Interview: Quicken New Zealand's Kerry Wood

Talk to Kerry Wood, Managing Director of Quicken New Zealand, and it's easy to see he's passionate about what he does.

"We've got a great product range with fantastic margins," said Wood "and we want our partners to succeed, so we work hard making sure we offer our partners the best support in the industry.

In the seven years that Wood has been at the helm, Quicken has increased their client base from 2,800 to over 45,000 clients from all over New Zealand, Rarotonga, Tonga, Fiji and Samoa.

"We know our product and we know our partners," said Wood, "so when a client calls, we can find out what they need, and send qualified leads to our partners. We have a 97% success rate getting an Accredited Consultant in front of a client," he said.

"Quicken is committed to having very transparent business practices. Each partner has an Account Manager who knows their business, and will move quickly to respond to any queries," he said.

"We have strict service timelines in place to make sure our partners are getting what they need. I visit our partners on a regular basis, so I can see how they're doing, and they know they can pick up the phone anytime and call me," said Wood.

Quicken New Zealand has a three-tier Partner Program designed to maximise their partners' businesses:

Tier 1 – is the standard Reseller Channel model. This is designed for Small IT firms and businesses with a simple retail structure, wanting to move the Quicken range quickly and make great margins in the process.

Tier 2 – is the Professional Service Group (PSG), who pay a $400 fee to have access to Quicken Software (to the value of $4,000), are given free technical support, attend free business development courses and receive marketing and advertising support.

Tier 3 – belongs to the Accredited Consultants (ACs). Each Accredited Consultant is initially interviewed and, if successful, completes comprehensive Quicken training before going on to prepare their own business plan, assisted by the Quicken if required. Once qualified, Accredited Consultants have business driven to them by Quicken through a referral process – to the point where some Accredited Consultants are already operating at full capacity, and others are frantically hiring new staff to keep up with enquiries.

Accredited Consultants also receive marketing and advertising support, including the opportunity for agreed co-op marketing! Quicken has even provided a partner with staff for a Trade Show stand. A Quicken AC invests $699 for membership and receives all the other product and support benefits that the PSGs enjoy.

Quicken also has an annual three day conference for their Accredited Consultants to learn more and network with other ACs.

"We work hard, and play hard," said Wood "and Quicken recognises top performers."

This year's conference in Nelson saw an influx of people in "Quicken Red" hit the town… and cheer Verna Woods' second consecutive "Consultant of the Year" win.

Not only does Quicken keep sending through customers on a daily basis to their partners, they also regularly survey their partners to ensure they're on track with their service performance, and look for ways to continually improve on how Quicken delivers.

In a recent survey of Accredited Consultants 94% were extremely satisfied with their partnership with Quicken.Quicken New Zealand's range covers user-friendly business software, which integrates easily with a Microsoft environment, payroll, and customer management, security and back-up solutions. It offers technical training and support as well as ongoing data updates.

"Our partners don't need to cut their margins on our products," said Wood "because there is plenty of business coming their way – from personal users to enterprise-size companies. We want to help their customers have a great experience with their Quicken products.