Sit back and enjoy your fruits of labor

In the first week of April, I got a call from a close friend who
works in a senior position at Ingram Micro, India's and world's largest
distributor. He was in Gurgaon and just wanted to drop in for a cup of coffee.
As we met within the next 20 minutes, I saw an unmistakable glee on his face and
he was in a very jovial mood, something he is not very often. When I asked him
the reason, he without batting an eyelid waxed eloquent about over achieving all
sales targets. He was so happy that he had already planned out a short holiday
with his doctor wife and daughter in April itself.

That set me thinking, as my impression was that the sales were
fine but nothing great. So, I called a couple of channel partners in Nehru Place
and all of them supported my friend's view. All talked about the madness,
which prevailed in March. So much so that some of them refused business as they
had no stocks to give.

Asim Raina Editor

So, one more financial year has come to an end and by all
accounts it was stupendous in terms of the business done by the industry.
Despite issues related to VAT earlier in the beginning of the financial year and
confusion after the last budget, the year ended with a bang as the month of
March clocked in record sales.

Now, what should be the next course of action for the channel
partners? Should they continue the momentum in April and sub sequently the AMJ
quarter or should they take it easy for a while? While conventional wisdom says
that when the iron is hot you should hammer it hard. However, my wisdom says
that the iron is unlikely to get cold in hurry. Rather, it will remain hot for
the whole financial year without doubt.

So, instead of going after business, it would be far better if
channel partners put their feet up and relax for a while. As the summer has
started and days have become hot, they should enjoy the fruits of the hard labor
by spending some time with their families and taking a vacation with their near
and dear ones.

The channel community is notorious for working very late hours
and as a result they tend to reach home quite late in the night. And very often
they also have to attend the various events organized by different vendors,
which would easily amount to at least three in a week. Then all the incentive
trips to various exotic locales where again they tend to go alone.

It's only fair that they at least take it easy may be for the
next couple of weeks and just chill out. Business can and will wait for them. I
am sure they will not regret this decision.