A significant portion of both B2B and B2C sales are made through a network of partners and resellers. Even today, however, most companies have antiquated channel management tools that do not live up to the full promise of their partner network. Only a very few organizations adequately invest in upgrading their channel management infrastructure, due to certain channel management misconceptions.
The problem with channel sales model is that businesses may have unrealistic expectations. As a result, they are surprised when the results from each new partner are a disappointment.In this whitepaper, we discuss these unrealistic expectations.
10 Problems Solved by Referral AutomationAmplifinity
An infographic on the benefits of implementing referral automation software to increase sales.
Amplifinity’s referral amplification software turns customer, employee and partner advocacy into revenue. Our platform provides complete referral tracking and management with 100% accuracy so none are missed. Enterprises like ADP and DirecTV trust Amplifinity to enable high-quality acquisition while providing an engaging, fully-branded experience for their advocates. www.Amplifinity.com
Customer Relationship: Can you keep up ?Etienne Denis
With shrinking markets and changing consumer behavior fuelled by digital technology, CR has become a crucial differentiator and growth lever. That is a big change in status from something that has long been seen as a necessary evil or add on. Based on 50 interviews with CR executives in five European countries, this study provides an insightful examination of the issues affecting CR. It also gives a practical view of the strategic, organizational and people challenges raised.
White paper - Customer Experience TransformationPablo Junco
This white paper highlights the business value of customer experience as a differentiator and explores three critical enablers to guide organizations embarking on the transformation journey.
The problem with channel sales model is that businesses may have unrealistic expectations. As a result, they are surprised when the results from each new partner are a disappointment.In this whitepaper, we discuss these unrealistic expectations.
10 Problems Solved by Referral AutomationAmplifinity
An infographic on the benefits of implementing referral automation software to increase sales.
Amplifinity’s referral amplification software turns customer, employee and partner advocacy into revenue. Our platform provides complete referral tracking and management with 100% accuracy so none are missed. Enterprises like ADP and DirecTV trust Amplifinity to enable high-quality acquisition while providing an engaging, fully-branded experience for their advocates. www.Amplifinity.com
Customer Relationship: Can you keep up ?Etienne Denis
With shrinking markets and changing consumer behavior fuelled by digital technology, CR has become a crucial differentiator and growth lever. That is a big change in status from something that has long been seen as a necessary evil or add on. Based on 50 interviews with CR executives in five European countries, this study provides an insightful examination of the issues affecting CR. It also gives a practical view of the strategic, organizational and people challenges raised.
White paper - Customer Experience TransformationPablo Junco
This white paper highlights the business value of customer experience as a differentiator and explores three critical enablers to guide organizations embarking on the transformation journey.
This paper outlines why consistency matters (particularly in the era of omni-channel customer engagement), the importance and power of local brand messaging, systems needed for mutually beneficial corporate and local marketing and three key steps for creating consistent brand messaging.
Creating Clarity and Conviction in the Mind of Your CustomerJames O'Gara
Clarity and conviction in the mind of your customer starts
with an authentic and consistently delivered corporate story.
To establish clarity and conviction, CMOs must first address
the enterprise-wide messaging development and delivery
problem that exists across all three phases of the customer
experience (self-service, sales, post-purchase). The CEO,
CMO and customer experience leaders must get in a room
and devise a plan for delivering a consistent story in the
complex experience economy they operate in today. This
starts with the CEO making the corporate story a strategic
priority across the organization. The CEO must fundamentally
buy in to the fact that your corporate story directly impacts
the customer experience and financial performance. Read more...
Marketing to small businesses requires nurturing and guidance to help build a strong foundation for growth. If this is new unchartered territory for you, consider incorporating these ideas into your marketing strategy to take on this new challenge.
For years, since the inception of the concept of sales enablement, industry experts have been stressing the need for sales and marketing alignment. Seamless integration of sales and marketing functions has been recognized as a must-have for successful sales enablement. This whitepaper explores another, probably less talked about, yet equally important aspect of sales enablement--asset management.
