Not Being a Trusted Advisor Can Be an Advantage

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This month I am continuing on from Moheb’s feature article in our August newsletter, that explained the four traits of being a trusted advisor. I am going to start by making a controversial comment and suggest that being a trusted advisor should NOT necessarily be the primary goal for every Channel Account Manager (CAM), and certainly … Continued

The Four Traits of a Trusted Advisor

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If I had to pick my most annoying phrase right now, it would be “Trusted Advisor”. Greatly overused, often misrepresented, and largely misunderstood, those two words are now well and truly entrenched in the “Meeting Bingo” category – they seem to get bandied about without any particular definition or consideration. But while I may hate … Continued

Getting Your Vendor’s Attention

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Author: Tamara Hodkinson The 80/20 rule is a reality that all vendors deal with when it comes to their channel revenue. By this I mean that 20% of a vendor’s channel partners will deliver 80% of their channel revenue. This is nothing new. It does however tend to mean that those larger partners (the 20%) … Continued

Use Customer Segmentation to Enable Partners

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I often ask Channel Account Managers (working for vendors or distributors) why they think their partners buy products from them. And I’ll get a range of answers from “we have the best technology” to “great service” to “a strong relationship”. But at least one person will respond with the correct answer, namely, “to sell it … Continued

Ten Lessons From Trump For Channel Managers

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On the 20th January 2017, Donald J. Trump, an American businessman and television personality with no prior government experience, became the 45th President of the United States, in what many consider to be one of the biggest upsets in American political history. Since then, he has gone on to lead what many consider to be … Continued

Rethinking Partner Enablement For Cloud

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Author: Cam Wayland We are working with a vendor that is transitioning its portfolio of products and partners to be more annuity or XaaS orientated. This includes evaluating their partner enablement material and approach so either existing or new partners could successfully sell the Cloud or XaaS solutions. Our findings suggest that using the same … Continued

Enablement Vs Certification (is there a difference?)

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Earlier this year, we wrote about the “Conscious Competence” Model and how newly recruited partners also go through the same 4 stages as newly recruited employees, and how your channel enablement style needs to change accordingly. In this article we take the concept further by overlaying a typical partner program training, enablement and certification approach, … Continued

Enable Your Partners Till They’re Unconscious

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In a previous article, I wrote about the parallels between recruiting people and recruiting partners, and how the principles we apply to recruiting staff are equally applicable to recruiting partners. Today, we look at the parallels between developing staff and enabling partners. Over the years, the “Conscious Competence” Model has become a popular and insightful … Continued