Change The Channel

The Big Vendor Mistake when Presenting Cloud Pricing

ChannelSurfing by Kris Fuehr — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 03:45:42 GMT

Initially many technology partners were unsure whether the cloud was a threat or an opportunity. I'm seeing now that partners, as usual, are finding their way with profitable add-on services like Managed Services (very profitable, by the way), Data Security & Backup, SharePoint Configuration, Workflow Customization; Migration, Identity Management, Migrations (everyone is migrating from SOMETHING right?)

Take Office 365 or Google Apps. While the pricing is free (as in the case with Live@edu) or $6-$27/mo for Office 365 the customer expectation shouldn't be that their only cost for technology is this.

If you, as a vendor, include the following with your cloud-based pricing you'll help your partners out a lot. here it is:

$_________/mo - plus any value-added partner services

Add this to your pricing for cloud applications. That way, customers won't be surprised when a partner proposes services along with the software solution. It maybe seem obvious, but many customers think the price for the software is all that they will pay.

And, as we know with Google's pricing, what seems "free" is really free--like a puppy.

Help your partners out and try to set expectations properly.

The Essential Nature of Face-to-Face

ChannelSurfing by Kris Fuehr — Fri, 06 May 2011 21:38:00 GMT

Teens, businesses (even Grandma!) are all in a frenzy over social media. But, if you look at the numbers around how a product is sold, there is almost always an element of personal connection that occurs with any major technology purchase. Whether visiting the Apple or Microsoft Store or attending a local event or conference, people have a basic need to connect with another human being before they open their checkbooks.

Your channel is the human interface to your customers, so help them make those local connections by:

1. Encourage your partners to offer ways for customers to meet them.
2. Give them conversation-starters and interesting content to spark dialogue.
3. Arm them with simple key selling points. If it can be slipped into a cocktail party conversation, you officially have a fantastic value prop.
4. Offer promotions to keep your momentum. You should always have some sort of promo that is worthwhile, and if that promotion is predictably delivered year over year you’ll develop quite a following.

A few basics in this area will go a long way.

Call us if you need any help.

The stabilizing force of channel and 3 ways to embrace it

ChannelSurfing by Kris Fuehr — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 20:18:00 GMT

Your channel serves many important roles in your business, but one overlooked function is that of Stabilizer.

We all know that manufacturers can churn out new technologies more rapidly than business customers can adopt them and I’m curious at the recent hype vendors are placing on cloud and how their channels are pushing back with a big dose of reality. Comments from partners like “Really, today, a hybrid approach is more realistic” and “My customer has assets that haven’t reached end of life. It will be a while before cloud is a reality for them” are healthy for vendors to accept.

Undoubtedly, we count on vendors to lead the vision on what’s possible – we want them to push the envelope, but the channel is there to inject what’s plausible.

3 ways to embrace this stabilizing force:

Hit the streets: Continually capture (and publish) real-world stories about how customers are using your product. If you’re not clear how they’re being used, ask a partner or customer – go ahead, right now.
Make big claims, but with humble undertones: You might publish the latest Gartner study saying that this market will grow by 50%, but your channel and customers will appreciate your grain of salt when you make commentary that is a bit more conservative about how long it will take to get there, or about what factors are necessary for this to take place.
Don’t rush in: Many tout the advantages of getting to market first, but when you manage a channel, your role is more in the realm of change management where you are left to explain how the change occurs over time. Take your channel with you on the journey.

Call us if you need help.

3 Ways to Let Partners Tell Your Story

ChannelSurfing by Kris Fuehr — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 17:17:00 GMT

We have a great test case to share -- our client who tried 2 different approaches to recruiting partners: One with standard collateral and logical case around why to engage in a particular partner program; the OTHER used 5 partners to tell the story of how they started, what resources were involved and how it was actually useful in their business.

Guess which one outperformed the other 10:1 in ¼ of the time?

Telling a story through example is wildly more effective with partners who want to know: “Who, like me, is using this?”

So here are 3 ways to approach the matter:

1. Case studies (yawn) -- but wait, not just ANY case study—SHORT stories of real-world application; opinions; best practices; tips and pitfalls to avoid. Tell the usual ROI, but ALSO have your partners talk about how they put it into place, how it enabled their business, how customers reacted. Don’t waste more than a page or two of text.

The Dynamics Best Practice Guide (created by us here at EMM) shows a global set of partner stories. These partners applied best practices around generating revenue with existing customers and gave tips and guidance on how others could do the same. We were surprised how generous partners were in their advice to others.