10 Scary Marketing Automation Fails and How to Avoid ThemRebecca Matias
Rebecca is the Marketing Director at Callbox. She spearheads successful projects in leveraging brand visibility. A vivid marketing blogger and a goal oriented leader who enjoys sharing tips and stories. This is her take on Marketing Automation Fails that marketers should avoid.
Afinium White Paper - It's All About the Customer June 2014Afinium
Customer centricity os often talked about but rarely implemented. What is it, what does it mean, why is it essential, how can cloud technology help you achieve it?
Beyond Customer Acquisition Opportunities Affiliates Can BringAffiliate Summit
Session highlights examples where merchant/affiliate collaboration sparked tremendous growth including improving overall site conversion; identifying hot product trends; and translating online success into offline retail sales.
This paper outlines why consistency matters (particularly in the era of omni-channel customer engagement), the importance and power of local brand messaging, systems needed for mutually beneficial corporate and local marketing and three key steps for creating consistent brand messaging.
Creating Clarity and Conviction in the Mind of Your CustomerJames O'Gara
Clarity and conviction in the mind of your customer starts
with an authentic and consistently delivered corporate story.
To establish clarity and conviction, CMOs must first address
the enterprise-wide messaging development and delivery
problem that exists across all three phases of the customer
experience (self-service, sales, post-purchase). The CEO,
CMO and customer experience leaders must get in a room
and devise a plan for delivering a consistent story in the
complex experience economy they operate in today. This
starts with the CEO making the corporate story a strategic
priority across the organization. The CEO must fundamentally
buy in to the fact that your corporate story directly impacts
the customer experience and financial performance. Read more...
Marketing to small businesses requires nurturing and guidance to help build a strong foundation for growth. If this is new unchartered territory for you, consider incorporating these ideas into your marketing strategy to take on this new challenge.
For years, since the inception of the concept of sales enablement, industry experts have been stressing the need for sales and marketing alignment. Seamless integration of sales and marketing functions has been recognized as a must-have for successful sales enablement. This whitepaper explores another, probably less talked about, yet equally important aspect of sales enablement--asset management.
10 Scary Marketing Automation Fails and How to Avoid ThemRebecca Matias
Rebecca is the Marketing Director at Callbox. She spearheads successful projects in leveraging brand visibility. A vivid marketing blogger and a goal oriented leader who enjoys sharing tips and stories. This is her take on Marketing Automation Fails that marketers should avoid.
Afinium White Paper - It's All About the Customer June 2014Afinium
Customer centricity os often talked about but rarely implemented. What is it, what does it mean, why is it essential, how can cloud technology help you achieve it?
Beyond Customer Acquisition Opportunities Affiliates Can BringAffiliate Summit
Session highlights examples where merchant/affiliate collaboration sparked tremendous growth including improving overall site conversion; identifying hot product trends; and translating online success into offline retail sales.
Most channel networks rarely achieve its full potential as many myths get in the way in deploying a logical and structured channel management approach.
Gone are the days when partners fought to establish their credentials with a large vendor. Today, it’s the vendors themselves who are under increasing pressure to ‘wow’ partners whom themselves can have multiple relationships with multiple tech companies. The good news is that we have a few ‘wow’ tricks up our sleeves, and can point to a proud track record of activating and empowering partners.
So what’s your ‘next best move’? Well, by downloading our eBook on you’ll find some useful insights, hints, and tips to get you started..
Learning the art of ‘effective’ partner management is what will upsurge your revenue logs and give you the competitive advantage – your fuel for thriving in the dynamic landscape.
The channel sales model is a great way to scale up your business. But, that doesn't mean channel sales is easy. It comes with its own set of challenges. Download this whitepaper to learn more about the 7 steps to smoother channel management.
Channel management is complex, presenting many challenges. A structured channel program with close program alignment will help you address those challenges.
All you need to know about channel management processCRMJetty
Channel management process is a complex process that involves a lot of challenges and issues. Learn about those challenges and how you can overcome them in the post.
You know that partner relationships are the bedrock of a successful channel sales model. However, sometimes partner relationship management can seem like an icy road where you skid at every step.
Watch this presentation to discover ways to boost partner engagement.
Indirect Channel Incentives and Loyalty ProgramsRelayware, Inc.
