It’s a fact: To make money, partners need vendors and vendors need partners. Sometimes, though, the two still struggle to make the most of the relationship on the financial side. Maximity founder and managing director Tracy Pound boils much of this down to the wrong mindset. Too often, vendors and partners alike act out of fear, especially when eyeing short-term financials. Pound, a consultant and training expert, will tackle this issue at the upcoming Channel Partners Virtual 2021 event.

On Thursday, March 4, Pound will lead the first keynote, “Financials Are Scary. Get Over It.” For one thing, she contends that vendors and partners need to understand what fear-based decisions look like and how avoid them. That way, when business leaders in both categories can spot how they’re sacrificing quality for cost, they can buck damaging trends. Channel Partners sat down with Pound to learn more about what she intends to discuss.

Channel Partners: What particular aspects of financials and fear will this keynote address dive into and why?

Tracy Pound: It’ll cover pricing strategies and their impact as well as the need for both vendors and their partners to be clear about what financials they are measuring (revenue, gross profit, net profit, average selling price, volume). It will look at why they are important, plus the consequences of not meeting expectations – whether the consequences are agreed or go unsaid. I will also cover the impact financial decisions have on customer experience and how that drives loyalty or disengages customers. Account managers and business leaders need to fully understand the impact their financial decisions have in the longer term and should not sacrifice this for short-term decisions only.

CP: When it comes to fear-based decisions and financials, what are you seeing vendors do that you’re going to talk about in the keynote?

TP: Think they can sell better than their partners, so they start to disregard partner value. Not have the financial discussion at all because it could be contentious, or they don’t have the knowledge to have the conversation. Drop prices, which undervalues their products – especially at quarter-end and year-end sales points.

CP: The same question, but geared to partners – what are they doing in terms of fear-based decisions and financials?

TP: Overprice on the basis that people need what they have, which creates animosity and disloyalty in the long term, or do the opposite and offer too much for free so they don’t cover all their costs. Listen and make decisions based on what they’re hearing from other people, rather than what they know about the performance in their business.