Having worked in Asia through the economic downturn in 1998, I know it can be tough. Back in those days, I worked for LANSA under the direction of Gordon Davies and was charged with supporting our partner network in Asia. In such times, everyone had to cut back because spending dropped. I learned some lessons about partnering.
First of all, in bad times, it's important to support partners all the more because they're faced with cut backs and their ability to service clients may drop. By stepping in to field questions and introduce ideas that are working elsewhere, it's possible to increase sales, quality of support and maintain education minimums.
Secondly, when the sky is falling morale is low. Maintaining a positive attitude is contagious that can spread to partners.
Also, traditional targets have to be taken with a grain of salt. Partners will already be trying to put on their best face to clients. There's little need to pressurize partners to meet numbers that are no longer tied to reality. Instead, meet with partners to formulate new targets based on what they see in their local market. This provides excellent market intelligence too. This can also help uncover if any partners are headed towards disaster. Let me tell you a story...
Before I arrived on the scene in Asia, one of LANSA's partners with 30 clients one day announced they were closing their doors. There had been no warning and no chance to prepare for us to minimize the damage to LANSA's local reputation and future support contracts. As result the market shunned LANSA. However, because LANSA was present during the 1998 economic downturn, we built a new reputation in this market and came out of the recession with doors opened again.
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