Author: Cam Wayland
Recently we were engaged by vendor client to help them work through how they would achieve the growth targets they were given, and of course willingly and gratefully accepted. Therefore I thought it was worth taking a broader channel wide view of what drives growth, not only in resellers but across the entire channel ecosystem of vendor, distributor and resellers.

An ICT reseller cannot achieve strong growth in isolation, but needs the support of an aligned channel ecosystem, as well as good business skills, dedication, determination, focus etc as well as a great product portfolio from leading vendors.

Reviewing our recent consulting assignments I offer the following observations for our top tips that will drive channel growth. The first regardless if you are a vendor, distributor or reseller the number one tip is alignment.   Read More

Social media has emerged as one of the most disruptive trends in the technology industry in recent years. But what does it mean for the channel? In this CRN article, editor David Binning explores the relevance of social media platforms for business, and talks with Channel Dynamics' Moheb Moses about how best to get on board this runaway train.

Also in this article, David interviews Olivier Choron (CEO and Founder of purechannelapps) about socialondemand - a new content syndication application that helps partners leverage their vendors' content to increase their social media presence.

Socialomics: business opportunity or opportunity cost?

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Author: Cam Wayland
Recently we were asked to review the MDF program for a vendor who was concerned that they were not getting the best return for their marketing dollars.

Part of the brief was to look at ideas that were “outside the box”, but could still be implemented rapidly across multiple regions. In addition, any solution had to be able to be measured sufficiently at senior executive level, as well as at a field or line manager level, because they felt that part of the problem was the current program had an internal disconnect of objectives.

In order to understand how we went about solving this issue, it is worth firstly taking a moment to review some of the general MDF programs issues that we have observed over the years (and this vendor was no exception to many of these).   Read More

Author: Moheb Moses
What a difference a year makes!

As channel consultants, we get a feel for the health of the industry by the type of projects we are asked to work on. And over the last twelve months we’ve seen a real shift from tactical, short-term return projects, to strategic, longer-term projects designed around building strong sustainable foundations with partners.

Last year, while the industry and general economy were still in the doldrums, most vendors only looked three months ahead, and the majority of our projects were focussed on increasing sales in the coming quarter. Many vendors established teams that had direct end-user touch, with the goal of driving business directly but still fulfilling through the channel.

Today, we see a very different (and much more positive) outlook. Projects are once again becoming more strategic in nature. There is growing recognition that simply using the channel for fulfillment is not very efficient and does not build channel profitability or loyalty. More vendors are realising that investing to properly enable partners means that those partners will be more loyal, and will play an active role in uncovering and bringing sales (especially complex solution deals) to fruition quickly and cost effectively.  Read More

Author: Cam Wayland
We often get asked to audit channel programs and incentives, in order to diagnose why channel facing staff or partners are behaving in a certain manner. In many cases, the answer comes down to the way the reward system has been structured. Partners (like staff) will always look for the easiest way to achieve target, but how they go about it may not have been what the program developer intended.

When designing a channel engagement strategy, program or promotion, the two big questions are:

1. What are you rewarding (and why)?
2. What are the unintended consequences of the reward system?