Technology and business: a new model of cooperation with Zyxel in Russia
Working as a sales representative only to inexperienced people is seen as a simple “buy-sell” scheme. True professionals, first of all, are characterized by a balanced approach and analysis of the situation.
Whoever you are: an experienced pro or a novice entrepreneur, the desire to get more information about anything is an important step on the road to success in any business. Getting more information about the area in which you plan to do business is extremely important and useful. Therefore, Zyxel has prepared an information block for future partners: legal entities and individuals planning to become Zyxel dealers. Of course, this information may be useful for already existing partners in order to clarify a number of issues, if they have any.
For more convenience, the information is framed in the popular Question-Answer format.
Partnership with Zyxel - Questions and Answers
1. What set of parameters should a future partner have to become a Zyxel dealer (turnover, number of staff, and so on)?
You must be willing to start or continue to sell telecommunications equipment. No other requirements.
2. How is the process of concluding partnership agreements? What steps need to be taken to become a Zyxel dealer? For example, sign documents, provide references or something else?
To do this, just register on the portal partner.zyxel.eu . Registration is possible in Russian, but we ask you to specify the name of your company in English, because registered companies fall into the Zyxel common base.
After filling out the form on the site, the responsible Zyxel manager contacts the partner. He talks about the details of working together and helps the partner with all questions.
Contacts of all managers are available after authorization on the partner portal.
3. Do partners have status (silver, gold, platinum)? .. As usual, 2-4 levels depending on the turnover and the number of certified specialists?
At the moment there are three levels:
- Authorized Partner
- Silver Partner (Silver)
- "Golden Partner" (Gold)
Requirements for each level are listed in table 1.
Table 1. Requirements for the level of partners.
Table 2 lists the benefits for each of the Zyxel levels.
Table 2. Advantages of partners.
For more information, it is recommended to contact a special section of the Zyxel site.
4. Are there courses, examinations for technical specialists and PreSale, and what advantage does the presence of such specialists in the company give? Or does it all depend on turnover?
Zyxel has a special training program - Zyxel Certified Network Engineer ZCNE. The program and location of the partners reported in advance in the monthly newsletter. Sign up for training here .
In addition to the advantages in the form of well-trained professionals, the required level of qualification of engineers is necessary to maintain the appropriate status: "Silver Partner", "Golden Partner". (See the answer to question 2, as well as the materials on the link ).
5. What is the registration procedure for training specialists in the framework of ZCNE, what procedural steps for this must pass an entrepreneur? In short - how to apply, and so on.
To be trained as a Zyxel partner, you must first register on the partner.zyxel.eu portal. Sign up directly for training should be here .
6. Do dealers receive discounts, vouchers to train their specialists? For example, if you have sold several sets of a complex product, you will receive a training voucher for the relevant specialist.
Partners pay ZCNE tuition in an amount equivalent to 200 euros. This amount is returned to the partner Zyxel as a discount in the first project.
7. Are there any differences in specialist certification programs?
There are three training programs in the world:
- Zyxel Certified Network Professional ZCNP is the youngest level. In Russia and the CIS countries, training on it is not conducted.
- Zyxel Certified Network Engineer ZCNE - a higher level. As part of this program, training courses are regularly held in Russia at the Zyxel training center.
There is one more direction:
- Zyxel Certified Network Trainer ZCNT is a special training program for teachers of training courses who must not only have a good understanding of the network technologies and equipment of Zyxel, but also be able to convey this knowledge to students (course participants).
8. How often are training courses conducted?
Zyxel clearly conducts courses every month. At the same time, training courses are formed in different cities and countries according to incoming requests from partners, subject to the recruitment of at least 5 people.
9. In what format is the training?
Training is organized on the principle of a combination of theory and practice. There is a lecture part, which is fixed by laboratory work. Unlike some well-known vendors, laboratory work takes place on real network devices from Zyxel, and not on abstract emulators. Course participants have the opportunity to get to know and work with the equipment that they will probably have to configure and maintain in real life.
Additionally, it is worth noting that the learning process itself is very densely saturated with new information, and some dedication is required from students. Just "attend" will not work. It is recommended to come to the training center after a good sleep в, in a good mood and ready for productive work (study).
10. Where are the training courses held?
In the training center Zyxel at Moscow, st. Trubnaya 12 or in training centers rented or provided by our partners in other cities and countries. In 2018, Zyxel has already held two ZCNE outside the Russian Federation, in the CIS countries.
