Daniel Nissan

If you’re like me, you’ve been testing out the unbelievable capabilities of generative AI on sites like ChatGPT and DALL-E. Their ability to generate text and images from natural language defies comprehension. While new technology is always a threat to the status quo, smart folks are thinking about how to leverage this technology to develop new products and launch new careers. One such individual is Daniel Nissan, Founder and CEO of StructuredWeb. Daniel has the mind of an engineer and the spirit of an entrepreneur. He and his company have developed the first channel content generation engine using generative AI called ChannelGBT. Daniel shares the boundless potential Channel GBT to transform the way channel partners create highly customized marketing materials.  KEY TAKEAWAYS Here’s what I learned from Daniel about generative AI and ChannelGBT.  GPT stands for Generative Pre-Trained Transformer. It a very large language model.  The power of GPT stems from the size, speed and training of the model. The cost to develop and train a GPT model can be hundreds of millions to billions of dollars. That’s why we see companies like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon behind these advancements. The cost is forecasted to drop by 80% to 90% over the next five years, which will bring new entrants and even greater advances in the technology.  StructuredWeb looked for ways to bring GPT to the channel in a simple way that doesn’t require people to become experts. ChannelGPT addresses the long standing challenge of generating and customizing a wide range of marketing content for partners.  With ChannelGPT you can take generic content and generate highly specific content for a particular industry, use case, market segment, even in a different language.  LINKS &amp; RESOURCES  Follow Daniel on LinkedIn  Learn more about ChannelGPT Sign up for RAGBRAI, the great bike ride across Iowa!The post Daniel Nissan: The Unlimited Power of GPT for Channel Marketing first appeared on Channel Journeys.

<p>If you’re like me, you’ve been testing out the unbelievable capabilities of generative AI on sites like <a href="https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">ChatGPT</a> and <a href="https://openai.com/dall-e-2" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">DALL-E</a>. Their ability to generate text and images from natural language defies comprehension. While new technology is always a threat to the status quo, smart folks are thinking about how to leverage this technology to develop new products and launch new careers.</p> <p>One such individual is Daniel Nissan, Founder and CEO of StructuredWeb. Daniel has the mind of an engineer and the spirit of an entrepreneur. He and his company have developed the first channel content generation engine using generative AI called ChannelGBT. Daniel shares the boundless potential Channel GBT to transform the way channel partners create highly customized marketing materials. </p> <h4>KEY TAKEAWAYS</h4> <p>Here’s what I learned from Daniel about generative AI and ChannelGBT.</p> <ul> <li>GPT stands for Generative Pre-Trained Transformer. It a very large language model.  The power of GPT stems from the size, speed and training of the model.</li> <li>The cost to develop and train a GPT model can be hundreds of millions to billions of dollars. That’s why we see companies like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon behind these advancements.</li> <li>The cost is forecasted to drop by 80% to 90% over the next five years, which will bring new entrants and even greater advances in the technology. </li> <li>StructuredWeb looked for ways to bring GPT to the channel in a simple way that doesn’t require people to become experts.</li> <li>ChannelGPT addresses the long standing challenge of generating and customizing a wide range of marketing content for partners. </li> <li>With ChannelGPT you can take generic content and generate highly specific content for a particular industry, use case, market segment, even in a different language.</li> </ul> <h4>LINKS &amp; RESOURCES</h4> <ul> <li>Follow Daniel on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielnissan/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn </a></li> <li>Learn more about <a href="https://info.structuredweb.com/channelgpt-learn-more" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">ChannelGPT</a></li> <li>Sign up for <a href="https://ragbrai.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">RAGBRAI</a>, the great bike ride across Iowa!</li></ul>The post <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/daniel-nissan-unlimited-power-gpt-channel-marketing-gpt-cj115/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Daniel Nissan: The Unlimited Power of GPT for Channel Marketing</a> first appeared on <a href="https://channeljourneys.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Journeys</a>.

Daniel Nissan: The Unlimited Power of GPT for Channel Marketing

As the IT channel transitions from large on-premise deals to smaller recurring revenue SaaS deals, customer success is more important than ever.  And while vendors are very accustomed to using partners to drive new sales, many have not yet realized the important role partners can play in customer success.   In this podcast reboot, Hope Galley shares how Cisco is enabling partners to drive customer success through an innovative partner program. At the time of this interview, Hope was Sales Director of Software and Services in Cisco’s America’s Partner Organization. She is now the Cisco Meraki Global Sales Leader. KEY TAKEAWAYS Cisco places a huge importance on customer success. Here’s what I learned from Hope on how they are transforming their channel to play a front-seat role.  Customer success is a lot more than the initial sale. It’s about what comes after that. Post-sales support, adoption, and expansion are vitally important to you and your customers’ growth and success. As many companies move to the SaaS model, customer obsession is even more important to reduce churn and, better yet, reach negative churn. Start by looking at your partners and your partner ecosystem as a whole. Look at their staff, their business processes, their financial incentives, how they recognize revenue, how adaptive they are, and how open they are to change. Cisco created the Lifecycle Advantage Program to enable partners to drive customer success.  The purpose of the program is to align the partner’s services to the customers’ software life-cycle.    With the Lifecycle Advantage Program, Cisco provides opportunities and incentive rewards to help partners land, adopt, expand, and renew business. Partners are evaluated for the program based on how committed they are to meeting with Cisco, going through the metrics, and whether they have some sort of customer success motion where they’ve been successful.  LINKS &amp; RESOURCES  Follow Hope on LinkedIn  Pick up a copy of Customer Success. Read about the Cisco’s Lifecycle Advantage Program or watch the video Check out the TSIA blog to look at what they’re talking to customers about their leading industry indicators.The post Hope Galley: How to Leverage Partners to Drive Customer Success first appeared on Channel Journeys.

<p>As the IT channel transitions from large on-premise deals to smaller recurring revenue SaaS deals, customer success is more important than ever.  And while vendors are very accustomed to using partners to drive new sales, many have not yet realized the important role partners can play in customer success.  </p> <p>In this podcast reboot, Hope Galley shares how Cisco is enabling partners to drive customer success through an innovative partner program. At the time of this interview, Hope was Sales Director of Software and Services in Cisco’s America’s Partner Organization. She is now the Cisco Meraki Global Sales Leader.</p> <h4>KEY TAKEAWAYS</h4> <p>Cisco places a huge importance on customer success. Here’s what I learned from Hope on how they are transforming their channel to play a front-seat role.</p> <ul> <li>Customer success is a lot more than the initial sale. It’s about what comes after that. Post-sales support, adoption, and expansion are vitally important to you and your customers’ growth and success.</li> <li>As many companies move to the SaaS model, customer obsession is even more important to reduce churn and, better yet, reach negative churn.</li> <li>Start by looking at your partners and your partner ecosystem as a whole. Look at their staff, their business processes, their financial incentives, how they recognize revenue, how adaptive they are, and how open they are to change.</li> <li>Cisco created the Lifecycle Advantage Program to enable partners to drive customer success.  The purpose of the program is to align the partner’s services to the customers’ software life-cycle.</li> </ul> <p></p> <ul> <li>With the Lifecycle Advantage Program, Cisco provides opportunities and incentive rewards to help partners land, adopt, expand, and renew business.</li> <li>Partners are evaluated for the program based on how committed they are to meeting with Cisco, going through the metrics, and whether they have some sort of customer success motion where they’ve been successful.</li> </ul> <h4>LINKS &amp; RESOURCES</h4> <ul> <li>Follow Hope on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/hope-galley/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn </a></li> <li>Pick up a copy of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Customer-Success-Innovative-Companies-Recurring/dp/1119167965" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Customer Success</a>.</li> <li>Read about the <a href="https://ebooks.cisco.com/story/lcaoverview/page/1?ccid=cc000857&amp;dtid=odiotr001287" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Cisco’s Lifecycle Advantage Program</a> or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBKRk9Ug6HQ" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">watch the video</a></li> <li>Check out the <a href="https://www.tsia.com/blog" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">TSIA blog</a> to look at what they’re talking to customers about their leading industry indicators.</li></ul>The post <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/hope-galley-how-leverage-partners-drive-customer-success-cj114/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Hope Galley: How to Leverage Partners to Drive Customer Success</a> first appeared on <a href="https://channeljourneys.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Journeys</a>.

Hope Galley: How to Leverage Partners to Drive Customer Success

Last week I was busy enjoying the BeyondTrust Go Beyond partner and customer event in Miami. The theme, tied to the Formula One race taking place, was Accelerate. We kicked off the event with Partner Connect day, discussing how we can accelerate our partner ecosystem to drive faster growth and faster time to value for customers. I sat with three of our partners to talk about our Partner Connect day and the impact of our partner ecosystem strategy. Joining me is Justin Christiansen, Enterprise Account Executive at Amazon Web Services (AWS), Michael Fleming, Practice Manager – Security, Identity &amp; Access Management at XMS Solutions, and Sean Remnant, Chief Strategy Officer at Ignition Technology. KEY TAKEAWAYS Here are five takeaways on our partners’ view of our partner ecosystem strategy:  Partners of all types can see the value of bringing different partners into an account to sell and deliver the full solution and drive a business outcome. Hyperscalers like AWS depend on their partner network to co-sell and deliver the full solution running on their platform. The role of the distributor is changing to more of an orchestrator of the partner ecosystem, bringing in all the partners needed for customer success. Distributors are also expanding their capabilities on the technical side, helping with pre-sales demonstrations as well as post-sales delivery to capture higher margins. Delivery partners want to work more closely with the vendor sales reps, and other partner reps, to be a team player in the ecosystem.  LINKS &amp; RESOURCES  Connect with Justin, Sean, and Michael on LinkedIn Listen to the last Partner Panel on How to Build a Modern Partner Ecosystem Find out the Top 10 Skills of Ecosystem LeadersThe post What Partners Really Think of Your Ecosystem Strategy – CJ113 first appeared on Channel Journeys.

