking, since the other VAR is 100% SolidWorks focused, with no AutoCAD, Pro/E, Catia, etc., they’d be more able to respond to our issues that are bound to arise. The feeling around here is that they’re not sure they want to bother with a spiel from that other VAR because (and I quote), “we don’t know them very well.” What? You mean a VAR sold a product, and then said “you’re on your own”? They don’t stop by now & then, take you to lunch, etc. to see how things are, LIKE THE OTHER VAR that sells AutoCAD, etc.?
There are some other stories about this other VAR. The owner of the company offered a tech position, yes, actually teaching SolidWorks and being in tech support, to TWO, count ‘em, TWO people who had ZERO experience with either SolidWorks or engineering. He acted desperate to fill the position, then ignored e-mails about it.
I remember when I worked at another company that the tech support, although it was prompt, was, as Matt said, all about getting ME off the phone. When they e-mailed a response, it often was not clear, and I had to write back several times. Why not give a THOROUGH response right off the bat?
Come on, VAR’s, does it really take that much effort to go the extra mile? We users “sell” more SolidWorks than some VARs because we talk about it passionately. Where is the passion?
More. I have connections with user group leaders, and the CUSTOMER SATISFACTION oriented VAR responds immediately with offers to give presentations, host a meeting at their facility, etc. The 100% SolidWorks focused VAR’s never responds to the e-mails the first time. It’s like pulling teeth. They want to do as little as possible unless it nets a sale.
Hey, VAR, is this you? Then you may have caused $70,000 to pass through your fingers (the approx. cost of our customized DriveWorks system). Service is more important than cost! Hello? The most important thing (and this applies to relationships in general) is that it doesn’t matter how you INTENDED to be perceived. It’s how you are understood that matters. In other words, you might think you’re doing OK, but if others don’t FEEL that you care, that’s all that matters.
Sorry I can’t use my real name, to protect the “reputation” of the bad VAR. If you have a conscience and are passionate about your job, you’ll change, although a tainted reputation is hard to recover from. Here’s the advice from the wisest man who ever lived, King Solomon:
“A good name [reputation] is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold” (Proverbs 22:1).
Almost as long as Matt’s. Maybe a VAR employee should post here . . .

Have I used up my quota yet? I’ve got some more.
What I really hate is when an otherwise intelligent human being goes into sales, drinks the kool-aid, and thereafter finds it impossible to have a real conversation. Real conversations have pluses and minuses, ups and downs agreements and disagreements. I’ve seen people’s personalities change drastically when they went to work for a company or a reseller. Suddenly they are constantly defending the product or trying to restate every not so positive point as a sugar coated euphamism. Their eyes gloss over, they have been asimilated.
People, especially prospective customers, respect you more if you are not defensive about your services, prices or products. When I worked for resellers, I would just admit when something didn’t work. It drove the sales guy nutz, but we wound up selling a lot of software because of simple honesty. CAD salesmen are more distrusted than used car salesmen.
Another thing, you should respect your customer. Respect their intelligence. Don’t lie to them, don’t try to manipulate them, and don’t misrepresent facts or statistics. Help them make good decisions. Sometimes the best decision for them is to go with the other guy or to buy less than your super-deluxe package.
What [name withheld] above said about reputation is the truest thing that could be said. As a reseller, your reputation should be the most valuable thing you own, and is worth far more than a couple of easy sales.

I guess I have been very lucky, as I don’t have too much to complain about with my VAR…
The salesman does call me every few weeks or so, just checking up on things and following up with me on calls, but he’s never trying to push anything on me. I feel like he is a good friend, and we shoot the bull a little whenever he calls.
The few tech support calls I have had to make were followed up on very quickly, and all the tech support folks I’ve dealt with have been very friendly, understanding, and helpful. If they don’t know the answer (which is very infrequent), they have reacted very quickly to contact SolidWorks and come up with a solution.
I guess the best advice I can give you is be kind, courteous, and understanding when dealing with your customers. After all, they are the ones paying your salary!

How Do You Rate Your SolidWorks VAR?

A couple of the other SolidWorks bloggers have some posts on the topic of VAR’s. Jeff Mirisola (who has just taken a position as an Application Engineer (AE) with a VAR) is wondering, What do you love/hate about your VAR?,