channel partners

As the artificial distinction between account-based marketing (ABM) programs and everything else we do in B2B continues to dissolve, more firms are realizing that they can leverage the same account-centric strategies, tactics, and technologies to improve the performance of every aspect of their businesses. That includes partner marketing programs, which face two significant challenges today. […]

Channel incentives are used to improve indirect sales performance, orchestrate partners’ behavior, and engender channel loyalty. For decades, channel professionals have used channel incentives to drive behavior, whether establishing new behaviors, suppressing old ones, or repositioning partners for a new opportunity. Incentives are also effective in masking deficiencies in business value propositions. Channel incentives and […]

  We have seen more disruption in the channel in the past 18 months than we saw in the past 37 years combined. As a review, here were my 2018 predictions.   1. Private equity will continue its sweep of the channel software space, creating some unicorns along the way. Verdict: As mentioned in the […]

Leverage Channel Data To Give Partners A Better Experience: Winning In The Channel Requires Data-Driven Program Innovation     Brands that provide an enhanced partner experience grow faster than their peers, are more profitable, and drive higher customer satisfaction and retention downstream. Smart channel professionals are looking at data across the partner journey as a […]

(CLICK FOR HIGH RES) The channel technology stack is a group of technologies that brands leverage to manage and improve their indirect sales processes and partner programs. Often, the focus of channel technologies is to make difficult processes easier, automate workflows, measure multi-tier activities, and drive more efficient spending, coverage, and partner communication. The channel […]

Maturing Into A Horizontal Channel Management Platform Aligned With CRM and Marketing Automation Channel and alliance leaders are known to be good jugglers. With the average partner program containing over 90 distinct components, encouraging channel growth while mediating conflict is a complex undertaking. Partner relationship management (PRM) connects the dots between partner planning, recruitment, onboarding, […]

As of June 2018, Reddit surpassed Facebook to become the US’s most-visited social media platform.[1] And it’s the US’s third-most-visited overall after Google (No. 1) and YouTube (No. 2) and ahead of Facebook (No. 4) and Amazon (No. 5). Furthermore, Reddit users on average spend twice as long on Reddit (more than 15 minutes) as […]

It was 11 years ago this week that Michael Dell penned the infamous memo declaring that Dell’s crown jewel (direct channel business) was a revolution, not a religion. The very thing that anchored its messaging and competitive advantage over the first 15 years was not an absolute. Back then, it was a lesson in customer […]

  Over the past few decades, sales and marketing leaders have been transforming themselves into predictable, data-driven business units. The CRM stage started in the 1990s and accelerated quickly a decade later with lower-priced cloud offerings. The marketing automation stage began to grow exponentially around 2008 and has reached critical mass in its first decade. […]

PartnerWorld kicked off in Las Vegas yesterday and, for the first time, colocated with IBM’s Think main event. The 1,000-plus partners who packed the MGM Grand Arena heard some great messaging around simplified programs, reduced contractual requirements, and a direct sales team who was finally getting channel religion delivered through its paychecks. In the hallways […]

NOTE: This is last year’s channel tech stack. Check out the new 2019 Channel Tech Stack here. There has been an explosion of software vendors in the past 10 years. In fact, it has been the fastest-growing segment of the technology industry and a big driver of digital transformation across all 27 industries. (Check out […]

As Yogi Berra said, “It’s déjà vu all over again.” Office Depot announced the $1 billion acquisition of CompuCom yesterday, which is a strong pivot into IT services for the 31-year-old retailer. The deal adds 11,500 employees — including 6,000 licensed technicians — and a database of millions of end clients to Office Depot’s 1,400 […]

The shift in technology buying trends favoring line-of-business (LOB) leaders is having a significant impact on traditional partnering, reselling, and value-added services. With business buyers now leading or influencing 65% of new technology projects, partner business models that we built around product sales are struggling to stay relevant. Business leaders do not have the patience […]

Is your organization considering how to holistically optimize all of its routes-to-market? Curious how other firms are thinking about their direct and indirect selling channels in 2017 and beyond? Forrester’s B2B marketing, sales, and channel analysts have conducted new research that will prove invaluable in the quest to modernize your company’s selling systems and deliver […]

[begin sarcasm]   The head of indirect channels for an organization is the best job an individual could hope for! Traveling the world to glorious destinations, hosting parties and galas for partners, spending millions of dollars in marketing funds, and striving to drive more boondoggles than last year — all while not being held accountable […]

I have spent my entire career in the channel. With 75% of world trade flowing through indirect channels according to the World Trade Organization, I’m always interested in seeing how businesses organize, manage, and execute their partner and alliance programs. We know that B2B marketers have been working to break down silos for years to […]

  Peter O'Neill here with some observations about cloud computing and channel partners. While cloud computing has been a boon for the tech industry in general, for channel partners the story is different. Channel partners have to deal with shrinking product margins, skills shortages, and new competitor types (including tech vendors themselves!).  And the funny […]

Recently Dan Bieler and I attended a Colt Technology Services analyst day in London. It was great to see a technology services provider who is trying to embrace both disruptive ICT trends and challenges facing enterprise IT. Here is a high level summary of our views from the event: Dan: Colt views its network assets […]

Channel partners are bullish about their growth prospects. In fact, in a recently conducted Forrester survey in North America (NA) and Europe, 59% of channel partners expect to grow by more than 10% in each of the next two years. However, partners will need help and handholding as they aim for greater sophistication and higher […]