2. Partners as spokespeople: You probably have a pocketful of press-ready partners that you trust to refer for press opportunities(do you over-use them?), but are you REALLY exploiting the chance to enable MANY partners to speak on your behalf to the press? Your partners want visibility as much as you want them to talk about you. Make it easy for them to tell your story with their own. Have a partner in every part of the world that can act as a go-to partner for local reporters. Give them press announcements they can run and, most importantly, HELP THEM develop their press activities. (Most partners don’t know how to get started and would love to tap into the press skills you probably have in house).

EXAMPLE: Check how many partner press releases RIM has generated this year: http://press.rim.com/partner/. This collection of press releases shows relevance in the market no matter how you slice it.

3. REAL-WORLD content integration: Invite partners to speak in your conferences, webinars, use quotes in ALL your collateral (make it a policy that all partner collateral must have at least one partner who has demonstrated use of the product/program). You cover the what –let the partner talk about how it’s applied.

EXAMPLE: “GadgetsRUs announced a new enterprise-class appliance last quarter and in the first quarter, X00 partners sold the new product” Said early adopters PartnerName and PartnerName2: We took this new GADGET as a catalyst to our move from SMB and to break into enterprise accounts. We planned our year to write up our value; sign up enterprise customers for eval units and offered to speak at conferences. Once we broke through our first 2 deals, we had 13 more in the pipeline!”

The main hurdles to any awareness-building effort are:
1. “it’s not for me”
2. “I don’t know what it takes to get started”

Once you show how your product/program is applied with others that swim in the same pool, you will grease the skids to success. Sometimes it means holding an announcement or two until your early adopters have utilized it and can comment, but the payoff is well worth it. Try it!

Call us if you need any help.

-Kris

3 Lessons in GOLD PANNING for channel management

ChannelSurfing by Kris Fuehr — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 17:30:00 GMT

If you’ve never learned to gold pan, try it sometime and you’ll understand why people can catch “gold fever”.

In my day-long lesson in panning for gold this summer from an expert living on an isolated mountain in Oregon, I drew some conclusions for channel management that seemed appropriate and might even lend some guiding principles. Gold, in this case are HiP Partners (High-Performing or High-Potential Partners)

1. First, find a good vein where you are likely to find gold
Heavy, liquid gold was brought down mountains thousands of years ago with other heavy, liquid minerals and it typically “hangs out” near quartz and iron pyrite but no one REALLY knows how to predict with accuracy the presence of gold

When you’re seeking your best partners, who might they be “hanging out with”? Maybe a complimentary vendor like HP, Sophos or Kaspersky? Maybe in an association of likeminded individuals like CompTIA or IAMCP ? Find the pyrite and you might find the gold.

2. Classify with care

What I didn’t realize until my lesson was the importance in breaking down the pile of dirt you speculated might have gold in it and gather into like-sized groups. Called “classification”, this step ensures that the proper searching technique is applied. You look for gold nuggets differently in the large-rock pile than you do from swirling sand and water in a pan. Different approaches to the same challenge of finding gold.

How are you classifying your partners so that when you recruit or engage them that you’ve sorted them into the appropriate categories that are meaningful? Do you treat your large resellers the same as you do your system integrators and hosters?   What matters most-- the size of their business or the type of solutions they provide?

Take one example, Channel Champions Award-winning Trend Micro uses a simple classification: Technology, Platform or Consulting partner. Pretty straightforward and orthogonal I’d say. Compare to this organization by competency that Microsoft is trying on this year. Which is closer to your biz model?

3.       Don’t dump out the little guys

In a “swirl” of your pan, you can accidentally drop out an assortment of small gold flakes which, additively, can amount to a collection of gold that exceeds the elusive big nugget you could find in 1,000 tries.

Vendors notoriously pay more attention to the handful of “big partners” that seem to generate their revenue but what if you had 1,000 little guys each selling $150K/yr, would they outpace the others?   If you can set up to do both, give it a try. If you’re still starting out, then maybe all you can do is have a Backyard BBQ approach to managing your top partners, where you are small enough to have all of your partners together personally. But set your aim on the breadth channel too.

Yes, the early lessons from our historical Gold Miners still apply in many ways. However, I would encourage you to be a “Cackler”, or what the gold miners referred to a miner who let others do the heavy work. We’re happy to shoulder the load. Give us a call.