Spiff programs, tactical incentives, points-for-prizes, cash cards, rebates and discounts – the methods adopted to incentivize indirect channels to sell more are numerous and yet most simply reward companies and individuals for making sales that would have happened anyway. Building loyalty and providing incentives to reward positive behavior is both an art form and a science. This enlightening whitepaper uncovers best practices used by some of the most successful channel marketers and challenges us to consider whether simply being a pleasure to do business with might be incentive enough for our indirect channels.
Over the past couple of decades, two major channel management automation platforms have attracted widespread attention: partner relationship management (PRM) automation and partner marketing management (PMM) automation. However, the most important area in channel automation—an area that has been neglected and remains a major opportunity—is partner sales enablement or partner sales management. If you are considering an investment in channel automation, you should look at partner sales enablement automation first.
When you are starting up a high growth business or a product line, it is always tempting to try to boost sales by building a large channel partner network, on the premise that the bigger the channel, the more zillions of your products and services they can sell. In our experience, however, many businesses attempting this model struggle to provide a sufficiently strong business proposition for multiple channel partners to carry their products and services. Furthermore, they very often end up creating channel conflict by building direct sales motions in their efforts to improve results.
Why Web Content Syndication Isn’t Always the Answer for Channel Marketing Aut...ZINFI Technologies, Inc.
Web Content Syndication does not always work to create proper branding and generate leads because they lack a proper Channel Marketing Automation approach.
There are a few proven Market Development Funds (MDF) programs that work frequently across multiple industries. These programs are also easy to implement.
As a digital, always-on platform that can hyper-personalized, an affiliate marketing tool can significantly enhance collaboration with affiliate partners.
AI is Revolutionizing Channel Marketing Automation: Opportunities, Challenges...ZINFI Technologies, Inc.
AI is transforming channel marketing automation, affecting everything from affiliate marketing, event planning and lead generation to buyer behavior analysis.
The Secret to Engaging Modern Consumers: Journey Mapping and Personalization
In today's digital landscape, understanding the customer's journey and delivering personalized experiences are paramount. This masterclass delves into the art of consumer journey mapping, a powerful technique that visualizes the entire customer experience across touchpoints. Attendees will learn how to create detailed journey maps, identify pain points, and uncover opportunities for optimization. The presentation also explores personalization strategies that leverage data and technology to tailor content, products, and experiences to individual customers. From real-time personalization to predictive analytics, attendees will gain insights into cutting-edge approaches that drive engagement and loyalty.
Key Takeaways:
Current consumer landscape; Steps to mapping an effective consumer journey; Understanding the value of personalization; Integrating mapping and personalization for success; Brands that are getting It right!; Best Practices; Future Trends
10 Video Ideas Any Business Can Make RIGHT NOW!
You'll never draw a blank again on what kind of video to make for your business. Go beyond the basic categories and truly reimagine a brand new advanced way to brainstorm video content creation. During this masterclass you'll be challenged to think creatively and outside of the box and view your videos through lenses you may have never thought of previously. It's guaranteed that you'll leave with more than 10 video ideas, but I like to under-promise and over-deliver. Don't miss this session.
Key Takeaways:
How to use the Video Matrix
How to use additional "Lenses"
Where to source original video ideas
SMM Cheap - No. 1 SMM panel in the worldsmmpanel567
Boost your social media marketing with our SMM Panel services offering SMM Cheap services! Get cost-effective services for your business and increase followers, likes, and engagement across all social media platforms. Get affordable services perfect for businesses and influencers looking to increase their social proof. See how cheap SMM strategies can help improve your social media presence and be a pro at the social media game.
How to Run Landing Page Tests On and Off Paid Social PlatformsVWO
Join us for an exclusive webinar featuring Mariate, Alexandra and Nima where we will unveil a comprehensive blueprint for crafting a successful paid media strategy focused on landing page testing.With escalating costs in paid advertising, understanding how to maximize each visitor’s experience is crucial for retention and conversion.
This session will dive into the methodologies for executing and analyzing landing page tests within paid social channels, offering a blend of theoretical knowledge and practical insights.
The Pearmill team will guide you through the nuances of setting up and managing landing page experiments on paid social platforms. You will learn about the critical rules to follow, the structure of effective tests, optimal conversion duration and budget allocation.
