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The indirect sales channel has never been more high-profile and important to an organization’s business than it is now. It is the key to market share and revenue growth and therefore, it is no wonder that it is one of the most effective competitive weapons available in the marketplace.
However, despite the increasing attention and sometimes even dependence on channel partners, many high-tech vendors have still not managed to solve the fundamental issues that enable active participation from channel partners as well as ensure increased revenue from the channel itself. Regardless of the millions of dollars invested in lead-generation initiatives, partner portals and training classes, joint marketing/PR activities, sales tools, and policy and procedure documents, very often, indirect revenue is still a black hole for many IT vendors, simply because of its lack of visibility or predictability. Some key issues that vendors struggle with include:
· Technology and processes based on best practices from the partner’s perspective;
· The ability to implement and adjust these best practices between a vendor and thousands of partner organizations;
· Process integration that reaches deeper into the partner organization, down to the level of the individual sales representative.
· Technology and processes based on best practices from the partner’s perspective;
· The ability to implement and adjust these best practices between a vendor and thousands of partner organizations;
· Process integration that reaches deeper into the partner organization, down to the level of the individual sales representative.
Most vendors in the industry have already realized that simply having innovative products is not enough. What counts nowadays is being able to scale their sales and marketing processes quickly and efficiently to deliver these products to a larger portion of the market as well as to more markets/geographies than their competitors. In a bid to better manage partner relationships, many high-tech companies have invested in CRM and portal technologies – all of which have been steps in the right direction if done well and efficiently. Ultimately however, companies have to realize that successful technologies, processes and methodologies need to reach deeper into the channel. Actively and intimately engaging your partners by both listening and acting on their needs as well as providing them with the tools necessary to effectively sell, plus ensuring that they can provide accurate, real-time and world information back to you creates the closed-loop system needed to optimize and leverage the indirect distribution channel. Here is where joint-partner sales management comes into play and become a powerful tool. Some of the latest PRM technologies available allow this to be a simple, yet effective process.
Most vendors in the industry have already realized that simply having innovative products is not enough. What counts nowadays is being able to scale their sales and marketing processes quickly and efficiently to deliver these products to a larger portion of the market as well as to more markets/geographies than their competitors. In a bid to better manage partner relationships, many high-tech companies have invested in CRM and portal technologies – all of which have been steps in the right direction if done well and efficiently. Ultimately however, companies have to realize that successful technologies, processes and methodologies need to reach deeper into the channel. Actively and intimately engaging your partners by both listening and acting on their needs as well as providing them with the tools necessary to effectively sell, plus ensuring that they can provide accurate, real-time and world information back to you creates the closed-loop system needed to optimize and leverage the indirect distribution channel. Here is where joint-partner sales management comes into play and become a powerful tool. Some of the latest PRM technologies available allow this to be a simple, yet effective process.
Vendors who win in the competitive IT and channel environment will be the ones who are able to read, communicate intimately, shift with and engage with their partners and therefore with their customers, where and when it matters the most. Nowhere is the phrase – ‘survival of the fittest’ more true than in the IT channel and the ones who emerge as winners are the vendors who take the steps today to ensure their indirect channels are as powerful as their direct channels. ◊
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