<p>Last week I was busy enjoying the BeyondTrust Go Beyond partner and customer event in Miami. The theme, tied to the Formula One race taking place, was Accelerate. We kicked off the event with Partner Connect day, discussing how we can accelerate our partner ecosystem to drive faster growth and faster time to value for customers.</p> <p>I sat with three of our partners to talk about our Partner Connect day and the impact of our partner ecosystem strategy. Joining me is Justin Christiansen, Enterprise Account Executive at Amazon Web Services (AWS), Michael Fleming, Practice Manager – Security, Identity &amp; Access Management at XMS Solutions, and Sean Remnant, Chief Strategy Officer at Ignition Technology.</p> <h4>KEY TAKEAWAYS</h4> <p>Here are five takeaways on our partners’ view of our partner ecosystem strategy:</p> <ol> <li>Partners of all types can see the value of bringing different partners into an account to sell and deliver the full solution and drive a business outcome.</li> <li>Hyperscalers like AWS depend on their partner network to co-sell and deliver the full solution running on their platform.</li> <li>The role of the distributor is changing to more of an orchestrator of the partner ecosystem, bringing in all the partners needed for customer success.</li> <li>Distributors are also expanding their capabilities on the technical side, helping with pre-sales demonstrations as well as post-sales delivery to capture higher margins.</li> <li>Delivery partners want to work more closely with the vendor sales reps, and other partner reps, to be a team player in the ecosystem.</li> </ol> <h4>LINKS &amp; RESOURCES</h4> <ul> <li>Connect with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-christiansen-78a9711a/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Justin</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/remnantsean/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Sean</a>, and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mhfleming/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Michael</a> on LinkedIn</li> <li>Listen to the last Partner Panel on <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/rob-spee-how-to-build-a-modern-partner-ecosystem/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">How to Build a Modern Partner Ecosystem</a></li> <li>Find out the <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/janet-schijns-top-10-skills-ecosystem-leaders-cj107/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Top 10 Skills of Ecosystem Leaders</a></li></ul>The post <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/what-partners-think-ecosystem-strategy-cj113/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">What Partners Really Think of Your Ecosystem Strategy – CJ113</a> first appeared on <a href="https://channeljourneys.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Journeys</a>.

What Partners Really Think of Your Ecosystem Strategy – CJ113

Taylor Macdonald

Where do you look for completely new partner types to add to your ecosystem? How do you build a SaaS partner program that attracts new partners? To answer these questions, I went back to an earlier podcast with channel veteran Taylor Macdonald. In this episode reboot, Taylor shares how he won big with a modern partner program and a less conventional sales channel as channel chief at Sage Intacct. Taylor describes what many vendors are doing wrong and what a best-in-class partner program and philosophy, that he calls “Channel 3.0” , looks like. He provides a long list of ways  you can catapult your channel sales. It all boils down to focusing on one singular priority; making your partners successful. KEY TAKEAWAYS  Taylor uses alternative channels to find partners who truly understand customers’ business and accounting challenges. Partners do not like programs with tiers and get tired of spiffs and incentives. Instead, they want a program that rewards all partners equally. Be selective in who you allow into your program. Don’t be afraid to ask more of them, as long as you’re providing more. And weed out the bottom performers every year. If your partners ask for additional discount, ask for something in return, like requiring them to follow your sales process. If you believe your number one goal is to make your partners successful, you have to ask if your organization is aligned to that goal.  LINKS &amp; RESOURCES  Find Taylor on LinkedIn Check out Taylor on How to Double Revenue with a Hybrid SaaS ChannelThe post Taylor Macdonald: Driving Growth through Alternative Channels first appeared on Channel Journeys.

<p>Where do you look for completely new partner types to add to your ecosystem? How do you build a SaaS partner program that attracts new partners? To answer these questions, I went back to an earlier podcast with channel veteran Taylor Macdonald. In this episode reboot, Taylor shares how he won big with a modern partner program and a less conventional sales channel as channel chief at Sage Intacct.</p> <p>Taylor describes what many vendors are doing wrong and what a best-in-class partner program and philosophy, that he calls “Channel 3.0” , looks like. He provides a long list of ways  you can catapult your channel sales. It all boils down to focusing on one singular priority; making your partners successful.</p> <h4>KEY TAKEAWAYS</h4> <ul> <li>Taylor uses alternative channels to find partners who truly understand customers’ business and accounting challenges.</li> <li>Partners do not like programs with tiers and get tired of spiffs and incentives. Instead, they want a program that rewards all partners equally.</li> <li>Be selective in who you allow into your program. Don’t be afraid to ask more of them, as long as you’re providing more. And weed out the bottom performers every year.</li> <li>If your partners ask for additional discount, ask for something in return, like requiring them to follow your sales process.</li> <li>If you believe your number one goal is to make your partners successful, you have to ask if your organization is aligned to that goal.</li> </ul> <h4>LINKS &amp; RESOURCES</h4> <ul> <li>Find <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylormacdonald/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Taylor on LinkedIn</a></li> <li>Check out Taylor on <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/taylor-macdonald-double-revenue-with-hybrid-saas-channel-cj69/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">How to Double Revenue with a Hybrid SaaS Channel</a></li></ul>The post <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/taylor-macdonald-driving-growth-alternative-channels-cj112/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Taylor Macdonald: Driving Growth through Alternative Channels</a> first appeared on <a href="https://channeljourneys.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Journeys</a>.

Taylor Macdonald: Driving Growth through Alternative Channels

Bart Fanelli

Driving the transformation to a partner ecosystem strategy requires new skills and new conversations. How do you enable your CAMs, your sales reps, and your partners to behave differently, to work together in new ways? Bart Fanelli, CEO and Founder of Skillibrium, recently shared how leaders and managers can shift from command and control to coaching and collaboration in an interview with Karen Mangia. In today’s podcast, Bart shares how to apply his five step approach to turn channel leaders and managers into effective coaches to drive the ecosystem transformation. KEY TAKEAWAYS Here are the five coaching steps channel leaders and channel managers can use to execute your partner ecosystem strategy:  Establish a role-based sales methodology baseline. Your baseline is the grounding mechanism for coaching. Be sure to include how to work with your partner ecosystem in one cohesive methodology. Ask the person you’re coaching for an outline of the problem in a simple framework such as “current situation, challenges occurring, desired situation.” Offer to schedule time to “strategize and determine our next actions” grounded on your baseline methodology. This helps determine the person’s willingness to be coached. Let the person you’re coaching lead the scheduled meeting and determine the appropriate actions. That way you’re developing the skills the person needs to do it on their own. Recap the meeting and who is responsible for the next actions and hold them accountable to the outcome.  LINKS &amp; RESOURCES  Connect with Bart on LinkedIn Read Karen’s interview with Bart On How Leaders and Managers Can Become Better Coaches Check out the X-Mentor interview of Bart on Designing GTM Growth Get Bart’s book The Success Cadence Sign up for the Murph ChallengeThe post Bart Fanelli: Moving from Channel Leader to Channel Coach first appeared on Channel Journeys.

<p>Driving the transformation to a partner ecosystem strategy requires new skills and new conversations. How do you enable your CAMs, your sales reps, and your partners to behave differently, to work together in new ways? Bart Fanelli, CEO and Founder of Skillibrium, recently shared how leaders and managers can shift from command and control to coaching and collaboration in an interview with Karen Mangia. In today’s podcast, Bart shares how to apply his five step approach to turn channel leaders and managers into effective coaches to drive the ecosystem transformation.</p> <h4>KEY TAKEAWAYS</h4> <p>Here are the five coaching steps channel leaders and channel managers can use to execute your partner ecosystem strategy:</p> <ol> <li>Establish a role-based sales methodology baseline. Your baseline is the grounding mechanism for coaching. Be sure to include how to work with your partner ecosystem in one cohesive methodology.</li> <li>Ask the person you’re coaching for an outline of the problem in a simple framework such as “current situation, challenges occurring, desired situation.”</li> <li>Offer to schedule time to “strategize and determine our next actions” grounded on your baseline methodology. This helps determine the person’s willingness to be coached.</li> <li>Let the person you’re coaching lead the scheduled meeting and determine the appropriate actions. That way you’re developing the skills the person needs to do it on their own.</li> <li>Recap the meeting and who is responsible for the next actions and hold them accountable to the outcome.</li> </ol> <h4>LINKS &amp; RESOURCES</h4> <ul> <li>Connect with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bartfanelli/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Bart on LinkedIn</a></li> <li>Read Karen’s interview with Bart <a href="https://medium.com/authority-magazine/moving-from-command-control-to-coaching-collaboration-bart-fanelli-of-skillibrium-on-how-b04226146dbb" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">On How Leaders and Managers Can Become Better Coaches</a></li> <li>Check out the <a href="https://xmentor.substack.com/p/the-x-interviews-the-language-of?sd=pf" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">X-Mentor interview of Bart on Designing GTM Growth</a></li> <li>Get Bart’s book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Success-Cadence-David-Mattson/dp/0578498103" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">The Success Cadence</a></li> <li>Sign up for the <a href="https://themurphchallenge.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Murph Challenge</a></li></ul>The post <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/bart-fanelli-channel-leader-to-channel-coach-cj111/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Bart Fanelli: Moving from Channel Leader to Channel Coach</a> first appeared on <a href="https://channeljourneys.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Journeys</a>.