The session will also cover data analysis techniques and criteria for graduating landing pages.
In the second part of the webinar, Pearmill will explore the use of A/B testing platforms. Discover common pitfalls to avoid in A/B testing and gain insights into analyzing A/B tests results effectively.
Is AI-Generated Content the Future of Content Creation?Cut-the-SaaS
Discover the transformative power of AI in content creation with our presentation, "Is AI-Generated Content the Future of Content Creation?" by Puran Parsani, CEO & Editor of Cut-The-SaaS. Learn how AI-generated content is revolutionizing marketing, publishing, education, healthcare, and finance by offering unprecedented efficiency, creativity, and scalability.
Understanding
AI-Generated Content:
AI-generated content includes text, images, videos, and audio produced by AI without direct human involvement. This technology leverages large datasets to create contextually relevant and coherent material, streamlining content production.
Key Benefits:
Content Creation: Rapidly generate high-quality content for blogs, articles, and social media.
Brainstorming: AI simulates conversations to inspire creative ideas.
Research Assistance: Efficiently summarize and research information.
Market Insights:
The content marketing industry is projected to grow to $17.6 billion by 2032, with AI-generated content expected to dominate over 55% of the market.
Case Study: CNET’s AI Content Controversy:
CNET’s use of AI for news articles led to public scrutiny due to factual inaccuracies, highlighting the need for transparency and human oversight.
Benefits Across Industries:
Marketing: Personalize content at scale and optimize engagement with predictive analytics.
Publishing: Automate content creation for faster publication cycles.
Education: Efficiently generate educational materials.
Healthcare: Create accurate content for patients and professionals.
Finance: Produce timely financial content for decision-making.
Challenges and Ethical Considerations:
Transparency: Disclose AI use to maintain trust.
Bias: Address potential AI biases with diverse datasets.
SEO: Ensure AI content meets SEO standards.
Quality: Maintain high standards to prevent misinformation.
Conclusion:
AI-generated content offers significant benefits in efficiency, personalization, and scalability. However, ethical considerations and quality assurance are crucial for responsible use. Explore the future of content creation with us and see how AI is transforming various industries.
Connect with Us:
Follow Cut-The-SaaS on LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and Medium. Visit cut-the-saas.com for more insights and resources.
When most people in the industry talk about online or digital reputation management, what they're really saying is Google search and PPC. And it's usually reactive, left dealing with the aftermath of negative information published somewhere online. That's outdated. It leaves executives, organizations and other high-profile individuals at a high risk of a digital reputation attack that spans channels and tactics. But the tools needed to safeguard against an attack are more cybersecurity-oriented than most marketing and communications professionals can manage. Business leaders Leaders grasp the importance; 83% of executives place reputation in their top five areas of risk, yet only 23% are confident in their ability to address it. To succeed in 2024 and beyond, you need to turn online reputation on its axis and think like an attacker.\
Key Takeaways:
- New framework for examining and safeguarding an online reputation
- Tools and techniques to keep you a step ahead
- Practical examples that demonstrate when to act, how to act and how to recover
The session includes a brief history of the evolution of search before diving into the roles technology, content, and links play in developing a powerful SEO strategy in a world of Generative AI and social search. Discover how to optimize for TikTok searches, Google's Gemini, and Search Generative Experience while developing a powerful arsenal of tools and templates to help maximize the effectiveness of your SEO initiatives.
Key Takeaways:
Understand how search engines work
Be able to find out where your users search
Know what is required for each discipline of SEO
Feel confident creating an SEO Plan
Confidently measure SEO performance
Come learn how YOU can Animate and Illuminate the World with Generative AI's Explosive Power. Come sit in the driver's seat and learn to harness this great technology.
Most small businesses struggle to see marketing results. In this session, we will eliminate any confusion about what to do next, solving your marketing problems so your business can thrive. You’ll learn how to create a foundational marketing OS (operating system) based on neuroscience and backed by real-world results. You’ll be taught how to develop deep customer connections, and how to have your CRM dynamically segment and sell at any stage in the customer’s journey. By the end of the session, you’ll remove confusion and chaos and replace it with clarity and confidence for long-term marketing success.