PS: That's me and my daughter in the photo

3 things I wish I knew when I landed my Channel Marketing job 15 years ago

ChannelSurfing by Kris Fuehr — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 19:18:00 GMT

Here are 3 things I wish I knew when I landed my Channel Marketing job 15 years ago. Maybe it will save you a little time in your career:

1. Partners are not "pure" anything. They are rarely just SIs, Distis, Resellers, ISVs, MSPs, Hosters, etc. Tech vendors tend to want to assign handy designations to partners, but the bottom line is that they are "technology opportunists" - if they see a buying market for something, they will learn it and do it - whether that means building an app, hosting a datacenter or creating a service. Most of your channel partners will evolve into several different types over their lifetime. Simplify your designations and don't be too rigid in using them.
Instead, talk about 4 scenarios with partners based on what they do, not who they are. Example:
                -"when you offer services"...
                -"when you host solutions for your clients"
                -"when you resell products: HW/SW"
                -"when you build apps (custom or packaged)"

2. ROI matters: When I was green, I pictured partners reading every word that came from tech vendors like Microsoft and HP and making plans to embrace every initiative. Instead, we are all clamoring for the valuable attention of these experts who juggle 8-12 other vendors they represent. No, partners are not waiting with bated breath for your next mail, so you have to concisely step through the ROI:

How much of a shift are you asking from me? Based on Where I am now, how far away (deletefrom that) is what you are asking me to do?
How long is it going to take and what's the opportunity cost of sending my skilled people out of the office to ramp up? (think new product launch)
What's the real deal size and how many customers care about this right now? (think sales, services and pull-through)
How long will this market be around? (think Y2K)
Does this opportunity displace any of my existing business? (think Cloud)

3. Don't take yourself too seriously. A lot of vendors write web copy or materials to partners using what I call their “Big Voice” (“ahem…Today, COMPANY is proud to announce that the partner program will evolve to 3 new levels”). Better to be approachable. Partners are like a mix of your close friends and distant relatives. They are about what you care about -- happy customers. If you are on that road together and you mess up a little, it's okay, they understand your imperfections a few times (e.g. Vista) as long as you right it (Win7) and keep them informed. Admit your mistakes, be humble and you can continue down the path, smiling together.

If you need more tips about the full spectrum of partner program management from recruitment to engagement to loyalty, give us a call.

-Kris

Interoperability and your channel partners

ChannelSurfing by Kris Fuehr — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 18:13:00 GMT

[image credit: Steve Carter]

Did you know that Interoperability is the #1 customer purchase decision criteria for technology?
It’s also ranked in the top 3 “most favorable messages” from tech vendors.
It’s so important yet few vendors talk much about it.

The fact is:
• You want to sell your Gadget A to customers
• Customers want Gadget A to work with their Trinket B
• Problem is, you don’t know much about Trinket B (so you just talk more about Gadget A)
• But your channel partners (who deal with mixed-vendor environments all the time) do know about Trinket B and many more related technologies. They are paying attention to what makes their job easier in heterogenous technologies.

.
Partners have great insight and will tell you which vendors and environments you best fit. Ask them!

CHALLENGE: Next month, book a slot on your calendar to do a brainstorm (with some channel partners) about the “top 10 technologies we blend well with”.
Then, go to those vendors and ask them to do a joint project together to tell your story about how you work well together.

Interoperability is important. Take advantage of the partners in your channel who can speak “customer-ese” about your product in the context of other products. Help them by giving them insight about what your product does to get along with other products, what standards it complies with, and INFORM YOUR CHANNEL about the great “better together” story you can tell!

I’d love to hear how it goes.

If you need help, give us a call.

Use the ARC Awards to stay on the right path

ChannelSurfing by Kris Fuehr — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:46:00 GMT

What I like about CRN’s Annual Report Card is exactly what makes it a tough tablet to swallow: Their criteria are usually right.

They know their stuff. The ARC Awards (an annual assessment of large tech channel programs based on their value to partners) has been around long enough that they’ve really honed in on what partners value most, so if you pay close attention to the report card criteria, you will know exactly what it takes to shine in the eyes of your partners.

The three major ARC categories are:

Product Innovation
Support
Partnership

But the nuances within these categories are where it matters most.

If you pay close attention, I’ll bet you have at least one moment of “holy cow, we didn’t think of that in our program!” or “boy, we really missed the mark on this with our new plans.”

It's okay, just be brave enough to adjust. And, if you don't have time to deliver on those plans this year, go ahead, test that transparency trait you've been meaning to try and communicate with your partners about what you're planning to adjust (e.g. blog). They understand that you can't turn on a dime.

Top 10 ARC Awards Companies:
1. EMC
2. EMC
3. Cisco
4. HP
5. Cisco
6. Cisco
7. Xerox
8. HP
9. Fortinet
10. Juniper Networks

Even if you aren’t a technology giant, learn from the criteria on this list and maybe one day you will be.