Bart Fanelli: Moving from Channel Leader to Channel Coach

Darren Bibby

Many times I’ve come across the beginnings of a partner business that lacks the discipline to really take off. How do you take a fledgling partner business from a bumpy dirt road into a high capacity freeway? Darren Bibby, CEO and Founder of AlignedPartner, shares the five top things you can do to scale your partner business to maximize growth and value add from your partnerships. KEY TAKEAWAYS Here are Five Things That Will Make the Difference to Scale Your Partner Business  “Programatize” Everything. You need to transition from one-off agreements and discretionary discounts to a formalized partner program and consistent rules of engaging partners of different types. Document Everything. Put all your legal terms and conditions into a standard partner agreement and all your program benefits and requirements into a partner program guide for your external partners. Create field guides and rules of engagement for your internal teams. Build Partner Support Teams. Whether they sit in the partner organization or distributed within other departments, partners need people who provide sales, technical, and marketing support. One lower-cost way is to build an offshore channel operations and program support team that can do all of the back-office work like cleaning up partner data records, checking data quality, and making sure the portal is working as expected. Harmonize with Direct Sales. Getting your sales team working with your partners can be the most challenging item, but also the most rewarding. Make it as easy as possible to work with partners and lower the barriers. Provide comp neutrality so the reps can earn the same amount whether they work with a partner or not, both for sales and services. Automate your Systems and Processes. Much of the daily administrative work can be automated through an ever growing number of channel technologies including a partner portal, partner performance dashboards, and account mapping tools.  LINKS &amp; RESOURCES  Connect with Darren on LinkedIn Learn about the Murph Challenge Hear How to Build an Ecosystem Partner ProgramThe post Darren Bibby: Five Ways to Scale Your Partner Business first appeared on Channel Journeys.

<p>Many times I’ve come across the beginnings of a partner business that lacks the discipline to really take off. How do you take a fledgling partner business from a bumpy dirt road into a high capacity freeway? Darren Bibby, CEO and Founder of <a href="https://www.alignedpartner.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">AlignedPartner</a>, shares the five top things you can do to scale your partner business to maximize growth and value add from your partnerships.</p> <h4>KEY TAKEAWAYS</h4> <p>Here are Five Things That Will Make the Difference to Scale Your Partner Business</p> <ol> <li>“Programatize” Everything. You need to transition from one-off agreements and discretionary discounts to a formalized partner program and consistent rules of engaging partners of different types.</li> <li>Document Everything. Put all your legal terms and conditions into a standard partner agreement and all your program benefits and requirements into a partner program guide for your external partners. Create field guides and rules of engagement for your internal teams.</li> <li>Build Partner Support Teams. Whether they sit in the partner organization or distributed within other departments, partners need people who provide sales, technical, and marketing support. One lower-cost way is to build an offshore channel operations and program support team that can do all of the back-office work like cleaning up partner data records, checking data quality, and making sure the portal is working as expected.</li> <li>Harmonize with Direct Sales. Getting your sales team working with your partners can be the most challenging item, but also the most rewarding. Make it as easy as possible to work with partners and lower the barriers. Provide comp neutrality so the reps can earn the same amount whether they work with a partner or not, both for sales and services.</li> <li>Automate your Systems and Processes. Much of the daily administrative work can be automated through an ever growing number of channel technologies including a partner portal, partner performance dashboards, and account mapping tools.</li> </ol> <h4>LINKS &amp; RESOURCES</h4> <ul> <li>Connect with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrenbibby/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Darren on LinkedIn</a></li> <li>Learn about the <a href="https://themurphchallenge.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Murph Challenge</a></li> <li>Hear <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/tim-mackie-how-build-ecosystem-partner-program-cj83/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">How to Build an Ecosystem Partner Program</a></li></ul>The post <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/darren-bibby-five-ways-scale-partner-business-cj110/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Darren Bibby: Five Ways to Scale Your Partner Business</a> first appeared on <a href="https://channeljourneys.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Journeys</a>.

Darren Bibby: Five Ways to Scale Your Partner Business

Josh Lewis

With all the focus on building partner ecosystems, we can’t forget about driving partner performance. This interview was recorded four years ago when Josh Lewis was the Vice President of Global Channels at Alteryx, an analytics firm on hyper-growth. The lessons learned are just as relevant and impactful today. The channel strategy that got Alteryx to a $50M company wasn’t going to scale and continue fueling hyper-growth. The channel program reached a plateau. As a result, Josh needed to take a different approach to accelerate channel performance. KEY TAKEAWAYS Here are five tips I learned from Josh on how to accelerate partner performance:  Cull non-productive partners who aren’t willing or able to re-engage and commit. Take a data-driven, targeted approach to recruit new partners who have vertical industry or functional area expertise. Having a channel-friendly culture makes it easier to accelerate growth. Likewise, so does recruiting partners with cultures that match your company culture. Seek ways to fuse your brand experience into your partner program. Align your channel teams and partners to the sales teams to gain sales relevancy. Coach your channel managers to develop trust internally with your sales team and externally with your partners. When you’re looking to double the business you need to hire partner managers who have intellectual curiosity, are interested in the big picture, and have both a direct and indirect sales background. Then empower and enable them to think as general managers running a franchise.  LINKS &amp; RESOURCES  Connect with Josh on LinkedIn Learn about the Murph Challenge Don’t forget your KPIs for the Modern Partner EcosystemThe post Josh Lewis: Driving Breakthrough Partner Performance first appeared on Channel Journeys.

<p>With all the focus on building partner ecosystems, we can’t forget about driving partner performance. This interview was recorded four years ago when Josh Lewis was the Vice President of Global Channels at Alteryx, an analytics firm on hyper-growth. The lessons learned are just as relevant and impactful today.</p> <p>The channel strategy that got Alteryx to a $50M company wasn’t going to scale and continue fueling hyper-growth. The channel program reached a plateau. As a result, Josh needed to take a different approach to accelerate channel performance.</p> <h4>KEY TAKEAWAYS</h4> <p>Here are five tips I learned from Josh on how to accelerate partner performance:</p> <ol> <li>Cull non-productive partners who aren’t willing or able to re-engage and commit.</li> <li>Take a data-driven, targeted approach to recruit new partners who have vertical industry or functional area expertise.</li> <li>Having a channel-friendly culture makes it easier to accelerate growth. Likewise, so does recruiting partners with cultures that match your company culture. Seek ways to fuse your brand experience into your partner program.</li> <li>Align your channel teams and partners to the sales teams to gain sales relevancy. Coach your channel managers to develop trust internally with your sales team and externally with your partners.</li> <li>When you’re looking to double the business you need to hire partner managers who have intellectual curiosity, are interested in the big picture, and have both a direct and indirect sales background. Then empower and enable them to think as general managers running a franchise.</li> </ol> <h4>LINKS &amp; RESOURCES</h4> <ul> <li>Connect with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuaalexanderlewis/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Josh on LinkedIn</a></li> <li>Learn about the <a href="https://themurphchallenge.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Murph Challenge</a></li> <li>Don’t forget your <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/joe-golemba-kpis-for-modern-partner-ecosystem-cj94/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">KPIs for the Modern Partner Ecosystem</a></li></ul>The post <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/josh-lewis-driving-channel-partner-performance-cj109/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Josh Lewis: Driving Breakthrough Partner Performance</a> first appeared on <a href="https://channeljourneys.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Journeys</a>.

Josh Lewis: Driving Breakthrough Partner Performance

Olli Fleischhut

Over time, many vendors have created multiple partner programs to cater to different partner types, markets, and business units. But partners want simplicity, predictability, and ease of doing business. Multiple partner programs do just the opposite. Olli Fleischhut, VP Marketing at Honeywell Building Technologies, faced this very challenge. He shares how they simplified and consolidated a vast number of partner programs into one global program that drives partner success. KEY TAKEAWAYS Here are ten tips I learned from Olli on how to simplify and consolidate down to one global partner program:  Consolidating your programs starts by taking the partners’ perspective and determining how they define success. Learn what partners need to be successful and build your program benefits and partner enablement to meet those needs. Determine what KPIs really define growth for your partners’ success. Leverage your advisory boards. Honeywell has technology advisory boards, distributor advisory boards, and customer advisory boards Automate and standardize. Your partner technology stack needs to support your program and your partners. Start small. Honeywell started in a particular country with a small group of 20 people. They ran the new program for a while, got the feedback and then improved before rolling out the global program. Don’t sacrifice quality for speed in rolling out your program improvements. Partner enablement and continuous feedback loops on your enablement for improvements is vital. Change is never easy. Make sure you bring everyone in the company along on your transformation journey. At the end of the day, the success of a partner program is if partners are successful and end customers are happy.  LINKS &amp; RESOURCES  Connect with Ollie on LinkedIn Learn about the Murph Challenge Hear How to Build a Modern Ecosystem Partner ProgramThe post Olli Fleischhut: How to Simplify to One Partner Program first appeared on Channel Journeys.