Key Takeaways:
• Uncover the power of a foundational marketing system that dynamically communicates with prospects and customers on autopilot.
• Harness neuroscience and Tribal Alignment to transform your communication strategies, turning potential clients into fans and those fans into loyal customers.
• Discover the art of automated segmentation, pinpointing your most lucrative customers and identifying the optimal moments for successful conversions.
• Streamline your business with a content production plan that eliminates guesswork, wasted time, and money.
Everyone knows the power of stories, but when asked to come up with them, we struggle. Either we second guess ourselves as to the story's relevance, or we just come up blank and can't think of any. Unlocking Everyday Narratives: The Power of Storytelling in Marketing will teach you how to recognize stories in the moment and to recall forgotten moments that your audience needs to hear.
Key Takeaways:
Understand Why Personal Stories Connect Better
How To Remember Forgotten Stories
How To Use Customer Experiences As Stories For Your Brand
Mastering Local SEO for Service Businesses in the AI Era is tailored specifically for local service providers like plumbers, dentists, and others seeking to dominate their local search landscape. This session delves into leveraging AI advancements to enhance your online visibility and search rankings through the Content Factory model, designed for creating high-impact, SEO-driven content. Discover the Dollar-a-Day advertising strategy, a cost-effective approach to boost your local SEO efforts and attract more customers with minimal investment. Gain practical insights on optimizing your online presence to meet the specific needs of local service seekers, ensuring your business not only appears but stands out in local searches. This concise, action-oriented workshop is your roadmap to navigating the complexities of digital marketing in the AI age, driving more leads, conversions, and ultimately, success for your local service business.
Key Takeaways:
Embrace AI for Local SEO: Learn to harness the power of AI technologies to optimize your website and content for local search. Understand the pivotal role AI plays in analyzing search trends and consumer behavior, enabling you to tailor your SEO strategies to meet the specific demands of your target local audience. Leverage the Content Factory Model: Discover the step-by-step process of creating SEO-optimized content at scale. This approach ensures a steady stream of high-quality content that engages local customers and boosts your search rankings. Get an action guide on implementing this model, complete with templates and scheduling strategies to maintain a consistent online presence. Maximize ROI with Dollar-a-Day Advertising: Dive into the cost-effective Dollar-a-Day advertising strategy that amplifies your visibility in local searches without breaking the bank. Learn how to strategically allocate your budget across platforms to target potential local customers effectively. The session includes an action guide on setting up, monitoring, and optimizing your ad campaigns to ensure maximum impact with minimal investment.
Digital marketing is the art and science of promoting products or services using digital channels to reach and engage with potential customers. It encompasses a wide range of online tactics and strategies aimed at increasing brand visibility, driving website traffic, generating leads, and ultimately, converting those leads into customers.
https://nidmindia.com/
Most small businesses struggle to see marketing results. In this session, we will eliminate any confusion about what to do next, solving your marketing problems so your business can thrive. You’ll learn how to create a foundational marketing OS (operating system) based on neuroscience and backed by real-world results. You’ll be taught how to develop deep customer connections, and how to have your CRM dynamically segment and sell at any stage in the customer’s journey. By the end of the session, you’ll remove confusion and chaos and replace it with clarity and confidence for long-term marketing success.
Key Takeaways:
• Uncover the power of a foundational marketing system that dynamically communicates with prospects and customers on autopilot.
• Harness neuroscience and Tribal Alignment to transform your communication strategies, turning potential clients into fans and those fans into loyal customers.
• Discover the art of automated segmentation, pinpointing your most lucrative customers and identifying the optimal moments for successful conversions.
• Streamline your business with a content production plan that eliminates guesswork, wasted time, and money.
Mastering Local SEO for Service Businesses in the AI Era is tailored specifically for local service providers like plumbers, dentists, and others seeking to dominate their local search landscape. This session delves into leveraging AI advancements to enhance your online visibility and search rankings through the Content Factory model, designed for creating high-impact, SEO-driven content. Discover the Dollar-a-Day advertising strategy, a cost-effective approach to boost your local SEO efforts and attract more customers with minimal investment. Gain practical insights on optimizing your online presence to meet the specific needs of local service seekers, ensuring your business not only appears but stands out in local searches. This concise, action-oriented workshop is your roadmap to navigating the complexities of digital marketing in the AI age, driving more leads, conversions, and ultimately, success for your local service business.