Call us if you need help. 425.746.1572 (kris@emminc.com)

PS: If you're a Value-Adding-Reseller (VAR), you might be interested in applying to be recognized. Applications are available now for CRN' 2010 VAR 500. Deadline is Feb 19, 2010. Apply here.

Announcing The Extra Mile Marketing Concierge Desk

EMM Blog Master — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 20:18:00 GMT

Are you looking for a fresh way to reward your top partners in the coming new year? Look no further – the Extra Mile Marketing Concierge package is just for you!

A convenient 5-hour starter block membership can be purchased for only $995. Your partners can call at their convenience to gain marketing insight and expert advice from our marketing concierge desk to help grow their business – and yours too!

We’ve worked with over 5,000 businesses from startups through large enterprise companies and are now offering marketing best practices from those businesses for you to tap into at a discounted rate!
We can cover:
•   Marketing or business plan review
•   Campaign plan set up/structure
•   Website or landing page analysis
•   Event content or presentation review
•   Annual communication calendar set up
•   Finding and using MDF and co-op funding from vendors

For more information contact Lauren Jansson at 425.746.1572 or by email at lauren@emminc.com To pay by credit card, please visit our web page at www.extramilemarketing.com/concierge or contact us directly to discuss a custom Statement of Work (to pay by PO).

Three trade-offs to consider around your partner program brand(s)

ChannelSurfing by Kris Fuehr — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:34:00 GMT

I’ll cut to the punch line: Partners and customers don’t much care what your brand or designation is, it’s what you do with it.

How do I know this?

First, I was on the spending-end of a quarter-million dollar branding exercise at Microsoft in 2001
Second, we (EMM) have been conducting a series of Microsoft partner research lately (about 300 partners in the past few weeks) and we’ve received a lot of unsolicited input from partners around their branding concerns.

Based on the above information I’d say these three trade-offs need to be considered:

1. Bandwidth vs. transition: One thing that’s often overlooked is the time, money and effort it takes to move from your current brand to the new one. I recall years after the introduction of the Microsoft Certified Partner brand, I still ran across web sites where partners were using the old “Microsoft Solution Provider” designation.

Old logo, 1997

Remember, you’ll be asking your partners to re-brand themselves and make an investment by replacing their signage, collateral, window clings, proposal templates, letterhead, folders, fax headers and business cards. Most partners spend $10,000 a year on ALL of their marketing and have no full-time marketing staff.

Your tradeoff question is this: Do you want your partners focused on shuffling their brand around or selling your solutions?

New logo, 2001

Personally, I’d rather a partner spend $1,000 on hosting a customer event than paying a designer to change the logo on all of their collateral. That’s the real trade-off that’s happening out there with partners. The flock of birds you envision rapidly changing course right along with you and your brand (du jour) is a fallacy.

2. Building awareness vs. inherent awareness: Whether you tier your program branding Smurf, SuperSmurf and UltraSmurf what really matters is how you promote the designation with customers. Several vendor programs try to get fancy and offer “Expert, Elite, Alliance, Premium, etc” (try translating that into Russian) but, when we completed our mega-spendy branding research we landed on Gold as the top tier designation. Thanks to our Greek friends, the Olympics have long established three familiar metals as a system that is now inherently understood as good/better/best. On top of that, it translated meaningfully worldwide.
Consider this: Government RFPs often designate a Gold Certified Partner as a requirement to respond to the bid. How long do you suppose it will take to educate the US Government on the new designations and which ones they should/shouldn’t include in their RFP?

Make no mistake, it takes years and millions of dollars to make a meaningful brand as any realistic marketer would tell you. Most partner programs aren’t funded like a product group who could pull off a brand introduction campaign.

Your trade-off question is this: Do I have the investment to introduce a new brand or does my brand need to have some inherent meaning that customers will be able to figure out even if they weren’t exposed to a brand campaign?

3. Detail vs. interest: Yes, customers do need to know in what area the partner has expertise. But not necessarily right up front in the brand. Microsoft and other vendors are packing a lot of additional information into a brand and in doing so, become less and less interesting. The details should be unfolded or you risk losing the impact of the overall brand -- consider how a partner with multiple designations is supposed to represent themselves on a business card.

Imagine that you have a partner using the designation on their web site. Ideally, the customer should be able to click on the brand and learn more about what area the partner has earned their designation in and what that brand means by having the logo link to the vendor web site that explains the designation. You just don’t need to include all of that detail within the overall designation.

Let’s take an offline scenario: Customers might learn from a business letter that the partner has a designation. The partner then should have ready-made copy that they can use explaining their area of expertise and might include a report or letter from the vendor that proclaims and validates the details of their designation. I’d suggest you designate the word “Specialist” as the only word that is used in the brand itself. It will invite the question: “Specialist in what?” Then create ways to unfold that information out using supplemental information available in the context of the brand (web site, confirmation letters and pre-made copy).