<p>Over time, many vendors have created multiple partner programs to cater to different partner types, markets, and business units. But partners want simplicity, predictability, and ease of doing business. Multiple partner programs do just the opposite. Olli Fleischhut, VP Marketing at Honeywell Building Technologies, faced this very challenge. He shares how they simplified and consolidated a vast number of partner programs into one global program that drives partner success.</p> <h4>KEY TAKEAWAYS</h4> <p>Here are ten tips I learned from Olli on how to simplify and consolidate down to one global partner program:</p> <ol> <li>Consolidating your programs starts by taking the partners’ perspective and determining how they define success.</li> <li>Learn what partners need to be successful and build your program benefits and partner enablement to meet those needs.</li> <li>Determine what KPIs really define growth for your partners’ success.</li> <li>Leverage your advisory boards. Honeywell has technology advisory boards, distributor advisory boards, and customer advisory boards</li> <li>Automate and standardize. Your partner technology stack needs to support your program and your partners.</li> <li>Start small. Honeywell started in a particular country with a small group of 20 people. They ran the new program for a while, got the feedback and then improved before rolling out the global program.</li> <li>Don’t sacrifice quality for speed in rolling out your program improvements.</li> <li>Partner enablement and continuous feedback loops on your enablement for improvements is vital.</li> <li>Change is never easy. Make sure you bring everyone in the company along on your transformation journey.</li> <li>At the end of the day, the success of a partner program is if partners are successful and end customers are happy.</li> </ol> <h4>LINKS &amp; RESOURCES</h4> <ul> <li>Connect with Ollie on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/fleischhut/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a></li> <li>Learn about the <a href="https://themurphchallenge.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Murph Challenge</a></li> <li>Hear How to <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/tim-mackie-how-build-ecosystem-partner-program-cj83/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Build a Modern Ecosystem Partner Program</a></li></ul>The post <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/olli-fleischhut-how-simplify-one-partner-program-cj108/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Olli Fleischhut: How to Simplify to One Partner Program</a> first appeared on <a href="https://channeljourneys.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Journeys</a>.

Olli Fleischhut: How to Simplify to One Partner Program

Janet Schijns

What’s a partner ecosystem leader? Who can become one? What are the most important traits? Those are questions I posed to Janet Schijns, CEO of the JS Group. Janet shares the top ten skills sales and channel leaders need to become ecosystem leaders. If you’re a sales rep looking to leverage the ecosystem or a channel leader with your eyes on becoming a Chief Ecosystem Officer, this podcast is for you. KEY TAKEAWAYS Channel pros, just because you’ve worked in the channel for years, it doesn’t mean you’re getting that top ecosystem leader job. Here are the ten critical skills you need to not only to stand out but to succeed as an ecosystem leader:  Understand what’s happening with partner programs and have the skills to know what’s needed to develop an ecosystem partner program. Shift your strategic focus from the channel as an expansion or replacement of sales to a strategic focus on co-selling. Sellers need to get the notion of owning an account out their head. Don’t block your partners from engaging you on an account. Embrace them. Train your sales reps to become managers and influencers of their ecosystem. And train your Sales RVPs to become Ecosystems RVPs, levering the full partner ecosystem to drive sales growth. The technology expertise you need now as an ecosystem leader is to understand the tools that will aid your ecosystem to do the job better. That includes PRM systems, account mapping tools, and automated partner services orchestration. Gain the financial acumen to read an annual report, understand how EBITDA is calculated, and be able to have financial conversations with your partners and their business models. Learn how to use digital marketing to stimulate demand. Today’s B2B buyers rely far more on digital information in their buying journey, spending less and less time with sales reps. Companies that provide customers the information they need, when they need it, through the channels they prefer, are best positioned to drive success. Gain the ability to see the future that others haven’t seen yet by spending time with the folks who are going to influence the behavior of tomorrow. Don’t spend your time with the same partners at every event. Go out and meet the influencers in your industry. Practice proactive listening. You need to get to the right watering holes and listen to what end customers, analysts, and partners are saying. Dedicate 20 or 30 minutes a day of going to the online watering holes like Reddit, LinkedIn, and Facebook, or hire an intern or an agency like JSG to do it for you. Build communities bottoms up instead of top down. Who will be the most important ecosystem leaders 3 year, 5 years, 10 years from now? Start by asking where will your customers be? What communities will they be listening to? Last, but not least, gain the skills to build your own brand and become a partner ecosystem influencer. This is the decade of ecosystem influence!  LINKS &amp; RESOURCES  Connect with Janet on LinkedIn Read how Traditional B2B Sales and Marketing Are Becoming Obsolete Gain financial acumen by signing up for free finance courses on Corsera Learn How To Become Channel Influencer in 3 Easy StepsThe post Janet Schijns: Top 10 Skills of Ecosystem Leaders first appeared on Channel Journeys.

<p>What’s a partner ecosystem leader? Who can become one? What are the most important traits? Those are questions I posed to Janet Schijns, CEO of the JS Group. Janet shares the top ten skills sales and channel leaders need to become ecosystem leaders. If you’re a sales rep looking to leverage the ecosystem or a channel leader with your eyes on becoming a Chief Ecosystem Officer, this podcast is for you.</p> <h4>KEY TAKEAWAYS</h4> <p>Channel pros, just because you’ve worked in the channel for years, it doesn’t mean you’re getting that top ecosystem leader job. Here are the ten critical skills you need to not only to stand out but to succeed as an ecosystem leader:</p> <ol> <li>Understand what’s happening with partner programs and have the skills to know what’s needed to develop an ecosystem partner program.</li> <li>Shift your strategic focus from the channel as an expansion or replacement of sales to a strategic focus on co-selling. Sellers need to get the notion of owning an account out their head. Don’t block your partners from engaging you on an account. Embrace them.</li> <li>Train your sales reps to become managers and influencers of their ecosystem. And train your Sales RVPs to become Ecosystems RVPs, levering the full partner ecosystem to drive sales growth.</li> <li>The technology expertise you need now as an ecosystem leader is to understand the tools that will aid your ecosystem to do the job better. That includes PRM systems, account mapping tools, and automated partner services orchestration.</li> <li>Gain the financial acumen to read an annual report, understand how EBITDA is calculated, and be able to have financial conversations with your partners and their business models.</li> <li>Learn how to use digital marketing to stimulate demand. Today’s B2B buyers rely far more on digital information in their buying journey, spending less and less time with sales reps. Companies that provide customers the information they need, when they need it, through the channels they prefer, are best positioned to drive success.</li> <li>Gain the ability to see the future that others haven’t seen yet by spending time with the folks who are going to influence the behavior of tomorrow. Don’t spend your time with the same partners at every event. Go out and meet the influencers in your industry.</li> <li>Practice proactive listening. You need to get to the right watering holes and listen to what end customers, analysts, and partners are saying. Dedicate 20 or 30 minutes a day of going to the online watering holes like Reddit, LinkedIn, and Facebook, or hire an intern or an agency like JSG to do it for you.</li> <li>Build communities bottoms up instead of top down. Who will be the most important ecosystem leaders 3 year, 5 years, 10 years from now? Start by asking where will your customers be? What communities will they be listening to?</li> <li>Last, but not least, gain the skills to build your own brand and become a partner ecosystem influencer. This is the decade of ecosystem influence!</li> </ol> <h4>LINKS &amp; RESOURCES</h4> <ul> <li>Connect with Janet on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/janetschijns" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a></li> <li>Read how <a href="https://hbr.org/2022/02/traditional-b2b-sales-and-marketing-are-becoming-obsolete" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Traditional B2B Sales and Marketing Are Becoming Obsolete</a></li> <li>Gain financial acumen by signing up for free finance courses on <a href="https://www.coursera.org/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Corsera</a></li> <li>Learn <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/janet-schijns-channel-influencer-cj38/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">How To Become Channel Influencer in 3 Easy Steps</a></li></ul>The post <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/janet-schijns-top-10-skills-ecosystem-leaders-cj107/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Janet Schijns: Top 10 Skills of Ecosystem Leaders</a> first appeared on <a href="https://channeljourneys.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Journeys</a>.

Janet Schijns: Top 10 Skills of Ecosystem Leaders

Maciej Danielski

Last episode, I spoke with Jay McBain about how to turbocharge your channel career. In this episode, I join Maciej Danielski, host of the Channel Voices podcast, to discuss my role as Global Channel Chief at BeyondTrust. I share my channel journey, the responsibilities of a channel chief, and some practical advice for those who aspire to sit in the top channel seat. LINKS &amp; RESOURCES  Connect with Maciej on LinkedIn Subscribe to the Partner Voices Podcast Learn How To Turbocharge Your Channel CareerThe post Maciej Danielski: The Role of a Channel Chief first appeared on Channel Journeys.

<p>Last episode, I spoke with Jay McBain about how to turbocharge your channel career. In this episode, I join Maciej Danielski, host of the Channel Voices podcast, to discuss my role as Global Channel Chief at BeyondTrust. I share my channel journey, the responsibilities of a channel chief, and some practical advice for those who aspire to sit in the top channel seat.</p> <h4>LINKS &amp; RESOURCES</h4> <ul> <li>Connect with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mdanielski/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Maciej on LinkedIn</a></li> <li>Subscribe to the <a href="https://www.channelvoices.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Partner Voices Podcast</a></li> <li>Learn <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/jay-mcbain-turbocharge-your-channel-career-cj105/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">How To Turbocharge Your Channel Career</a></li></ul>The post <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/maciej-danielski-role-channel-chief-cj106/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Maciej Danielski: The Role of a Channel Chief</a> first appeared on <a href="https://channeljourneys.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Journeys</a>.

Maciej Danielski: The Role of a Channel Chief

Welcome to Channel Journeys, THE podcast for channel sales and marketing professionals that will enable and inspire you to create your best channel journey ever.  Meet and learn from channel experts who share their channel journeys and lessons they’ve learned along the way. We’ll cover a wide range of topics to address challenges including how to make your channel team more effective, how to reach more customers by finding the right partner, and how to make your own channel journey more successful.