Key Takeaways:
Embrace AI for Local SEO: Learn to harness the power of AI technologies to optimize your website and content for local search. Understand the pivotal role AI plays in analyzing search trends and consumer behavior, enabling you to tailor your SEO strategies to meet the specific demands of your target local audience. Leverage the Content Factory Model: Discover the step-by-step process of creating SEO-optimized content at scale. This approach ensures a steady stream of high-quality content that engages local customers and boosts your search rankings. Get an action guide on implementing this model, complete with templates and scheduling strategies to maintain a consistent online presence. Maximize ROI with Dollar-a-Day Advertising: Dive into the cost-effective Dollar-a-Day advertising strategy that amplifies your visibility in local searches without breaking the bank. Learn how to strategically allocate your budget across platforms to target potential local customers effectively. The session includes an action guide on setting up, monitoring, and optimizing your ad campaigns to ensure maximum impact with minimal investment.
When most people in the industry talk about online or digital reputation management, what they're really saying is Google search and PPC. And it's usually reactive, left dealing with the aftermath of negative information published somewhere online. That's outdated. It leaves executives, organizations and other high-profile individuals at a high risk of a digital reputation attack that spans channels and tactics. But the tools needed to safeguard against an attack are more cybersecurity-oriented than most marketing and communications professionals can manage. Business leaders Leaders grasp the importance; 83% of executives place reputation in their top five areas of risk, yet only 23% are confident in their ability to address it. To succeed in 2024 and beyond, you need to turn online reputation on its axis and think like an attacker.
Key Takeaways:
- New framework for examining and safeguarding an online reputation
- Tools and techniques to keep you a step ahead
- Practical examples that demonstrate when to act, how to act and how to recover
AI-Powered Personalization: Principles, Use Cases, and Its Impact on CROVWO
In today’s era of AI, personalization is more than just a trend—it’s a fundamental strategy that unlocks numerous opportunities.
When done effectively, personalization builds trust, loyalty, and satisfaction among your users—key factors for business success. However, relying solely on AI capabilities isn’t enough. You need to anchor your approach in solid principles, understand your users’ context, and master the art of persuasion.
Join us as Sarjak Patel and Naitry Saggu from 3rd Eye Consulting unveil a transformative framework. This approach seamlessly integrates your unique context, consumer insights, and conversion goals, paving the way for unparalleled success in personalization.
It's another new era of digital and marketers are faced with making big bets on their digital strategy. If you are looking at modernizing your tech stack to support your digital evolution, there are a few can't miss (often overlooked) areas that should be part of every conversation. We'll cover setting your vision, avoiding siloes, adding a democratized approach to data strategy, localization, creating critical governance requirements and more. Attendees will walk away with actions they can take into initiatives they are running today and consider for the future.
Financial curveballs sent many American families reeling in 2023. Household budgets were squeezed by rising interest rates, surging prices on everyday goods, and a stagnating housing market. Consumers were feeling strapped. That sentiment, however, appears to be waning. The question is, to what extent?
To take the pulse of consumers’ feelings about their financial well-being ahead of a highly anticipated election, ThinkNow conducted a nationally representative quantitative survey. The survey highlights consumers’ hopes and anxieties as we move into 2024. Let's unpack the key findings to gain insights about where we stand.
Short video marketing has sweeped the nation and is the fastest way to build an online brand on social media in 2024. In this session you will learn:- What is short video marketing- Which platforms work best for your business- Content strategies that are on brand for your business- How to sell organically without paying for ads.
2. Channel Management Misconceptions
A significant portion of both B2B and B2C sales are made
through a network of partners and resellers. Even today,
however, most companies have antiquated channel
management tools that do not live up to the full promise of
their partner network. Only a very few organizations adequately
invest in upgrading their channel management infrastructure,
due to certain channel management misconceptions. In this
article we will explore some of the common myths that impact
not only the operational efficiency but also undermine the real
truth about all channel networks.