Don’t tell the whole story inside of one brand. This was something that I had to learn and I thank the CMG team who had the discipline to apply it and school me.

Your trade-off question here is: Do you want to manage hundreds of iterations of brands to include specific detail or do you want to have the brand “Specialist” draw sufficient customer interest to seek out more information about the brand?

A specific call-out to Microsoft who is revamping their branding: I think after you go down this path of transitioning the brand, you might find:

a) Partners will be resistant to change because they don’t see the value in investing to swap out the brand (again).
b) You’ve over-engineered the competency designations so that you’ll be in a constant tangle of how to organize and orient those designations over time.
c) The only thing that matters is how much you invest in promoting the designation. So, imagine the possibility if you re-assign the re-branding budget and invest it in brand AWARENESS-BUILDING of the current brand system. It’s not too late to turn back!

In closing, here are a few unsolicited partner quotes from the past few weeks of interviews:

“The most valuable benefit is the designation - it’s being able to say that we are “certified”. We’re more reputable to perspective customers.”

"[I joined because] we wanted to obtain Gold level, for the badge of honor. "

"[We joined for] the status of having label with MS – gold partner status."

Thriftiness and Desire for Simplicity Will Shape Channel Behavior

Lisa Redburg — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:01:00 GMT

Q: Is my program bloated?

A: Most are. You're not alone. What we have to remember is, in the eye of your partner, all programs, offers and opportunities are coming from one single company.

I recently read "Understanding the Post-Recession Consumer" in the Harvard Business Review about how the trends in consumer behavior will change post recession. Basically, after 15 years of solid growth, we're feeling bloated and stressed about having so much choice. We're beginning to demand simplicity and even our most affluent counterparts are looking for thrifty options like used goods and products based on traditional values.

How does this translate to our partner channel? Well, we're all people. Consumers are consumers whether they are consuming for their business or their personal life. So, it's important to consider how these trends will impact the channel programs and the behavior of our partners.

We must SIMPLIFY:

o Offers: Work together internally to streamline offers making them simpler to leverage.

o Programs: Consolidate program opportunities into higher value, less fragmented engagements.

o Communication: Provide account managers who understand the partner business so partners can pick up the phone and talk to a live person easily getting the answer they need. IBM and SAP are doing this today even for their breadth partners; programs with the easiest engagement models will win.

o Packaging: Tackle licensing complexity so partners can sell solutions versus products.

We must be THRIFTY:

o Introduce trade-up and recycle benefits.

o Focus on building partner circles of trust and peer-groups where partners can go-to-market together rather than duplicate their efforts - more marketing, better spending, better customer value!

o Partner with associations to streamline communications; make your offers relevant to the membership base to increase adoption.

I've already seen the shift in my own experiences and it feels good to consume less and make smarter choices. There is no excuse, with the technology we have today we can segment our audiences, custom tailor our messages and search for complementary offers and programs with ease. The big bloat is over…let's get back to what's important.

Partners as a Safe Haven for Vendors

ChannelSurfing by Kris Fuehr — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:17:00 GMT

I recall my days in the Microsoft Partner Program and the growing privacy restrictions that virtually choked direct communication from Microsoft to its customers. For a while, if a customer opted-out of any of the multitude of Microsoft newsletters (and there were many), they were removed from all Microsoft newsletters and it was virtually impossible to get them back once they unsubscribed. Phone communications were pretty much forbidden. Any contact with customers was highly restricted by a multitude of privacy rules, standards and privacy laws – no wonder customers were feeling out of touch with Microsoft. You may suffer this same confinement.

Enter your partner channel.

Typically managed from a revenue-generating sales division of a vendor organization, the partner channel is not just a revenue source, but also a safe haven for your customer communications. They are often a welcomed touch by customers seeking local expertise and most importantly, much less restricted.

So how can you deliver messages through partners? Make is super-duper-easy and relevant. Partners are always looking for something to talk about with customers; so give them good, interesting and relevant content. Assemble a flexible newsletter using syndicated content from a good technology news source. (We tend to prefer Penton Media, they are among the largest and have a multitude of technology angles within their editorial. They do a great job with custom editorial projects too). This isn’t the only source, but it might help you get started.

