Blog

By Diane Krakora, CEO

I'll tell you now, this is not one of those blogs where I give tips and solutions to make your channel program awesome. Rather, this is what is sometimes called “channel therapy” – a.k.a. our twice-annual channel roundtable with channel executives. We share problems, listen with empathy to ever-growing challenges and give advice to each other. At the end of these sessions someone always comments, “So, we're all facing similar problems. That's good to know. No one has it figured out.” Indeed.

By Diane Krakora, CEO

Dramatic. Yes, I’m going with ‘dramatic.’ There are a host of other words to describe the mergers and divestments, technology and culture, protests and politics of 2016. (I’ll save those for a cocktail party.) But no matter what side of the divide you stood on in any debate, 2016 was not a quiet year. But I keep telling myself change is good. Change brings new ideas, new challenges, renewed participation and unanticipated advancements.

By Diane Krakora, CEO

In our 10 years of studying trends in the partnering ecosystem, we’ve seen quite a change in not only what we study, but in the maturity of channel partners and programs.

Last year’s study on the State of Partnering revealed ten key trends changing the channel. Here are five:

By Diane Krakora, CEO 

Yes, I worded that right. I think vendors are responsible for helping partners succeed in marketing. Most partners have neither the time nor experience to be effective marketers. They need help. And frankly, better partner marketing is in everyone’s best interest. According to research shared at the recent Cisco Partner Summit, when partners bring in their own leads, they close 66 percent more deals and their deals are bigger – by as much as 300 percent.

By Diane Krakora, CEO 

If you said ‘no,’ ‘I’m not sure,’ or ‘what’s partner experience?’ we should talk. You’re missing a fantastic chance to win hearts, minds and sales by providing a great experience that brings partners back time and again. Think of the partner experience like you might your own experience as a customer. For me, there’s one local restaurant with staff who always greet me by name, find a table for me, serve the best food and keep my wine glass full. They give me a great experience and have completely cornered my loyalty (and weekly patronage). 

By Diane Krakora, CEO 

In our most recent webinar, Tim Harmon, principal analyst at Forrester Research, joined me to discuss measuring the return on channel investments (ROCI). On a high, abstract level, Tim said it’s actually very easy to measure ROCI — there’s an input (aka, the budget) and an output (aka, channel-generated revenue). “The problems come when trying to determine all those things inside the ‘black box’ — those interdependent channel programs that ultimately drive the output. They can’t determine what the effectiveness of those initiatives are at the granular channel level. That’s where it becomes nigh impossible … for them to articulate return on channel investment. There are a lot of investments being made. It’s how those individual investments affect each other that I think is the ultimate goal that most channel chiefs look to aspire.”

Use Channel Data to Drive Better Decisions

By Diane Krakora, CEO 

Those who know me know I’m a data girl. I always have been. I thrive on numbers and charts and quantifiable information.  It's increasingly important for channel leaders to collect, understand and act on data coming out of their channel initiatives to make effective decisions for growth. I'm excited to see data becoming more important in the hearts and minds of channel leaders.

By Diane Krakora, CEO

Our good friends over at Averetek share data, trends and insights in their State of Inbound Channel Marketing report. Leveraging the data from their clients and their clients’ channel partners use of the Averetek channel marketing automation platform, Averetek is uniquely positioned to analyze and share what works (and what doesn’t) in channel marketing.