Rob&#39;s podcast guests always have timely, relevant insights into the state of the channel now, and where it&#39;s going. I look forward to every episode to learn more about working with and developing the channel.

Put Channel Journeys in your Channel toolkit!

Rob is an excellent moderator and brings on quality guests who really understand the channel.  Well worth your time!

Very relevant

Channel Journeys Podcast

Gary Lowe

Do you have what it takes to make the leap to channel partner? CJ9. This episode of Channel Journeys features Gary Lowe.  Gary is an adventure seeker, a channel pro, and now he’s the CEO of his managed services company called Think IT Ai. He earned his channel chops at the value-add distributor Tech Data where he worked with leading vendors and hundreds of partners. Gary tells why he decided to make the leap to becoming a channel partner and the lessons he’s learned along the way.  He shares some unique tips for handling the pressure of running the entire show and learning new skills faster.  And Gary provides newcomers to the channel some career tips for navigating their channel journey. KEY TAKEAWAYS  Working for an IT distributor is an excellent way for someone starting their career to get a crash course on the channel. You learn how to “talk channel” and hear the perspectives of both the vendors and the partners. When deciding your career path, picture yourself as a man or women at the end of your days. Think about what you want that person to say about your life and the things you did that really mattered. When you’re feeling knocked down, you can re-energize by learning something completely new and different Apply the 80/20 rule to learning; figure out the 20% that gives 80% of the results and focus on learning that first.  SHOW NOTES [3:00] Gary is an adventure seeker but has learned to go after the adventures that advance his goals in life. [5:40] As a distributor, Gary got to help channel partners grow their businesses. Loved helping people, but realized he was helping other people reach their dreams, but not pursuing his own dream. [8:00] Talking with a partner opened his eyes to the possibility of becoming a channel partner by launching his own IT managed services company. Named his company ThinkIT-AI because of the opportunity to build AI into their service offerings. [10:00] As an MSP, ThinkIT-AI remotely monitors and manages clients end-points and acts as their clients virtual CIO. They charge by the person, not by end-point. Sweet spot is smaller companies with between 5 and 25 employees. [13:00] Gary’s mentor is channel titan Pete Peterson who brought him into Tech Data. [16:00] Gary recommends everyone get a chance to work with a distributor to learn channels from some of the largest and best in the industry. [19:00] Channel speak is a universal language. Working at Tech Data taught Gary how to speak Channel with any company. [21:30] Gary still follow’s his dad’s advice when trying to decide what career path to follow. His dad said to imagine the man you want to be at the end of your days. What do you want this man to say about your life and all the great things you’ve accomplished? [22:00] Following Tech Data, Gary joined Syniverse, a communications company with the world largest private network, understand their business, their market, their customers. Working on introducing Syniverse to indirect channel sales by becoming their first channel partner. [26:30] Biggest realization now that he’s sitting in partner owner’s seat is how much is on his plate having to think about every aspect of the business. Now sees why partners aren’t always as interested in distributor and partner program elements as you’d expect. [29:00] When confidence shakes, he has no option but to push through. Sees failure as a learning apparatus. [31:30] Advice to other startups, no matter what you’re going through it’s not that bad. You can push through. Follow your instincts. Use that grit. Stick with it. [32:30] When knocked down, Gary re-energizes by learning something new. Now he’s learning to play the ukulele. He gains the benefit of moving forward in an area outside of where he’s getting beaten down. [36:00] Gary applies the 80/20 rule to learning. By discovering the 20% that gives 80% of the results, he accelerates his learning by focusing on learning the 20%. [39:00] The three things Gary wants to do in life is to be a good son, a good husband, and good father. LINKS &amp; RESOURCES  Find Gary Lowe on LinkedIn Learn more about Think IT AiThe post Gary Lowe: From Channel Pro to Channel Partner first appeared on Channel Journeys.

<h4>Do you have what it takes to make the leap to channel partner?</h4> <p>CJ9. This episode of Channel Journeys features Gary Lowe.  Gary is an adventure seeker, a channel pro, and now he’s the CEO of his managed services company called <a href="https://thinkitai.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Think IT Ai</a>. He earned his channel chops at the value-add distributor Tech Data where he worked with leading vendors and hundreds of partners.</p> <p>Gary tells why he decided to make the leap to becoming a channel partner and the lessons he’s learned along the way.  He shares some unique tips for handling the pressure of running the entire show and learning new skills faster.  And Gary provides newcomers to the channel some career tips for navigating their channel journey.</p> <h4>KEY TAKEAWAYS</h4> <ul> <li>Working for an IT distributor is an excellent way for someone starting their career to get a crash course on the channel. You learn how to “talk channel” and hear the perspectives of both the vendors and the partners.</li> <li>When deciding your career path, picture yourself as a man or women at the end of your days. Think about what you want that person to say about your life and the things you did that really mattered.</li> <li>When you’re feeling knocked down, you can re-energize by learning something completely new and different</li> <li>Apply the 80/20 rule to learning; figure out the 20% that gives 80% of the results and focus on learning that first.</li> </ul> <h4>SHOW NOTES</h4> <p>[3:00] Gary is an adventure seeker but has learned to go after the adventures that advance his goals in life.</p> <p>[5:40] As a distributor, Gary got to help channel partners grow their businesses. Loved helping people, but realized he was helping other people reach their dreams, but not pursuing his own dream.</p> <p>[8:00] Talking with a partner opened his eyes to the possibility of becoming a channel partner by launching his own IT managed services company. Named his company ThinkIT-AI because of the opportunity to build AI into their service offerings.</p> <p>[10:00] As an MSP, ThinkIT-AI remotely monitors and manages clients end-points and acts as their clients virtual CIO. They charge by the person, not by end-point. Sweet spot is smaller companies with between 5 and 25 employees.</p> <p>[13:00] Gary’s mentor is channel titan Pete Peterson who brought him into Tech Data.</p> <p>[16:00] Gary recommends everyone get a chance to work with a distributor to learn channels from some of the largest and best in the industry.</p> <p>[19:00] Channel speak is a universal language. Working at Tech Data taught Gary how to speak Channel with any company.</p> <p>[21:30] Gary still follow’s his dad’s advice when trying to decide what career path to follow. His dad said to imagine the man you want to be at the end of your days. What do you want this man to say about your life and all the great things you’ve accomplished?</p> <p>[22:00] Following Tech Data, Gary joined Syniverse, a communications company with the world largest private network, understand their business, their market, their customers. Working on introducing Syniverse to indirect channel sales by becoming their first channel partner.</p> <p>[26:30] Biggest realization now that he’s sitting in partner owner’s seat is how much is on his plate having to think about every aspect of the business. Now sees why partners aren’t always as interested in distributor and partner program elements as you’d expect.</p> <p>[29:00] When confidence shakes, he has no option but to push through. Sees failure as a learning apparatus.</p> <p>[31:30] Advice to other startups, no matter what you’re going through it’s not that bad. You can push through. Follow your instincts. Use that grit. Stick with it.</p> <p>[32:30] When knocked down, Gary re-energizes by learning something new. Now he’s learning to play the ukulele. He gains the benefit of moving forward in an area outside of where he’s getting beaten down.</p> <p>[36:00] Gary applies the 80/20 rule to learning. By discovering the 20% that gives 80% of the results, he accelerates his learning by focusing on learning the 20%.</p> <p>[39:00] The three things Gary wants to do in life is to be a good son, a good husband, and good father.</p> <h4>LINKS &amp; RESOURCES</h4> <ul> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-anthony-lowe-a5483614/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Find Gary Lowe on LinkedIn</a></li> <li>Learn more about <a href="https://thinkitai.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Think IT Ai</a></li></ul>The post <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/gary-lowe-channel-partner-cj9/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Gary Lowe: From Channel Pro to Channel Partner</a> first appeared on <a href="https://channeljourneys.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Journeys</a>.