Assemble the content into a predictable cadence and format. E.g. “The first Monday of the month, we send our partners newsletter fodder…” and give partners simple ways to deliver. Don’t ask them to spend much time and be prescriptive on how they can set it up on their own or how to blend it with their existing newsletter. I like to ask partners to include 4 types of content:

Personal connection to the customer (what is this email, and how is the sender connected to the recipient? You are getting this because…)
A technology pulse or trend that you update: security watches, new technology available, new ways of using technology, new releases on the horizon
Real-life example of how your clients are benefitting from your solutions - with permission of course
Special deals of the month: Where are the hot buys, special offers, etc. You can find these on your favorite vendors’ web sites. Don’t over engineer it, just copy and paste them in.

Great content is really compelling to partners. Use it as a way to help them be your safe haven for communications to customers.

Call us if you need any help.

Mismatched Mattress Sets, the Art of Perception and Partners

ChannelSurfing by Kris Fuehr — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 04:52:00 GMT

You may be familiar with your local mattress chain (for our area it’s Sleep Country USA) selling mis-matched mattress sets.
“You can save a bundle if you don’t care about color!”

Really now, how many mismatched sets could there possibly be in the grand supply of mattresses?

This is a game of perception management. You are led to believe that giving up something insignificant (like a sheet-covered mattress color) will earn you savings.

The beauty is that everyone is happy and no one gets hurt. You can choose not to buy a mismatched set and pay a premium price if you wish.

Let’s apply this to your channel partners. If you are looking for a promotional offer to extend through your partners without having to lower your price or cause channel conflict then think about ways of managing perception within your standardized offer.

For example:

Offer a trade-up incentive (where you can displace your competitor and the partner deploys your solution in their place). The perception is that your customer has earned the savings of a discounted offer because they have given you something in return (a crummy old technology).

But what you’ve really purchased is the displacement itself. You can take apply this logic to many scenarios.

What can you ask of the customer that earns their saving, where they put some skin in the game and the partner is there to administer the transaction for you? The possibilities are endless.

Call us if you need help,
-Kris

P2P

ChannelTXT by Siiri Sampson — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:07:00 GMT

(Passenger 2 Partner)

I don’t mean in the delivery sense, I mean turn your passenger experience into partner happiness.

When’s the last time you made a purchase that was even partially based on a handful of reviews you read?

When’s the last time you heard a story from a friend on how awful or awesome the service was at a local restaurant or automotive shop?

Chances are you’re influenced by the reviews and referrals of others more often than you realize. I recently read a short article by Triangle B2B Magazine, who is part of a neat LinkedIn community group called Channel Management Experts (login to view the group).

You should take a few minutes to read the article and the 5 lessons about business they learned from flying on Virgin Air.

If you don’t have time, here’s the bottom line: People will talk about their interaction with you, but only you can influence what it is they remember and relate to others. Personal recommendations usually carry more weight than mass marketing. Always give the control back to the customer (or in your case, channel/partner), having options for personalization or customization is key. All in all, happy customers (partners) will prove to be the best marketing investment you can make, so roll out the red carpet, and show how much you really care – a little can go a long way.

Do you agree? Let me know! We're interested in your feedback...

HS/SS

ChannelTXT by Siiri Sampson — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:02:00 GMT

(He Said/She Said)

Do you sometimes feel like you’re unsure of what channel partners might be saying ‘behind your back’?

Vendors/Manufacturers interact with their channel in various ways:

Partner Account Managers
Partner events
Certification programs
MDF programs
Competitions/incentives

All those relationships lead to various conversations and feedback. But is it the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

How do Vendors/Manufacturers get uncensored, valuable, usable feedback, without tricking channel partners into giving up their stance/opinions on products/services?
Where are you looking for feedback, beyond internal programs and operations?
Who is keeping track and funneling everything into a central repository? How are they analyzing the feedback? What are they doing with the results?

If you’re not already asking yourself the above questions, chances are there’s a lot of information and feedback from your channel out there, waiting to be collected. Information that could shape the future of your channel program, and reinforce your relationships with your partners by letting them know “We’re listening!” And we all know that strengthening those bonds will lead to more trust, and deeper belief in your products. I think you know where I’m going with this…..

We’ve been capturing this type of information for the past 6 years continuously, even as we speak. If you’re interested in knowing where to start, or how to focus into the right places, give us a shout.

DYKAWD?

ChannelTXT by Siiri Sampson — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:15:00 GMT

(Do You Know Anyone Who Does?)

Often we’re asked by colleagues and clients alike, “Do you know anyone that does….. (insert need here)?” And many times they’re surprised to hear that our answer is, “Why, yes! We do that!”

This tells us something very valuable: even if you think your friends and clients know what you do, often they have forgotten or only understand a snippet of your role, or what your company does.

