Life cycles are fun to study. You get to find out how something develops, matures, declines, and dies. But not all life cycles are like that, especially when it comes to the relationship between vendors and Value Added Resellers. The relationship between these two are like lovers in a long-term committed relationship. You can also consider it as a long-lasting liaison.

For every relationship to work, there should be adequate respect and commitment on both parties. But how does this life cycle start and develop? There are particular phases that you need to know about so you get to improve your relationship with your vendor or your VAR.

The Getting to Know Each Other Phase

Understanding each other’s business culture is very important for a business relationship to work, especially when it involves a great deal of trust and respect in each other’s part. Communication is the most important element during this phase so you can understand each other’s differences and reach an agreement so you can establish a healthy working relationship together. Proper collaboration and communication will definitely lead to a long lasting relationship.

The Give and Take Phase

This phase starts once you have settled on an agreement to work for each other and provide each other with the support needed. The vendor will provide training sessions and leads to encourage VAR growth while the VAR learns from the training session and grows to be able to provide the vendor with new businesses. During this phase, it is important to give and take as well as be lenient with each other’s shortcomings. Eventually, your vendor and value added reseller relationship would improve as you get to know each other better.

The Lifetime Partnership Phase

As the vendor and VAR relationship continues to improve through years of working together, you will have already developed a special type of rapport that other vendors and Value Added Resellers will fail to provide. During this phase, you have already developed a strong business partnership that is really difficult to break. You have been through various struggles and triumphs and it would be very difficult to break your relationship considering the phases you have gone through.

These phases teach you about how every vendor or Value Added Reseller should act and work to be able to improve their vendor-VAR relationship. Understanding each other flaws so you can complement them with your own strengths, providing each other with the things needed, and toughing out the trials are the elements that can make Value Added Resellers and Vendors formidable partners.