How to avoid vendors that want to sell software over helping you build customer relationships.
Payroll and HR solutions are natural extensions of selling business and IT services. You might not be a payroll or HR specialist, but all your clients rely on those disciplines to keep their organisational wheels greased. Many of them are interested in reliable software services that improve their payroll and HR experience.
Evaluate partners beyond technology
How do you meet such specific needs? The obvious answer is to partner with a reputable payroll/HR software vendor, reselling their services to your customers.
Doing so is easy, thanks to cloud-native platforms that can scale based on user numbers and desired features. The software vendor’s central platform control gives them massive oversight over security, storage, and performance improvements. At the same time, you can label their service with your branding or even your customers.
“The shift to cloud-native platforms has fundamentally improved payroll and HR software services,” says Shireen Barnett-Harris, Partner Manager at Deel Local Payroll and a veteran in the payroll and HR software market. “These platforms create interoperable environments where the vendor takes care of technical and critical system elements. They look after things like development, infrastructure, and features such as tax calculations or legislation updates, while the partner can focus on their customers’ experiences and requirements.”
But there is an important dynamic to this type of relationship, she adds:
“You aren’t selling a product. You’re providing an ongoing solution that supports your relationship with that customer. If the vendor doesn’t extend into that with what they provide, they’ll inevitably undermine you, even if it’s not intentional.”
7 questions for your payroll/HR software partner
When business service providers vet a software platform partner, they should look beyond the software’s features.
The best options leverage modern cloud technologies, platform economics, and expected features such as security and integration. But none of those aspects reveal if they are good partners. They say what a vendor does, but not what they will do for you.
To answer the latter, ask the following questions:
- Are they focused on enablement?
The right vendor partner doesn’t sell software. They sell everything around that software, including the aspects mentioned below. They shouldn’t just talk about features but also how they help you bring those features to your customers.
- Do they respect your relationship with your customers?
Some vendors have few qualms about poaching your customers, using you to access them. Reputable vendors know you are their customer, support you, and engage with your customers as if the vendor’s staff are part of your organisation.
- How good are their training services?
Good training resources will help both you and your customers reach the desired levels of control and confidence in the software. That training should cover different formats, from online self-training to webinars and workshops tailored to your requirements.
- Do you have a dedicated account manager?
Some vendors can leave partners orphaned with no reliable human contact when they have nuanced and specific issues to resolve or features they want to request. Good vendors dedicate people to partner accounts, no matter how big or small the partner is.
- Will they support you with co-marketing?
You are great at your job, and your customers love working with you. But you are not necessarily a payroll or HR expert, and you need support in selling the software’s deeper features or grasping technical customer problems. The vendor should step up, providing marketing support such as standing in for demos.
- Do they provide integration support with other software?
Very few companies start with a clean slate; most use other software products for areas such as time-keeping or accounting. The payroll/HR software vendor should be willing and able to integrate with other software types where technically workable.
- Are you learning about their new features?
Software platforms have the amazing capacity to innovate and add new features, from self-service portals and WhatsApp channels to artificial intelligence. Reliable vendors will keep you informed and might even invite you to test new features early.
The right partner goes the distance
There was a time when technology features were the most arcane part of selecting partner vendors. But as businesses digitise and cloud services make technology more scrutable, it’s much easier to spot whether software is actually worthwhile in terms of features and costs.
The actual difference is instead in how the vendor behaves, says Barnett-Harris.
“What do they bring to the table? How do they support you? Are they trying to sell licenses or support experiences? The difference will grow your business and your customer relationships. Ask the hard questions. If the vendor is worthwhile, they’ll find those easy to answer.”