Take 5 minutes, white board what you do, and who you serve. Has this changed in the past 12 months? Even if it’s the same, chances are your contacts need a refresher! Here is our client refresher email as an example:

*****

Hi [insert client name],

I can’t believe how quickly the summer seems to be rushing by; we are already preparing for Fall!

The Extra Mile team just finished our annual offsite planning meeting, during which we discussed how we’ve changed over the past year. So, I figured now is a good time to send you a quick update and let you know a few things that have been changed or added to our team:

Our four major pillars of work (and a few of specifics in each area) are:

Strategy
- Annual marketing plans
- Strategic Planning sessions
- Social marketing development
Consulting
- Marketing funding reviews
- Partner Consultations
- On-site temporary placement of marketing personnel
Execution
- Lead Generation campaigns
- Partner to Partner peer learning campaigns
- Case studies - written, video, audio
- Digital campaigns - Websites/web materials/landing pages
- Social Marketing execution
- Events
Training
- Web/teleconference training
- Marketing templates and How To Guides
- Live training courses – employee and partner

As we continue to work on being more thoughtful and strategic within our own team, we want to pass what we learn onto our clients. If you’d like to hear more about what we can do to make things more effective or easier on you, let us know!

I hope you’re enjoying the weather, and look forward to connecting with you soon,

[your name here]

*****

SW&TTP
(Short, Sweet, & To The Point)

Bridging a Fiscal Year: Rip and Replace vs. Migration

Lisa Redburg — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 22:39:00 GMT

Q: I created a program that is so much better for partners. How come I can't get any uptake?

A: It's not the new program it's that the program is new!

*Photo Credit Kate Fallucca
http://bit.ly/206FPF

June 30 marked the end of the fiscal year for many. With this comes re-organizations, new budgets, new strategies, and new owners for old programs.

Inheriting someone else's program can be a huge burden - it's tough to execute on someone else's vision and often times the measurements aren't clear cut so evaluation of how successful a program is becomes difficult.

There are two schools of thought those of us in technology should relate to:

· Rip and Replace: the act of ending one thing and starting fresh with another.

· Migration: the act of phasing out one thing as another comes online.

I favor migration. Although I believe it to be more tedious on the shoulders of the program owner, it's typically better long term and definitely better for the audience.

We recently surveyed partners and found out that on average, partners are managing nine (9) vendor programs. That's nine certification programs, nine marketing programs, nine account managers, nine technical information streams, nine different sets of offers and incentives. All on top of running a business (finances, HR, sales, strategy). Every time a vendor brings a new program online, partners need to take the time to stop and learn about it.

While launching a new program may seem like it's going to be the next great thing, the reality is, new programs ask a lot of partners.

As you begin to build your strategy for the coming year you'll come up with all kinds of great ideas for improving partner effectiveness. Before getting too excited about creating the next great thing, take time to look at the past and build a transition plan to ease the change and pave a smooth path for the partner.

**Struggling with what should stay or what should go? Don't be hard on yourself - how could you know if you're not in their business? There's nothing wrong with asking! Rarely do we see the question asked of the "program consumers" (usually partners) "What should stay and what should go?" We can help with this kind of research – just give us a buzz!**

SIFL

ChannelTXT by Siiri Sampson — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 22:22:00 GMT

(Save It For Later)

Last month, Kris over on Channel Surfing, posted on “What to do while you're waiting for your budget.” It was a great post for this time of year, when (as she mentioned) many tech channel managers are idly sitting and waiting to hear if they are getting all, or any, of their requested budget for the new fiscal year.

I highly recommend you read her post, and then read the below idea:

1. You’ve got your “Good,” “Better,” and “Best” scenarios drafted out.
2. You hear back from the higher powers that be, and now know what scenario you’ll be working with.
3. If you only get budget for the “Good” or “Better” scenario this year, save the other scenarios for later!

This fiscal year is a great opportunity to ask yourself and your team: “What would it take to incorporate one to two items from the next scenario up (ie. “Better” or “Best”) into this same budget for next year?” Whiteboard your ideas. Then, take a look at your answers and see if you can work towards setting the stage to make that a reality for the next fiscal year. No time like the present to prepare for the future!

The Balancing Act: All Art and No Science Makes Programs That Don't Perform

Lisa Redburg — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:18:00 GMT

Q: I had the best idea to make my partners more successful. What happened?

A: Creative ideas are only half of the equation - success requires a careful balance of art and science.

The key to a competitive edge is the perfect balance of art and science. Creativity is critical to coloring outside of the lines (aka - doing something your competition hasn't thought of). Logic is critical to making sure your creative solution makes sense and will get you to your goal.