1. Partners Are My Indirect Sales Team
Nothing could be further away from the truth. While partners
do have sales capability and most organizations tend to treat
their partners as if they are an extension of their sales force,
the reality is that partners are customers. While partners are
certainly vocal and their feedback is critical because they run
their own businesses, they do not regard a vendor as their
equal. Maybe this is not the case if you are running a multi-
outlet franchise, but when it comes to a traditional, two or
three tier distribution channel, partners are their own bosses.
There is no question that they do not work for their vendors.
They work for their customers and for themselves. It follows
that the way you manage your direct sales force as opposed to
this indirect sales force should be planned and executed
differently. This is where you need state-of-the-art channel
management infrastructure.
2. My Partners Are Loyal
Yes, it is true to some extent, but their loyalty is really directed
towards their own customer base and their employees. At the
end of the day, their loyalty to a vendor comes last.
Organizations that perceive their partners’ lack of receptiveness
to competitors may perceive this as loyalty are completely
misreading how the partner truly feels about the relationship.
Yes, they may be engaged, and sell a lot of products, but their
loyalty is to themselves and their relationships are based on the
logic of what works for them. They are running a business, but
not a frat house. Building partner loyalty requires deeper
understanding, based on a structured approach towards
channel management - starting with partner profiling, offer
alignment, partner enablement and incentives management.
Just as, if you want to build employee loyalty you need to think
about their needs, in the same way it is critical to understand
and deliver what partners care about. Most channel initiatives
tend to be company centric vs. partner centric, and this is why
they tend to fail.
3. 3. Partners Will Drive Demand
Until and unless your partners are large distributors or national retailer/retailers, do not expect
your partners to have the marketing capability to drive demand. Mature channel management
organizations do not expect their sales people to drive their own demand; rather they deploy
fully capable marketing processes, automation, programs and people. Similarly, your partners
are your fulfillment arms, so you have to bring either a fully integrated marketing capability to
them or provide them with sales-ready leads. The general expectation is that if a partner is
getting commission they will naturally generate leads and close deals. This is a fallacy, but one
which most organizations are not willing to relinquish. This expectation is not realistic, because
it’s outside the resources and competency of most partners.
4. The Partner Council Knows It All
Most vendors selling through the channel tend to create partner councils to stay connected
with the market place. While this is certainly an appropriate channel management approach in
that it helps keep a pulse on the channel, it should also be kept in mind that this is only a small
cross-section (and may not be a true and complete representation) of the entire channel. We
have seen companies making grave mistakes in product pricing and distribution strategies when
they listen to a small group of highly influential partners and use this as a basis for changing
their go-to-market approaches. At the end of the day, everyone on the partner council wants to
protect their own interests. While there may be some good Samaritans that watch out for
others, in reality it is the company's responsibility to truly determine what the ENTIRE market
wants rather than listening to the demands of just one group of people.
5. Deploy Point Tools for Channel Management
Most organizations today tend to use a set of discreet channel management and automation
tools. The common belief is that if you have cobbled together the best-in-class point solutions
the result will be a great channel management platform. The irony is that this is rarely the case.
Data does not flow seamlessly from one system to another, channel teams end up relying
significantly on IT configuration teams, and both deployment and operating costs increase
substantially. Setting aside the issue of costs, discrete sets of tools also cause problems in ease-
of-use and as a result most people do not use all the tools within different modules. The only
way to overcome this is to use a best in class, unified channel management platform.
We all recognize that channel management is not an easy task. However most of the time
organizations’ investments in this area are barely adequate. They rarely make significant
investments either in automating the workflow or in creating a partner experience that is up to
the expected level of any customer and provider relationship today. If your organization lacks an
understanding and acceptance of the nature of the relationship with your partners, the chances
are that most of your channel management infrastructure is likely to be outdated and not
insufficiently upgraded. When a company takes the correct steps in defining the channel
management workflow and automating some or most of the processes, and are able to manage
based on data and facts, they tend to see a significant increase not only in channel productivity
but also in revenue growth and partner satisfaction rates.
Only a very few
organizations
adequately invest in
upgrading their
channel
management
infrastructure, due
to certain channel
management
misconceptions
”
“