Channel Management – A New Era

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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 … Continued

What Else Is On The Menu

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You probably never thought that eating a salad could help you grow your business! In this article that appeared in CRN, Moheb Moses talks about the dangers of assuming how much your customers actually know about your business, and gives some valuable advice on how you can build stronger relationships with customers. http://www.crn.com.au/News/168877,opinion-what-else-is-on-the-menu.aspx

Play To Your Strength

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I know it sounds absurd in today’s environment, but I used to work for a distributor selling a word processor, and we used to make 30% margin (before you start thinking I was being greedy, I’ll say that our resellers also made that kind of margin). The year was 1988 and the product was WordPerfect. … Continued

The IDEAL Vendor

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In a previous article about Partner Recruitment, we talked about partner profitability, and the need to provide a compelling value proposition for partners to want to sell your product. In today’s economic climate this has never been more valid. Partners are driven by profit. Not revenue, not discount percentage, not market share; … Profit. And … Continued

Managing the Channel in Uncertain Times

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As the press fluctuates between “doom and gloom” and “light at the end of the tunnel” scenarios, the only thing we can be certain of in the short term is “uncertainty”. And while the financial system is predominantly at the centre of this turmoil, the current global financial situation (coupled with the significantly lower and … Continued

Getting Your Message Across

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Selling has been described as “a transfer of enthusiasm.” And as sales people, it’s our job to talk about our company or product to our customers (and in some cases, our suppliers) in a way that transfers our enthusiasm. In this article that appeared in CRN, Moheb Moses shares several simple steps on how to … Continued

Sell To Your Vendor

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Vendors often complain that they have allocated Marketing Development Funds (MDF or Co-Op) to resellers, but it’s not being used. And resellers will complain that they would like to find ways to grow their business but don’t have the money to do it. In this article that appeared in ARN, Moheb Moses shares his thoughts … Continued

Partner Recruitment – “Selection” not “Collection”

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The success of any business is largely dependent on the quality of people it recruits. Similarly for vendors, the success of a channel program is largely dependent on the quality of partner it recruits. However, few vendors really devote as much time to their partner recruitment strategy as they do to their staff recruitment. In … Continued

What’s Your Value Proposition

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It is amazing to me that so few resellers can articulate their value proposition succinctly. I know they have one. They wouldn’t be in business if their customers didn’t see value in them. But it seems to me that only a very small minority has ever spent the time to sit down and clarify what … Continued

Be A Consultant To Your Channel

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In our last newsletter, we discussed the difference between Features, Benefits and Advantages, and the importance of being able to genuinely identify the needs of your partners (or end-users, if you happen to be a reseller account manager). In this article, we will delve deeper into this topic of identifying needs, and show you an … Continued