Gary Lowe: From Channel Pro to Channel Partner

Mike Kelly

What does it take to create a Channel Profession? CJ7. This episode features Mike Kelly, founder of the Channel Institute. Inspired by entrepreneurs like Richard Branson and Elon Musk, Mike loves Big Hairy Audacious Goals like scaling mountains and running marathons. But these adventures look easy compared to Mike’s most audacious goal yet. He is on a mission to turn channels, and roles like channel management and channel marketing, into a profession. Websters defines a profession as a calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive academic preparation. For many of us, channel is our calling.  The goal of the Channel Institute, and the Channel Journeys podcast, is to share specialized knowledge, elevate the channel, and turn this calling into a profession. SHOW NOTES [3:30] Mike grew up in Dublin, his favorite drink is black with a creamy white head! Favorite food is game pie. [4:30] Of his many adventures, one of his most memorable is a joy ride flying with just the pilot over Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, Africa. They’re in a small plane with wooden a propeller, that turned out to be rotten. As their flying over the jungle, the propeller blew off and they crash landed into the jungle! [6:30] Mike is more than active. His outdoor sports include sea kayaking, mountaineering, running marathons, surfing, and skiing. [7:45] Since he was 13, Mike wanted to be an entrepreneur. Studied marketing to learn how to create value and demand. Won a green card lottery to work in a marketing agency in Boston.  Met his business partner and launched a marketing agency, TSL.  After reaching over 300 employees, sold TSL to launch Ridge Consulting to help tech companies grow their channel and channel partners. [10:30] Earned a Charter Director certificate, a gold standard for business strategy in the UK. He took the strenuous 2-year program to help him run his own business, be a better business consultant, and eventually join the board of directors for a charity. [12:45] Launched the Channel Institute to fill the skills gap found among channel managers at the lower end. No one is teaching the fundamentals. His mission is to make channel management a channel profession.  Formed an industry council with tech leaders to validate the courses to ensure content is hitting the mark. [16:30] Channel  Institute only one year old, but already gaining momentum, forming partnerships with Universities and vendor training academies. Focused on the fundamentals and look for ways to dovetail into other courses. [18:00] His target audience includes:  Channel managers, who can earn a Certificate in Channel Management and a Certificate in Channel Sales Channel marketers, who can earn a Certificate in Channel Marketing and  a Certificate in Digital Co-Marketing) Channel partners, who can earn a Certificate in Digital Co-Marketing  [20:00] Even vendors with “gold-star” channel marketing teams are coming to the Channel Institute to gain digital co-marketing skills. [22:00] Provides the channel management and channel sales certificates to meet the needs of channel managers who are more business consultant and the ones who are more sales focused. [22:45] Sees a lot of people taking the course who pay out of their own pocket because they’ve been dropped into the role without any training. [24:15] Biggest challenge in launching Channel Institute – being a small company trying to teach the religion of a channel profession. [27:00] Sending a channel manager on a solution selling course designed for field sales people without first providing training on channel fundamentals is kind of pointless. Make sure they have the fundamentals first so they can combine the two skills. [28:30] Mike’s inspiration comes from entrepreneurs with Big Hairy Audacious Goals like Richard Branson and Elon Musk. The have confidence, audacity, and vision. [31:00] Channel Institute is a stepping stone for we as an industry to up our game and make channels a profession. Let’s treat our profession with more respect and give new people entering channels a lot more support. [32:00] Channel technology is great. But don’t forget the soft skills. LINKS &amp; RESOURCES  Find Mike Kelly on LinkedIn Channel Institute Certificate in Channel Marketing Certificate in Channel Sales Certificate in Digital Co-MarketingThe post Mike Kelly: Creating a Channel Profession first appeared on Channel Journeys.

<h4>What does it take to create a Channel Profession?</h4> <p>CJ7. This episode features Mike Kelly, founder of the <a href="https://www.channelinstitute.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Institute</a>. Inspired by entrepreneurs like Richard Branson and Elon Musk, Mike loves Big Hairy Audacious Goals like scaling mountains and running marathons. But these adventures look easy compared to Mike’s most audacious goal yet. He is on a mission to turn channels, and roles like channel management and channel marketing, into a profession.</p> <p>Websters defines a profession as a calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive academic preparation. For many of us, channel is our calling.  The goal of the Channel Institute, and the Channel Journeys podcast, is to share specialized knowledge, elevate the channel, and turn this calling into a profession.</p> <h4>SHOW NOTES</h4> <p>[3:30] Mike grew up in Dublin, his favorite drink is black with a creamy white head! Favorite food is game pie.</p> <p>[4:30] Of his many adventures, one of his most memorable is a joy ride flying with just the pilot over Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, Africa. They’re in a small plane with wooden a propeller, that turned out to be rotten. As their flying over the jungle, the propeller blew off and they crash landed into the jungle!</p> <p>[6:30] Mike is more than active. His outdoor sports include sea kayaking, mountaineering, running marathons, surfing, and skiing.</p> <p>[7:45] Since he was 13, Mike wanted to be an entrepreneur. Studied marketing to learn how to create value and demand. Won a green card lottery to work in a marketing agency in Boston.  Met his business partner and launched a marketing agency, TSL.  After reaching over 300 employees, sold TSL to launch Ridge Consulting to help tech companies grow their channel and channel partners.</p> <p>[10:30] Earned a Charter Director certificate, a gold standard for business strategy in the UK. He took the strenuous 2-year program to help him run his own business, be a better business consultant, and eventually join the board of directors for a charity.</p> <p>[12:45] Launched the Channel Institute to fill the skills gap found among channel managers at the lower end. No one is teaching the fundamentals. His mission is to make channel management a channel profession.  Formed an industry council with tech leaders to validate the courses to ensure content is hitting the mark.</p> <p>[16:30] Channel  Institute only one year old, but already gaining momentum, forming partnerships with Universities and vendor training academies. Focused on the fundamentals and look for ways to dovetail into other courses.</p> <p>[18:00] His target audience includes:</p> <ul> <li>Channel managers, who can earn a <a href="https://www.channelinstitute.com/courses/channel-managers" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Certificate in Channel Management</a> and a <a href="https://www.channelinstitute.com/courses/strategic-channel-sales" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Certificate in Channel Sales</a></li> <li>Channel marketers, who can earn a <a href="https://www.channelinstitute.com/courses/channel-marketers" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Certificate in Channel Marketing</a> and  a <a href="https://www.channelinstitute.com/courses/digital" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Certificate in Digital Co-Marketing</a>)</li> <li>Channel partners, who can earn a <a href="https://www.channelinstitute.com/courses/digital" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Certificate in Digital Co-Marketing</a></li> </ul> <p>[20:00] Even vendors with “gold-star” channel marketing teams are coming to the Channel Institute to gain digital co-marketing skills.</p> <p>[22:00] Provides the channel management and channel sales certificates to meet the needs of channel managers who are more business consultant and the ones who are more sales focused.</p> <p>[22:45] Sees a lot of people taking the course who pay out of their own pocket because they’ve been dropped into the role without any training.</p> <p>[24:15] Biggest challenge in launching Channel Institute – being a small company trying to teach the religion of a channel profession.</p> <p>[27:00] Sending a channel manager on a solution selling course designed for field sales people without first providing training on channel fundamentals is kind of pointless. Make sure they have the fundamentals first so they can combine the two skills.</p> <p>[28:30] Mike’s inspiration comes from entrepreneurs with Big Hairy Audacious Goals like Richard Branson and Elon Musk. The have confidence, audacity, and vision.</p> <p>[31:00] Channel Institute is a stepping stone for we as an industry to up our game and make channels a profession. Let’s treat our profession with more respect and give new people entering channels a lot more support.</p> <p>[32:00] Channel technology is great. But don’t forget the soft skills.</p> <h4>LINKS &amp; RESOURCES</h4> <ul> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-kelly-a64b2aa9/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Find Mike Kelly on LinkedIn</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.channelinstitute.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Institute</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.channelinstitute.com/courses/channel-marketers" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Certificate in Channel Marketing</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.channelinstitute.com/courses/strategic-channel-sales" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Certificate in Channel Sales</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.channelinstitute.com/courses/digital" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Certificate in Digital Co-Marketing</a></li></ul>The post <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/mike-kelly-channel-profession-cj7/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mike Kelly: Creating a Channel Profession</a> first appeared on <a href="https://channeljourneys.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Journeys</a>.

Mike Kelly: Creating a Channel Profession

Ryan Walsh

Pax8’s mission to redefine cloud distribution What is the role of distributors in this age of Cloud and SaaS? That’s the question we answer in this episode with Ryan Walsh, Chief Channel Officer and co-founder of Pax8. Ryan and his fellow co-founders took a different approach in building Pax8 to support every piece of the partner journey in buying and selling Cloud products. We talk about the role of the channel, channel incentive models, and the unique challenges of Cloud distribution that Pax8 is solving. Ryan shares what he looks for in a cloud vendor and the profile of the most successful managed service providers (MSPs). KEY TAKEAWAYS What makes Cloud distribution so different?  Cloud partners need a cloud marketplace with automated provisioning and integration with their PSA (Professional Services Automation) system. They also need marketing, pre and post-sales, and billing support, solution stack guidance, and other tools to help them grow their cloud service business. Many MSPs (Managed Service Providers) don’t have the ability to support monthly subscription billing. Their cloud distributor’s billing system should be able to handle it for them. Vendors need help supporting the billing motion of thousands of partners getting monthly invoices. Using a cloud distributor allows the vendor to just send one invoice per month. Ryan and his co-founders launched Pax8 as a born-in-the-cloud distributor to find a better way to aggregate and offer cloud offerings to MSPs. They now serve over 6500 MSPs through their cloud marketplace.  Most Successful Partners  The most successful MSPs are shedding their old model and have gone all-in on cloud-based products. Those with more than 50% of their revenue from cloud offerings are growing faster and are more profitable.  What Pax8 looks for in a Vendor  Commitment to the channel A high-quality proven solution with great support Great margin for the partners (in the 20% to 30% range) Automated provisioning and an API to billing data A commitment to the Pax8 mission to redefine how distribution works in the cloud.  SHARE THIS Saying Pax8’s cloud marketplace is the same as all the others is like saying Uber is the same as Yellow Cab. @walshrrClick To Tweet The MSPs that are killing it are the ones that have gone all in on cloud-based products. @walshrrClick To Tweet LINKS &amp; RESOURCES  Follow Ryan on Twitter and LinkedIn Learn more about Value-Added Distribution from Matt Reaves The post Ryan Walsh: What’s so different about Cloud Distribution? first appeared on Channel Journeys.

