Social Media for alliance and partner management

Evolution of alliance and partner networks [email_address]

Approximately 30% of the one Billion Internet users are part of a social network
Social Technology Phenomenon

Social media is the fastest growing technology ever

It grew with zero advertising – zero sales zero cold calls
In 5 years to 250+ Million users

How can it help - YOU - TODAY?

How do most companies sell today
H I S T O R Y
Buy contact lists
Do mail shots
From small Google ads to bill boards
Follow up with cold calls
Engage call centers
Identify “readiness to buy”
Qualify the yield
Call and try to get an appointment
Start a sales process
Hope for the best

How do YOU buy today
You ignore advertising
You hate cold calls
You through the junk mail in the waste basket
You have spam filters
You have popup stopper
You first check the Internet for meaningful comments
You check forums and get interesting opinions
You read blogs
You discuss with peers or experts
You explore with friends or colleagues
When you are “ready to buy” the decision is pretty much set in stone

Buying and sales cycle disconnect
You and your prospects are worlds apart
The purchase decision is made - you didn’t even begin your sales cycle
The needs analysis and identification process happened in a social network you are not even aware of
RESULT
The lead qualities of all sources are worst than ever
Business is extremely tough
Sales results suck

… I changed – you didn’t …

We need alternatives
Growing market share through your community
87%(*) of purchase decisions are based on recommendations
Wouldn’t it be nice to get your prospects connected with your customers to develop trust early on?
Accelerate the conversation amongst customers, prospects, their peer groups
90%+ of purchased decisions are based on choice: “Select, Compare, Decide model” let customers talk about it.
Become a market leader
Market leadership is determined by your community
Make your customers to advocates, your channels to your alliances and your suppliers to partners
* Jupiter Research

How can it help YOU – TODAY?
Yahoo alone has several thousand groups organized around brands such as 3Com, Cisco, Mitel, Nortel, Polycom, Siemens…
“ Hi, We have an urgent requirement for Telecom Analyst. Location: Waukegan, IL. Duration: …”
“ We plan to moving to an all VoIP infrastructure, 800 stations, any inputs…”
Here is what you can do:

Build your own community
Provide a space for your customers to communicate not only with you but amongst each other
Bring prospects into that community
Have your business partner help boost the community
Bring your product and service teams into the community
Provide Forums and Q+A functionality for your community
Make this community your social business network
Collaborate and share opportunities with selected members of your network
Strengthen the relationship with all constituencies of your ecosystem

Social media in business – a few cases
Social media initiatives in retail
Social media initiatives for VARs
Social media initiatives for consultants
Social media for government business

The core philosophy
This is NOT your fathers business networking method: Networking to get a new contact through one connection you have to get to a new prospect. What a slow and painful process, no leverage, vague success.
This is all about highly effective LEVERAGE
Your business ecosystem of customers, prospects and partners together are far more powerful than any individual relation to an individual person.
Make your customers talk to prospects
Make your partners missionaries of your vision
Let your alliances speak for you
Let your suppliers help you

The Socially Engaged Channel The day you thought you can get rid of all your dealers – you realized they are more important than ever… unknown author ~1800 A.D.

Renew the leverage
Microsoft has 780,000 partners  10 Million sales people = the largest sales force in the world
Cisco has 100,000 partners  More networking engineers than all competitors together
Symantec has become the 4 th largest software manufacturer with 65$ products through a channel only strategy – Over 100,000 resellers + every available retailer
Dell has launched a community system making over 1 Million customers to their advocates. But Dell remains to be the ONLY PC manufacturer selling exclusively direct
The rest fights with friction and channel conflicts that cost profits and market share.

The socially networked channel
Empower your partners to engage with your ecosystem.
Leverage your partners to fuel the conversation, the experience, the recommendations
No partner can provide ALL services – therefore help build peer-to-peer networks
When you believe in the power of word of mouth – provide the words but consider your partners be the mouth. Facebook took only 5 years to win 60 Million customers – yes it’s free but it was ONLY word of mouth.
Empower your partners to build their own integrated customer communities or somebody else will take those customers

A network of equal nodes Partners Producer Channel Partner Partners . . . . . Customers Other Vendors True Peers to Peer Networking

Facilitate the conversation Customer Customer Partner Customer Customer Partner Partner Partner Partner Partner Alliance Alliance

A recent IDC report stated: “As firms mature in their approach to managing ecosystems, network thinking is becoming more prevalent and alliance executives will need a revised toolkit to deliver the results expected by their respective organizations.“

Summary
Vendors and Channels need to collaborate to create a networked environment for their respective customers
Today’s purchase decisions are made within socially interwoven networks of peers, experts, colleagues and industry influencer – be there or loose it
Social media is no longer a trendy gimmick for freaks – but a way for businesses to harness market relationships and create an enormous competitive advantage
And like always – average Joe’s shop will get it two years later when he realizes that most customers are connected elsewhere.

Thank You © 2007, 2008 Xeequa Corp. All rights reserved. Xeequa™, Xeelets™ and the Xeequa logo are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Xeequa Corp. All other company names and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies or owners. All materials contained herein are the property of each respective company identified on such materials, and may only be used, copied or distributed with the express written permission of each respective company. Xeequa Corp. | 228 Hamilton Ave. | Palo Alto, CA 94301 | (650) 384-0057 | [email_address] | www.xeequa.com (650) 384-0057 [email_address]

About
Xeequa is an online social business software provider. The company’s “Social Business Suite” helps corporations strategically develop a more trustful and loyal business ecosystem including their customers, prospects, alliances, channels and suppliers for a better business experience resulting in incremental market share.

Xeequa’s Social Business Suite is designed especially for corporations or industry associations and includes social networking, alliance networking, forums, blogs, event tracking and online collaboration such as opportunity or project collaboration. The solution supports corporate organization structures and provides an extended level of privacy rules created for corporate use.
The advertising free “software as a service” is subscription based and scales from small businesses to global enterprises. More info on www.xeequa.com or 1-888-xeequa1

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Social Media for alliance and partner management

by Axel Schultze on Sep 24, 2008

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Social Media for alliance and partner management — Presentation Transcript