5 Lockdown Principles Channel Partners Should Follow

Lockdown is continuing and may continue to do so for quite some time. By the time when you are reading this piece, many of you would have attended a handful of webinars, read pages and pages of advisory on the global impact our businesses are going through. The COVID-19 pandemic has shattered the business across all walks of life. Rather than only speaking about the issue and impossible business jargons, it is better to apply some practical, doable simple methods. I am proposing this not by just reading some books or reading some management gurus. As a channel partner for a few OEMs and an OEM selling my solutions through channel partners, I feel, the following 5-Cs in which every one of you face the hardship easily.

1. Cash Management - We need to take stock of our cash position during the lockdown. Cash in bank and account receivable in the markets. We need to re-look at expenditures that can be avoided during this situation so that we don't deplete our cash reserves. We should take all measures to collect all outstandings faster. Renegotiate our credit terms with our customers and vendors so that our cash reserves are better.

2. Customers - They being the important aspects of the business, it's very important you communicate about your readiness to support them during the lockdown. Give them confidence that you are always for them to achieve their business continuity. Reach out to a maximum of them personally if you can to check their status.

3. Credits - Bank and other financial institutions play an important role in our business so it is better to understand what programs there can support us in a cost-effective way during the lockdown. And if possible we enroll in those programs which can give us more confidence during this time.

4. Co-Workers - When I mean co-workers, I mean the employees, your suppliers, OEMs, distributors who make our organization an ecosystem. I would suggest being transparent with them about the situation and prevailing conditions in lockdown. We should give them some flexible work timings as they WFH these testing times. Try to enable colleagues with proper IT infrastructure in case they do not have.

5. Communication - We should start or increase our social media presence on platforms like LinkedIn. We should communicate constantly through the website's about the organizations' progress. Also, listen to other communication so that we can utilize those for our benefits.

Authored by: D Kabilan,   Founder Director,  CETAS Information Technology