<h4>Pax8’s mission to redefine cloud distribution</h4> <p>What is the role of distributors in this age of Cloud and SaaS? That’s the question we answer in this episode with Ryan Walsh, Chief Channel Officer and co-founder of <a href="http://www.pax8.com" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Pax8</a>. Ryan and his fellow co-founders took a different approach in building Pax8 to support every piece of the partner journey in buying and selling Cloud products.</p> <p>We talk about the role of the channel, channel incentive models, and the unique challenges of Cloud distribution that Pax8 is solving. Ryan shares what he looks for in a cloud vendor and the profile of the most successful managed service providers (MSPs).</p> <h4>KEY TAKEAWAYS</h4> <h5><strong>What makes Cloud distribution so different</strong>?</h5> <ul> <li>Cloud partners need a cloud marketplace with automated provisioning and integration with their PSA (Professional Services Automation) system. They also need marketing, pre and post-sales, and billing support, solution stack guidance, and other tools to help them grow their cloud service business.</li> <li>Many MSPs (Managed Service Providers) don’t have the ability to support monthly subscription billing. Their cloud distributor’s billing system should be able to handle it for them.</li> <li>Vendors need help supporting the billing motion of thousands of partners getting monthly invoices. Using a cloud distributor allows the vendor to just send one invoice per month.</li> <li>Ryan and his co-founders launched Pax8 as a born-in-the-cloud distributor to find a better way to aggregate and offer cloud offerings to MSPs. They now serve over 6500 MSPs through their cloud marketplace.</li> </ul> <h5><strong>Most Successful Partners</strong></h5> <ul> <li>The most successful MSPs are shedding their old model and have gone all-in on cloud-based products. Those with more than 50% of their revenue from cloud offerings are growing faster and are more profitable.</li> </ul> <h5><strong>What Pax8 looks for in a Vendor</strong></h5> <ol> <li>Commitment to the channel</li> <li>A high-quality proven solution with great support</li> <li>Great margin for the partners (in the 20% to 30% range)</li> <li>Automated provisioning and an API to billing data</li> <li>A commitment to the Pax8 mission to redefine how distribution works in the cloud.</li> </ol> <h4>SHARE THIS</h4> <p><em>Saying Pax8’s cloud marketplace is the same as all the others is like saying Uber is the same as Yellow Cab. @walshrr</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Fryan-walsh-pax8-cloud-distribution-cj22%2F&amp;text=Saying%20Pax8%E2%80%99s%20cloud%20marketplace%20is%20the%20same%20as%20all%20the%20others%20is%20like%20saying%20Uber%20is%20the%20same%20as%20Yellow%20Cab.%20%40walshrr&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><p><em>The MSPs that are killing it are the ones that have gone all in on cloud-based products. @walshrr</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Fryan-walsh-pax8-cloud-distribution-cj22%2F&amp;text=The%20MSPs%20that%20are%20killing%20it%20are%20the%20ones%20that%20have%20gone%20all%20in%20on%20cloud-based%20products.%20%40walshrr&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><h4>LINKS &amp; RESOURCES</h4> <ul> <li>Follow Ryan on <a href="https://twitter.com/walshrr" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanmwalsh1/" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a></li> <li>Learn more about <a href="https://robspee.com/matt-reaves-swimming-sharks-drilling-distribution/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Value-Added Distribution</a> from Matt Reaves</li> </ul>The post <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/ryan-walsh-pax8-cloud-distribution-cj22/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ryan Walsh: What’s so different about Cloud Distribution?</a> first appeared on <a href="https://channeljourneys.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Journeys</a>.

Ryan Walsh: What’s so different about Cloud Distribution?

John DeLozier

What makes a successful company decide to shift their business from direct to channel? In the case of 8×8, it was the vision of the CEO who saw the channel as the way to take the company to the next level. In this episode, the last one of 2019, I have the real pleasure of interviewing 8×8’s head of global channels, John DeLozier. In just a year and a half, John and team have gone from 100% direct to over 60% of the business going through the channel. John shares how 8×8 is making the shift to 100% channel with the help of a mind-blowing partner program they call Elev8. KEY TAKEAWAYS The Route to 100% Direct  A successful channel program is a give and take. Expect to give your partner as much as they give you. 8×8 takes blitz days to an all new level. They invade the partners office with a sales and marketing team and a pre-nurtured call list. They hit the phones with the partner’s reps with an old-school dialing campaign. And they do this 60 to 70 times a quarter! You need to understand your partner’s battlefield. Go to them and see where their rubber meets the road. Be flexible and adjust your incentive model to fit the partner’s business model. Whether they’re an agent, a VAR, an MSP, an ISV, or an alliance partner. Let them decide how they will take your offering to the world. Let your partners build their professional services and IP on top of your software. Be there to back them up, enable them, but don’t compete with them. Be genuine. Be interested in everyone no matter their level. Be ready to jump in the weeds with them. Be focused on your partners’ success.  SHARE THIS We want to feel the dirt with our partners. We want to understand their environment, their battlefield, where their rubber meets the road, where they make the sales. @jldelozier3Click To Tweet We care about getting our software to the world, whether that's through a master agent, a VAR, an MSP, or an alliance partner…Let them decide how they will take it to the world. We just want them to do it. @jldelozier3Click To Tweet We believe in our partners, we support our partners, we are with our partners, we aren't looking at the things that we don't need to look at, we just want them to be successful. @jldelozier3Click To Tweet LINKS &amp; RESOURCES  Follow John on LinkedIn and on Twitter Learn more about the Elev8 Partner Program Listen to how Janet Schijns became Channel Influencer of the Year The post John DeLozier: How to Shift from 100% Direct to 100% Channel first appeared on Channel Journeys.

<p>What makes a successful company decide to shift their business from direct to channel? In the case of <a href="http://www.8x8.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">8×8</a>, it was the vision of the CEO who saw the channel as the way to take the company to the next level. In this episode, the last one of 2019, I have the real pleasure of interviewing 8×8’s head of global channels, John DeLozier. In just a year and a half, John and team have gone from 100% direct to over 60% of the business going through the channel. John shares how 8×8 is making the shift to 100% channel with the help of a mind-blowing partner program they call Elev8.</p> <h4>KEY TAKEAWAYS</h4> <h5>The Route to 100% Direct</h5> <ul> <li>A successful channel program is a give and take. Expect to give your partner as much as they give you.</li> <li>8×8 takes blitz days to an all new level. They invade the partners office with a sales and marketing team and a pre-nurtured call list. They hit the phones with the partner’s reps with an old-school dialing campaign. And they do this 60 to 70 times a quarter!</li> <li>You need to understand your partner’s battlefield. Go to them and see where their rubber meets the road.</li> <li>Be flexible and adjust your incentive model to fit the partner’s business model. Whether they’re an agent, a VAR, an MSP, an ISV, or an alliance partner. Let them decide how they will take your offering to the world.</li> <li>Let your partners build their professional services and IP on top of your software. Be there to back them up, enable them, but don’t compete with them.</li> <li>Be genuine. Be interested in everyone no matter their level. Be ready to jump in the weeds with them. Be focused on your partners’ success.</li> </ul> <h4>SHARE THIS</h4> <p><em>We want to feel the dirt with our partners. We want to understand their environment, their battlefield, where their rubber meets the road, where they make the sales. @jldelozier3</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Fjohn-delozier-100-percent-channel-cj41%2F&amp;text=We%20want%20to%20feel%20the%20dirt%20with%20our%20partners.%20We%20want%20to%20understand%20their%20environment%2C%20their%20battlefield%2C%20where%20their%20rubber%20meets%20the%20road%2C%20where%20they%20make%20the%20sales.%20%40jldelozier3&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><p><em>We care about getting our software to the world, whether that's through a master agent, a VAR, an MSP, or an alliance partner…Let them decide how they will take it to the world. We just want them to do it. @jldelozier3</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Fjohn-delozier-100-percent-channel-cj41%2F&amp;text=We%20care%20about%20getting%20our%20software%20to%20the%20world%2C%20whether%20that%27s%20through%20a%20master%20agent%2C%20a%20VAR%2C%20an%20MSP%2C%20or%20an%20alliance%20partner%E2%80%A6Let%20them%20decide%20how%20they%20will%20take%20it%20to%20the%20world.%20We%20just%20want%20them%20to%20do%20it.%20%40jldelozier3&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><p><em>We believe in our partners, we support our partners, we are with our partners, we aren't looking at the things that we don't need to look at, we just want them to be successful. @jldelozier3</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Fjohn-delozier-100-percent-channel-cj41%2F&amp;text=We%20believe%20in%20our%20partners%2C%20we%20support%20our%20partners%2C%20we%20are%20with%20our%20partners%2C%20we%20aren%27t%20looking%20at%20the%20things%20that%20we%20don%27t%20need%20to%20look%20at%2C%20we%20just%20want%20them%20to%20be%20successful.%20%40jldelozier3&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><h4>LINKS &amp; RESOURCES</h4> <ul> <li>Follow John on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/johndelozier24/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a> and on <a href="http://@jldelozier3" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a></li> <li>Learn more about the <a href="https://investors.8x8.com/press-releases/press-release-details/2019/8x8-Deepens-Channel-Commitment-With-New-Elev8-Partner-Program/default.aspx" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Elev8 Partner Program</a></li> <li>Listen to how <a href="http://www.channeljourneys.com/cj38" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Janet Schijns became Channel Influencer of the Year</a></li> </ul>The post <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/john-delozier-100-percent-channel-cj41/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">John DeLozier: How to Shift from 100% Direct to 100% Channel</a> first appeared on <a href="https://channeljourneys.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Journeys</a>.