11. What is the margin (profit), and how does it depend on the turnover and partner status?
Marginality strongly depends on the type of product and its sales channel:
- The product is sold actively in online stores, is in the Zyxel classification of the rankings (with more or less stable regular sales) or retail. Here, marginality, unfortunately, is low, determined by the competition and the focus of buyers mainly on the price of the device. Usually, the partner's profit on early commodities is within 10%, but can be increased by special programs (rebates) on the part of Zyxel, which are considered individually.
- The product is sold mainly within the framework of integration projects, it requires active work of the system integrator in promoting and selling to the end customer. For such projects of the amount of $ 3000, Zyxel provides protection for the profit of the partner and gives an exclusive discount from 10% to 50% depending on the type of equipment, on the size of the project, on competition in the project and on customer’s features. This discount significantly increases the profit of the partner - system integrator.
12. Another important question is the protection of the project (that is, the partner must get a better price for his project). Will there be a consolidation for one partner of this customer and according to what principle: by project, by time or geographical factor?
Zyxel protects only the partner who from the very beginning of the formation of demand from the consumer helped him to choose a solution from Zyxel. Communication with the Zyxel office at the earliest stage allows you to register a project for a specific system integrator and protect its profits with an exclusive discount.
13. When it is necessary to inform Zyxel and how to prove that a given customer works with this dealer, because several partners usually claim one tender. By the time of application or something else?
If the dealer comes at the last moment, at the time of the publication of the competition, then Zyxel most likely will not be able to support such a dealer with a discount. Work with customers begins long before the publication of a particular tender. And it begins with the registration at the partner.zyxel.eu partner portal , with the training of its technical specialists.
Zyxel has prices formed on the basis of the market situation, based on the positioning of the Zyxel as a brand and its products on the market, taking into account its functionality, service, and reliability. The sale must be carried out at a formed market price. Of course, while Zyxel, like any commercial organization, has a profit, which is spent, among other things, on the development of new products.
If there is a partner in the transaction who helps Zyxel in promoting products and solutions, then Zyxel, as a manufacturer, gives part of his profit to such a partner, that is, gives a so-called project discount. To give part of his profit to a partner whose work is solely to file tender documentation , it is impractical and even harmful, because this practice demotivates system integrators to help the manufacturer, train engineers, conduct marketing work with Zyxel. We try to work together with loyal professional partners and support them, including at the expense of our own profits.
14. Does Zyxel want to build its business in the framework of corporate or retail sales? Is it possible to combine?
Now Zyxel focuses on corporate customers, and corporate solutions for small and medium enterprises, branches of government and commercial structures, retail and other networks, and educational institutions. We can definitely say that in 2018 we are mainly interested in meeting the requirements for communication equipment for B2B clients.
15. If 2 partners came for one project and offered a supply of more than $ 3000, but one was simply authorized, and the second one was Silver or even Gold, would they initially receive different input prices or the same? And how much will the conditions differ if this is the case?
Both partners in this scheme will not receive any discount, except for the situation when we, as a representative office, know that one of them helped in promoting the decision on this project. And it doesn't matter to us, it was “Golden”, “Silver” or just an authorized partner.
Another thing is that usually partners with higher status have greater competence, often communicate with the representative office, its commercial and technical staff, have engineers trained and certified by ZCNE on the staff. Therefore, the probability that the project was prepared by the "Silver Partner" or the "Golden Partner" is hypothetically higher. Partners with higher status do not have special privileges in that particular case, in a particular transaction, where both partners came at the same time, for example, at the time of the publication of the open on-line open competition.
16. If a partner works on “simplified payment” (a simplified form of taxation) or individual entrepreneur, that is, sells without VAT, does he have the opportunity to buy without VAT?
Since Zyxel does not conduct direct commercial activities in the Russian Federation and neighboring countries, this issue should be addressed to our distributors. Currently in Russia these are companies:
- Merlion;
- OCS;
- Tayle;
- Treolan.
In Ukraine, the distributor of Zyxel is MTI.
In Asian countries - Infinecom;
In Belarus, the distributor of Zyxel is Datastream. All our distributors are listed on the partner.zyxel.eu partner portal.
Conclusion
Becoming a Zyxel dealer is not easy, but very simple. As always, the future partner needs first of all the desire to promote the vendor’s products as efficiently as possible, to work on their professional and economic level.
There are no other special requirements regarding the availability of ownership, time spent on the market, receiving recommendations. Improving customer satisfaction, as well as developing a trading network and establishing good relations with partners: dealers and integrators have always been and remain the main priority of the company Zyxel.