Unfortunately, many of us suffer from Latch-and-Run Syndrome. We spend a great deal of time digging into the data and learning about our audience and one day a really creative idea pops into our head. Without thinking twice, we Latch onto it and Run with it - never stopping to be objective and look at the science or process of the program.

While it's good to strike while the iron is hot (excitement surrounding an idea really gets people passionate), taking a minute to build in the science will balance your program and lower your risk. A few simple steps include:

Set measureable goals: What are the X's I want to acheive?
- X Participants
- $X in Revenue
- X Partner-led Events Executed
Build a process: What needs to take place in order to make this happen?
- What do I need to do?
- What am I asking others to do?
- How do we:
  - Start?
  - Run?
  - Finish?
Set milestones: When will I review progress? When is it OK to make changes to my strategy?
- What milestones will I have?
  - Time
  - Activity
- What flags should I look for?
  - Performance: What are my go or no-go indicators? (No-go is where you have the option to shift your strategy)
  - Participation: Is my message clear? Have I communicated this enough through the right channels?

We take the time to create a strategy upfront for a reason - up front we're spending the time to think clearly through information and balancing our creativity with logic. Once we're in the throws of execution, it's easy to want to make changes and react to new ideas if our program seems to be anything short of amazing. DON'T BE TEMPTED. Success comes in one of two ways:

Lucky break: one wildly successful program
- Pros: you're a hero, your peers think you're brilliant, the success feels awesome
- Cons: it really is a lucky break,it's often a one-time thing and you can't recreate it
Balanced art & science: many programs that meet or slightly exceed the set targets
- Pros: you consistently hit objectives,you are seen as smart and reliable by your managers, overtime you make a significant impact to the bottom line, your partners like working with you because they know your programs produce results (lower risk for them)
- Cons: you get impatient with repetition, you don't get the rush that comes from wild success

Once you have your process in place - don't veer from the plan unless you hit a no-go indicator at one of your scheduled milestones. Tuck your great ideas away for the next generation of your program and stick to your strategy. Then watch the gap between you and your competition grow!

Sell big with your customer support staff

ChannelSurfing by Kris Fuehr — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:49:00 GMT

Barry Judge (BestBuy CMO) is undergoing a guaranteed-to-work experiment: To put his army of BestBuy blueshirts front-and-center with customers. You’ve probably seen the ads (in case you’ve been TiVo’ing so much that you’ve missed it, you can see the ads at the link above).

If you are a partner, you don’t have to be a multi-billion dollar company to take a few pages out of Barry’s book and give some visibility on your web site or in your sales calls to your architects, engineers and support people. Simple things: Take their pictures, post them on your site and caption their accomplishments (certifications/tests, satisfaction) and prove to them how seriously you take customer satisfaction.

If you are a vendor, you could make a very popular campaign to help partners showcase their great tech support. (It’s also a fantastic way to get away from hard-selling your own products and letting your leading partners tell their story first). If you feel compelled to bring your product into the mix, tell the story of how these great (tested/certified) experts have been brought up to speed on your newly launched GizmoTech and are ready to serve them (with you to back them).

Customers love to know that you’ll take good care of them and that you’re not just good salespeople, but good service people too.
I’m sure we’ll see big things from Barry’s experiment, and I think you would too.

Call us if you need help.

Change The Channel

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The Essential Nature of Face-to-Face

The stabilizing force of channel and 3 ways to embrace it

3 Ways to Let Partners Tell Your Story

3 Lessons in GOLD PANNING for channel management

3 things I wish I knew when I landed my Channel Marketing job 15 years ago

Interoperability and your channel partners

Use the ARC Awards to stay on the right path

Announcing The Extra Mile Marketing Concierge Desk

Three trade-offs to consider around your partner program brand(s)

Thriftiness and Desire for Simplicity Will Shape Channel Behavior

Partners as a Safe Haven for Vendors

Mismatched Mattress Sets, the Art of Perception and Partners

P2P

HS/SS

DYKAWD?

Bridging a Fiscal Year: Rip and Replace vs. Migration

Q: I created a program that is so much better for partners. How come I can't get any uptake? A: It's not the new program it's that the program is new!

Q: I created a program that is so much better for partners. How come I can't get any uptake? A: It's not the new program it's that the program is new!

Q: I created a program that is so much better for partners. How come I can't get any uptake?

SIFL

The Balancing Act: All Art and No Science Makes Programs That Don't Perform

Sell big with your customer support staff

Q: I created a program that is so much better for partners. How come I can't get any uptake?

A: It's not the new program it's that the program is new!

Q: I created a program that is so much better for partners. How come I can't get any uptake?

A: It's not the new program it's that the program is new!