This week, hosts Charlene O'Hanlon, channel industry editor & writer, and Diane Krakora, CEO of PartnerPath, discuss some of the findings from the PartnerPath 2016 State of Partnering report around partner regrets. According to partners, what are the top three reasons they regret joining a vendor's channel program? What are the bottom two? How have these rankings changed over the last several years? Be sure your channel program isn't causing your partners to have regrets. Take a listen and let us know what you think of the results.
Channel partners act as trusted advisors for their customers.
Gone are the days of partners purchasing products from vendors or distributors, warehousing those products, configuring the solution and installing it on the customer’s site. Yes, some products are still delivered in this manner and some solution providers are still making a very good living as resellers. However, as we look to where the industry and channel ecosystem are going – this model doesn’t have long before it is obsolete. Partners are becoming trusted advisors and also taking on more cloud roles.
This week, hosts Charlene O'Hanlon, channel industry editor & writer, and Diane Krakora, CEO of PartnerPath, chat with guest George Dziedzic, Founder and Managing Director at Foster MacCallum, about the change in the vendor/partner power shift. On the heels of Chuck Robbins' comments about the power of partnerships at the Cisco Partner Summit, George notes that customers are becoming less concerned with vendor brands and are focusing more on the quality and deployment of the solution by the partners. Diane and Charlene share thoughts on how vendors can avoid being lost and remain relevant in this shift of power. Are you seeing partners take more ownership of the customer relationship? Tell us what you think.
This week, hosts Charlene O'Hanlon, channel industry editor & writer, and Diane Krakora, CEO of PartnerPath, chat about some key takeaways from last week's webinar on Power to the Partners. How are partners evaluating vendors and deciding who to engage with? What role does profitability play in this evaluation? What else is involved in this trend? Listen to their discussion and let us know what you think.
Channels design, market, sell and service a full solution for customers.
The partners you engage and enable for cloud might not be the same partners in your current program. As IT consumption moves to on-demand and subscription models, the types of partners addressing customers’ needs will shift, as will the services these solution providers offer. Channel partners of the future will manage the entire customer lifecycle – from evaluation, through purchase, adoption and usage. The channel partner who recommends a combination of policies, products and support to address a customer’s needs will truly be their trusted advisor. Not only are they the face of the solution for the customer, since they marketed and sold it, but they are also the brains. The solution provider knows how all the products and pieces work together and specifically, how they work for a particular customer. They own that customer relationship. The power is shifting to partners.
This week, hosts Charlene O'Hanlon, channel industry editor & writer, and Diane Krakora, CEO of PartnerPath, discuss the idea presented by Tim Harmon of Forrester Research in our recent webinar: that the channel is now in the age of the customer. How is today's customer changing the way the channel operates? How does this shift in the balance of power change the way both vendors and partners sell? Listen to our quick discussion and tell us what you think.
The shift to cloud consumption models changes the channel’s value.
Ten years ago, we had zero questions in our State of Partnering survey asking about cloud and last year, we devoted the study entirely to cloud. It’s not a huge leap to say cloud is affecting every aspect of channel business today. Data shows that end-customers continue to adopt on-demand consumption models, driving a change in vendor and channel ecosystems alike.
This week, hosts Charlene O'Hanlon, channel industry editor & writer, and Diane Krakora, CEO of PartnerPath, discuss the logic of why partners should or should not be part of a vendor's larger sales conference. As conference season begins, sales kickoffs often happen separately from partner conferences though much of the program information may overlap. What are the benefits or problems with inviting partners to sales kickoffs? Listen and tell us what you think!
We have a special guest this week! Listen to hosts Charlene O'Hanlon, channel industry editor & writer, and Amanda Hawkins, Marketing Director at PartnerPath, talk about the importance of digital marketing for partners. How can partners get started? To what extent should vendors help? Why should marketing start with a value proposition?
