Archive for the Blog Category

How to Make Your CRM Work Harder to Generate Channel Growth

By Gary on March 22, 2016 / Activate, Blog / Leave a comment

Over the past 6-9 months I have heard many executives mention that they are using Salesforce.com and other CRM systems, but are not satisfied with the value they are getting for their channel business. They say that their CRM system is not configured to support their channel […]

Channel Incentive Programs that Earn Greater Revenue, ROI, & Partner Commitment Levels

By Gary on February 29, 2016 / Advance, Blog / 2 Comments

With over $70B in channel discounts and incentives forecasted to be spent in 2016, company finance executives are asking about the return that is generated on these investments. The traditional response “this is the cost of doing business” is no longer acceptable and finance executives are expecting […]

6 Ways to Turn Your Channel Managers into High Powered Partner Growth Consultants

By Gary on February 8, 2016 / Advance, Blog / 1 Comment

Most companies that sell their products or services through an indirect channel have a team of “Channel Account Managers” to work with their partners to build their business. The channel account management (CAM) staff is one of the biggest investments that most organizations make to encourage growth […]

Partner Marketing Scorecards for Better MDF ROI

By Gary on January 19, 2016 / Advertise, Blog / Leave a comment

Effective sales-lead generation marketing is hard work, and doing it well is difficult for even seasoned marketers. It is no surprise that channel partners / resellers struggle to build and execute marketing programs that generate quality sales leads and growth opportunities using MDF (Market Development Funds). Partner-led […]

Download a Tech Partner Cloud Profitability Roadmap

By Gary on November 19, 2015 / Attract, Blog / Leave a comment

Doesn’t it seem like technology partners / resellers are the ones that got the short end of the stick in the industry’s move to cloud services? All the other players in the market (e.g., tech vendors, distributors, & tech buyers) had the least amount of change required […]

9 Key Success Factors for Higher ROI Channel MDF

By Gary on November 3, 2015 / Advertise, Blog / Leave a comment

It is estimated that over $10 billion dollars are spent every year on Market Development Funds (MDF), Cooperative Funds (Coop), or Business Development Funds (BDF) to support the marketing and growth efforts for partners and resellers in the indirect channel industry. All channel executives agree that the […]

Partner Scorecard Systems that Motivate and Improve Partner Commitment Levels

By Gary on October 14, 2015 / Activate, Blog / Leave a comment

Every channel organization is looking to find ways to motivate their partners to build competencies and measure their progress to higher performance. Partners also want growth for your brand’s sales, as long as it aligns with their goals. A way to get a disproportionate percentage of your […]

Six Tools to Turn Channel Managers into Rock Stars for Your Brand

By Gary on September 15, 2015 / Advance, Blog / Leave a comment

Your senior executive team will be cheering your channel managers with their concert lighter phone apps for the fantastic job they are doing driving new revenue growth for your channel. This is because your channel managers will be transformed into high performance partner business growth consultants who […]

The Reimagined 10 Minute Partner Quarterly Business Review (QBR)

By Gary on August 17, 2015 / Architect, Blog / Leave a comment

Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) are one of the most important – and difficult and inefficient -processes used by your indirect channel team. They are critical to building a strong and growing relationship between the vendor and the partner. But they are also anxiety-producing for the partner receiving […]

10 Minute Partner Quarterly Marketing Plan, Calendar, Budget, Lead Forecast & ROI – Part B

By Gary on July 14, 2015 / Advertise, Blog / Leave a comment

A channel marketer’s dream… a detailed quarterly partner marketing plan you can believe in, complete with goals and strategies, budget, lead and revenue forecast, and an ROI calculated in 10-20 minutes. With channel planning and modelling tools available today, this is not only possible but strongly recommended. In fact, […]