Panasonic Channel Chief Dominick Passanante Drives Continued Commitment to the Channel
Over the past year, Panasonic has challenged itself to push its commitment to reseller partners even further, instituting several innovations to the channel partner program – and this push has not gone unnoticed. Recently, Panasonic received Vendor of the Year as part of the Channelnomics Innovation Awards (CIA), recognizing our partner program and the footprintwe’ve made in the mobility market. The revamped program now offers enhanced benefits to its Prime resellers, which are partners in the program’s top three tiers, who elect to exclusively market and sell Panasonic rugged computers and tablets. At the forefront of the channel charge is our own Dominick Passanante, senior director of channel and public sector sales, who was recently named to the list of CRN Channel Chiefs as a leader who drives the channel agenda and understands the evolving needs of our channel ecosystem.
Better Together: Panasonic’s Prime Partner Program
Because Toughbook devices are sold solely through the channel, Panasonic has an especially strong commitment to the success of our resellers. Dominick and his team recognize that collaboration with our channel partners is necessary to ensure that Panasonic continues to offer the best rugged mobility solutions in the market. This is the inspiration behind the Prime Partner program, which was enhanced to offer fixed quarterly rebates based on partner sales, and a year-end rebate that awards a certain growth percentage within the fiscal year. Recognizing that our partners can’t go it alone, Panasonic made a significant internal investment in its channel account management team to ensure that resellers would receive stronger support in sales enablement and business development. Also, to further support the alignment of partners and Panasonic sales representatives with training and dialogue, Panasonic conducts monthly partner webinars and an annual partner summit to help ensure success.
The Value of Reseller Feedback
“As we continue to develop our innovative channel strategy, there is one market force that drives us forward: responsiveness,” says Dominick. “Our reseller partners are an extension of the Toughbook family, and we’re dedicated to providing the resources they need for success.” To achieve this, the channel team conducts semi-annual business reviews and planning sessions with their reseller partners, and is proactive when handling reseller feedback to help keep the program competitive. “This team understands better than anyone that the success of the Panasonic partner community is so closely tied to our own as an organization.”
Creating Solutions Together
Delivering premiere solutions to customers requires understanding their industry and business needs. This is not possible without strategically aligning with reseller partners to determine that Panasonic targets the right organizations, and educating partners with the tools needed to improve the lives of their customers. This year, the channel team focused resources to grow the enterprise and public safety market segments. For instance, Panasonic provided services to public safety resellers that helps them assist customers with grant writing. This allows the customer to leverage our technology to perform better and more efficiently at their jobs, and impact the communities they serve.
Thank you to Dominick and the team for driving the success of our resellers to build a mutually beneficial channel partnership.
To learn more about the initiatives of our channel team and partner program, visit us online.
