OEM Partnerships: How to Ensure Long-Term,
Mutual Success
We’re often approached by other manufacturers, distributors, and process equipment resellers about setting up a partnership. It’s just what happens when people recognize that your products, equipment, and engineered solutions have proven highly effective at solving common and uncommon problems across a wide range of industries all over the world for more than 50 years. In fact, that’s how we formed one of our longest running OEM partnerships.
Anatomy of Successful OEM Partnership
The owner of a packaging machinery manufacturer realized that his filling machines worked more effectively when our pneumatic vacuum conveying systems were installed upstream. With our conveyors assuring smooth, reliable material flow and consistent feeding, the entire filling and packaging line can operate at peak efficiency. By offering our vacuum conveyors as a reseller, this machinery manufacturer provides greater value to the end user customer, he enjoys confidence that the system will work as specified, and eliminates concern that the customer may install an inappropriate or less effective conveying solution that would cause the entire project to fail to meet expectations. All three parties involved in this partnership, Volkmann, the packaging machinery manufacturer, and his customer, benefit from this collaborative arrangement.
Practical Tips for Partnership Success
Sometimes, what seems like a promising partnership at first can often turn into an expensive hassle that never delivers the expected return. In the worst cases, the partner may even damage your existing customer relationships and tarnish an otherwise strong brand. Since we’ve carefully devised, reviewed, and entered into a variety of partnership agreements with OEMs, suppliers, and even with competitors – and worked hard to ensure their success – we’re in a credible position to offer these recommendations for a successful partnership:
- It’s vital to establish clearly defined roles, responsibilities, and expectations at the outset. Which company’s sales team is to handle the sales leads? How is the shared trade show booth to be funded? Who’s to stock spare parts and provide service after the sale? The potential for conflict to arise down the road from any number of issues can be quite high, so it’s important to address the ones that can be predicted early since others will likely arise later that cannot be predicted as easily. We’ve found that establishing a clear chain of command with a single project lead for any given sales inquiry streamlines the process and helps prevent anything from slipping through the cracks. This project lead handles customer communication as a one-stop shop throughout the process, and is responsible for involving the partner’s team as needed. With this approach, the customer doesn’t receive emails from different people at different companies conveying conflicting information, or confidential internal information that does not help advance the sale. Confusion causes delays, makes both partners look bad, and creates apprehension about moving the project forward.
- Promote collaboration but avoid excess meetings. It’s tempting to schedule regular meetings in the interest of communication and relationship building, but everyone is busy and even squeezing in a Teams or Zoom call around different schedules and time zones can hinder productivity. And if there isn’t an urgent issue to be resolved, then it may be better to skip the meeting – many of the invitees probably would, anyway. We’ve found the process that works smoothly for everyone is scheduling meetings when a project requires a meeting. When a prospect calls about a custom project, for example, the sales and engineering teams at both partner companies need to verify they’re all in agreement on the proper solution and timing for delivery. This allows the project lead to respond with accurate information on the first contact and fosters a sense of shared responsibility and teamwork among everyone involved. In some cases, such as for highly complex engineering projects, a joint visit bringing teams from both or from multiple partner companies (and parenet companies) on-site to tour the facility is valuable in verifying the proper solution and identifying any atypical challenges. It also demonstrates the collaboration is more than just two big corporations but is, in fact, a true team of experts dedicated to the success of the customer. Reconvening for installation and commissioning can feel like a celebration for everyone.
3. Put everything in writing in the partnership agreement. It’s romantic to recall the days when the founder of every family-owned company entered into partnerships on a handshake and everything turned out just fine. Volkmann is a family-owned company and we operate today on the same principles of trust and mutual respect that we’ve been honoring since the beginning. But we’ve learned over the years to put everything in writing up front. Broadly, this means defining the scope of work for each party, such as who is to handle marketing, lead generation, and sales, and who is to handle design, manufacturing, stocking, inventory management, installation, training, and any technical support. Which company has the IT expertise to seamlessly integrate the automated conveying system into an existing line? Specifics such as how quickly the sales team must respond to lead inquiries or how quickly the service team must respond to calls for parts or troubleshooting need to be addressed, agreed upon, and added to the contract. What happens if the manufacturing partner fails to meet required lead times on deliveries? Or if the sales partner fails to sell enough to meet anticipated goals? All parties need to consider reasonable terms for exit or dissolution without incentivizing the exit or dissolution at the expense of long-term harmony and success.
As Volkmann continues to ascend as a name brand known for high quality bulk material handling equipment, German engineering, and advanced technical services, most partners and resellers are eager to highlight the Volkmann name on our pneumatic vacuum conveying equipment as a selling point. In additive manufacturing, for example, renowned 3D printer manufacturer EOS features our automated metal powder conveying systems as the recommended approach for its EOS M 400 series metal additive manufacturing (AM) systems. As the partnership with EOS has grown, we’ve developed new powder handling equipment designed specifically for EOS printing systems. In other cases, we provide non-branded, white label equipment as part of the agreement and protect confidentiality vigorously. After all, the secret is Volkmann.
Does it make sense for you to consider partnering with Volkmann? Contact us here.