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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

SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) is a simple, proven and well used method of assessing a business, its resources, and its environment. However, most partner account managers would not think of using it as the starting point in a partner or distributor review, nor in the account development process. This paper takes a … Continued

ARN brought together six vendors and six channel partners for a discussion on profitability. Moheb Moses was invited as a 3rd party industry expert to provide his observations and feedback. What follows is an edited transcript of the conversation with a number of breakouts focusing on major discussion points of the day. They include lead generation, … Continued

If you are a vendor, you probably already use a channel to go to market. But have you ever stopped to ask “why?” For most companies, the channel has been in place for so long, it’s just part of the furniture. However, an unclear vision of the role of the channel (and inconsistency within your … Continued

The ICT world is constantly awash with brilliant ideas, plans and initiatives but more often than not only a small portion of them get implemented on time, to their original intent or extent, if at all. This paper looks some ideas for implementation or making it happen. The Plan A well structured action plan is … Continued

Vendors often measure, profile and segment their partners based on sales performance. But rarely do they dig deeper to look beyond the numbers to what is driving the business. This paper looks at the concept of measuring channel trust and how it impacts on a partner’s performance and attitudes to the vendor. The research for … Continued

As I talk to resellers and vendors, I’m constantly astounded at the disconnect that exists between how these two groups view reseller sales training. Vendors often complain that resellers never remember what they learned. And resellers complain that vendors come in to talk about “speeds & feeds”, and refer to that as “sales” training. Having … Continued

Most channel professionals review the performance of their partners – distributors or resellers – on a semi regular basis. However, this is often a reactive response after a revenue target has been missed. This paper looks at the review process as being an integral part of a best practice partner management program, and a tool … Continued

In 1906, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto created a mathematical formula to describe the unequal distribution of wealth in his country, observing that twenty percent of the people owned eighty percent of the wealth. After Pareto made his observation and created his formula, many others observed similar phenomena in their own areas of expertise. Quality Management … Continued

I heard a quote the other day that “Selling should be a transfer of enthusiasm”. And as sales people, it’s our job to talk about our company or product to our customers (whether they be end-users, channel partners or alliance partners) in a way that transfers our enthusiasm. So why is that so many product … Continued