10 Tips for Vendor Account Execs to Leverage Partners

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Over the last 6 months, our single most requested workshop has been training Enterprise Account Executives to better leverage partners to win business and grow revenue. From our experience, vendor account executives (ie. salespeople who engage directly with end users) can be one of the best, or worst, resources a vendor can provide for their … Continued

6 Tips for Managing Small-Medium Partners

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We were asked recently by a client to create a channel management training program specifically focused on how to engage with and manage a territory of partners that were selling to Small Medium Businesses (SMB). Most of these partners were SMBs themselves so we use the term Small Medium Partner (SMP) as they have different … Continued

The Lost Art of the Elevator Pitch

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As channel consultants, we get to work with an incredible array of different companies and technologies. And with the breakneck speed of new product releases, it’s a real challenge trying to stay on top of it all. What continues to amaze us however, is how few companies can explain what they do in a concise … Continued

5 Compelling Reasons to Revisit Your Brand Strategy

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In talking to people at the recent CompTIA event, there was an overwhelming sense that we are living amidst the biggest changes in the way we work and view the world, probably since the second world war. Technology is again at the vanguard of this change but only in response to an invisible attack from … Continued

Insights from the ANZ Channel Community

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At the last CompTIA Community Meeting, we asked the attendees to give us their observations from 2020, and their predictions for 2021. These nine charts summarise the feedback across five aspects: Revenue growth Staffing numbers Working from home Technology Business challenges 1. Revenue Growth Overall, the impact on revenue in 2020 was mixed with 44% … Continued

Reassessing Sales Incentives for MRR

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We’ve recently worked with a number of companies who needed help redesigning their sales incentive programs to drive sales of Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) through XaaS, Cloud and Managed Services, rather than traditional CapEx IT. While there may not be a single perfect incentive model for all organisations, there are certainly some valuable lessons you … Continued

Do We Really Need To Meet Customers?

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In Australia and New Zealand, restrictions have eased over the ability to meet with customers and partners in person. And as the vaccines are rolled out, it’s only a matter of time before we return to some semblance of the way meetings used to be. But just because we can meet in person, does that … Continued

Channel Management Course Scheduled for 3-4 March

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Our best-selling channel workshop – Dynamic Channel Excellence – is now scheduled for 3-4 March. This is a virtual workshop is delivered remotely by a live instructor, and is perfect for any channel professional from the technology industry, who wants to dramatically improve their channel knowledge and skills.  We cover everything from building the best … Continued

Channel Compensation Systems – You Get What You Reward

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Recently we worked with two vendors to update their channel strategy to be more MSP focused. One of the biggest hurdles was to re-align the internal and external compensation systems to support the channel partners. The old adage “you get what you pay for” was certainly true, and without change, the new channel strategy was … Continued

Implications of the Ansoff Matrix on Channel Strategy

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In last month’s article – Not Everybody Wants to Grow – we made a brief reference to the Ansoff Growth Matrix. In this month’s article, we explore this model further, and its implications for your channel strategy. Igor Ansoff was born in Russia in 1918, but is largely considered to be the father of strategic … Continued