John DeLozier: How to Shift from 100% Direct to 100% Channel

Bryn Jones

A Modern Way to Manage the Modern Channel Partner ecosystems are very different than they were just 10 years ago.  The channel is expanding to the point that potentially anyone, including your customers, could be a channel partner. This creates an awesome opportunity for SaaS partnerships. Yet at the same time, it is a huge challenge to manage such diverse partner types that require different incentives and different compensation models. This week’s guest is Bryn Jones, founder and CEO of the channel tech company Partnerstack. We discuss how Partnerstack was created to recruit, connect and manage this modern partner ecosystem.  Learn about channel trends and how you can make SaaS partnerships more profitable and drive faster growth through multiple types of partners. KEY TAKEAWAYS Making SaaS Partnerships More Profitable  Building successful SaaS Partnerships takes time. Develop and roll out a step-by-step playbook for what you want to accomplish over a two-year period. Consider all the different partner types that you could leverage in your partner ecosystem, including developers, influencers, resellers, affiliates, and customers. For each partner type, define partner personas (ideal partner profiles) the same way that marketing defines buyer personas. Then find 10 channel partners that fit that persona for one partner type. Work closely with that group of partners to show results in the first three to six months. Then move on to another group.  Building Successful SaaS Channel Programs   The channel has changed drastically, but vendors still often get stuck on one model. Run A/B testing with different incentives and business models, just like marketing A/B tests email campaigns. And give your partners options on their incentive structure. The channel is becoming centralized. Bring your various channel programs such as reseller, alliance, and cloud into one flexible program and one management tool. Channel leaders need to be heard at the board level where the return on investment and elevation of the channel as a profession should be discussed.  SHARE THIS The biggest trend I have seen in the channel is that it is beginning to centralize. Many programs that were run independently are now starting to come together. -Bryn Jones @bryncdnClick To Tweet The best thing people can do is poll your partners and figure out what they want and give them different options. -Bryn Jones @bryncdnClick To Tweet We are all going to benefit, and the customer is going to benefit in the end, by elevating the knowledge and capability of the channel for SaaS companies. -Rob SpeeClick To Tweet LINKS &amp; RESOURCES  Follow Bryn on LinkedIn and on Twitter Learn more about Partnerstack Register to attend the Webinar on Incentive Models for the Changing Partner Ecosystem Listen to episode 15: 5 Reasons You Need SaaS Channels The post Bryn Jones: How to Make SaaS Partnerships Profitable first appeared on Channel Journeys.

<h4><strong>A Modern Way to Manage the Modern Channel</strong></h4> <p>Partner ecosystems are very different than they were just 10 years ago.  The channel is expanding to the point that potentially anyone, including your customers, could be a channel partner. This creates an awesome opportunity for SaaS partnerships. Yet at the same time, it is a huge challenge to manage such diverse partner types that require different incentives and different compensation models.</p> <p>This week’s guest is Bryn Jones, founder and CEO of the channel tech company Partnerstack. We discuss how Partnerstack was created to recruit, connect and manage this modern partner ecosystem.  Learn about channel trends and how you can make SaaS partnerships more profitable and drive faster growth through multiple types of partners.</p> <h4>KEY TAKEAWAYS</h4> <h5><strong>Making SaaS Partnerships More Profitable</strong></h5> <ul> <li>Building successful SaaS Partnerships takes time. Develop and roll out a step-by-step playbook for what you want to accomplish over a two-year period.</li> <li>Consider all the different partner types that you could leverage in your partner ecosystem, including developers, influencers, resellers, affiliates, and customers.</li> <li>For each partner type, define partner personas (ideal partner profiles) the same way that marketing defines buyer personas. Then find 10 channel partners that fit that persona for one partner type.</li> <li>Work closely with that group of partners to show results in the first three to six months. Then move on to another group.</li> </ul> <h5><strong>Building Successful SaaS Channel Programs </strong></h5> <ul> <li>The channel has changed drastically, but vendors still often get stuck on one model. Run A/B testing with different incentives and business models, just like marketing A/B tests email campaigns. And give your partners options on their incentive structure.</li> <li>The channel is becoming centralized. Bring your various channel programs such as reseller, alliance, and cloud into one flexible program and one management tool.</li> <li>Channel leaders need to be heard at the board level where the return on investment and elevation of the channel as a profession should be discussed.</li> </ul> <h4>SHARE THIS</h4> <p><em>The biggest trend I have seen in the channel is that it is beginning to centralize. Many programs that were run independently are now starting to come together. -Bryn Jones @bryncdn</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Fbryn-jones-make-saas-partnerships-profitable-cj26%2F&amp;text=The%20biggest%20trend%20I%20have%20seen%20in%20the%20channel%20is%20that%20it%20is%20beginning%20to%20centralize.%20Many%20programs%20that%20were%20run%20independently%20are%20now%20starting%20to%20come%20together.%20-Bryn%20Jones%20%40bryncdn&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><p><em>The best thing people can do is poll your partners and figure out what they want and give them different options. -Bryn Jones @bryncdn</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Fbryn-jones-make-saas-partnerships-profitable-cj26%2F&amp;text=The%20best%20thing%20people%20can%20do%20is%20poll%20your%20partners%20and%20figure%20out%20what%20they%20want%20and%20give%20them%20different%20options.%20-Bryn%20Jones%20%40bryncdn&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><p><em>We are all going to benefit, and the customer is going to benefit in the end, by elevating the knowledge and capability of the channel for SaaS companies. -Rob Spee</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Fbryn-jones-make-saas-partnerships-profitable-cj26%2F&amp;text=We%20are%20all%20going%20to%20benefit%2C%20and%20the%20customer%20is%20going%20to%20benefit%20in%20the%20end%2C%20by%20elevating%20the%20knowledge%20and%20capability%20of%20the%20channel%20for%20SaaS%20companies.%20-Rob%20Spee&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><h4>LINKS &amp; RESOURCES</h4> <ul> <li>Follow Bryn on <a href="https://ca.linkedin.com/in/bryn-jones" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a> and on <a href="https://twitter.com/bryncdn" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a></li> <li>Learn more about <a href="https://www.partnerstack.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw6cHoBRDdARIsADiTTzYtPWYM8eWW6hfOP9cm1HzIE63BrHSIBRftyD6joP3xGfiNK0QrcJgaArm7EALw_wcB" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Partnerstack</a></li> <li>Register to attend the <a href="https://cutt.ly/ghITac" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Webinar on Incentive Models for the Changing Partner Ecosystem</a></li> <li>Listen to episode 15: <a href="http://www.robspee.com/cj18" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">5 Reasons You Need SaaS Channels</a></li> </ul>The post <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/bryn-jones-make-saas-partnerships-profitable-cj26/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Bryn Jones: How to Make SaaS Partnerships Profitable</a> first appeared on <a href="https://channeljourneys.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Journeys</a>.

Bryn Jones: How to Make SaaS Partnerships Profitable

Karl Palachuk

Keys to Success with Managed Service Providers CJ16. This episode features Karl Palachuk, founder and CEO of Small Biz Thoughts. Karl’s mission is to train IT consultants and Managed Service Providers (MSPs) to be better at the business side of their business. He accomplishes this by writing, speaking, blogging, podcasting, coaching, and consulting. And that’s just his day job. We talk about the MSP community, the impact of exponential innovation, and his own secrets to massive productivity. If you want to know more about MSPs, how to find them, and how to make them successful, this episode is for you. KEY TAKEAWAYS  There is whole new breed of 20-somethings setting up IT consulting companies, basically break-fix shops, who know nothing about the MSP world. Karl is bringing them into the fold. The don’t know who the distributors or vendors are, or what they should be selling. If you’re an MSP, pick a niche vertical and focus on finding technologies to serve that market. It will be a smaller market than if you were a generalist, but you can own that market and be the one that everyone turns to for help. ChannelPro, ASCII, and TechFest events are good places for vendors to meet IT consultants and managed service providers. Be sure to send your best presenters and focus on the partner, not your products. The secret to high productivity is prioritizing absolutely everything and being brutal about things that aren’t a priority.  Only do one thing at a time. Choose the single most important thing you need to do – and only do that. Then choose the next single most important thing you need to do, and only do that.  SHOW NOTES Market Dynamics [3:30] A lot of people who were in the industry 10 years ago have either retired or gone out of business in the recession or have just decided to leave all together for whatever reason. Now we have a new influx of 20-somethings just starting their first business. They consider themselves IT consultants and have no idea what the term MSP even means.  And they’re asking the same questions that break-fix consultants asked 20 years ago. [7:00] We are in an era of exponential growth in technology, it’s no longer linear.  The innovation growth rate in not just computers, but in many industries, is doubling every year. This makes the statement “if we’re at 1%, we’re almost there” possible, and it’s creating new opportunities everywhere. [12:00] Whatever technology is going to change the world in 2020 is already here. So it’s not that difficult to anticipate the future (from the book The Anticipatory Organization by Daniel Burrus). [14:00] While some agents are starting to look more like MSPs and some VARs are becoming MSPs, there will always be break-fix consultants. Keys to Success [16:00] Most MSPs have the potential to add more advanced technologies. The most successful ones pick a niche vertical to focus on, adopt more  technology, and create services that address that niche.  It’s a smaller market, but they can own that market. [20:50] The challenge for his larger MSP clients, $5M to $10M in revenue, is freeing themselves from the operating procedures and culture that got them there and adopting new ways to get to the next level. Doubling from $10M to $20M is a lot different than getting from $5M to $10M.  For example, it takes a really good sales manager. But too much focus on sales and not enough on services can hurt you. [25:00] Once IT owners reach the limit of what they can sell, they should get outside help to hire a sales person and a sales manager. [27:45] The place for IT vendors and IT professionals (partners) to meet is on online communities and at conferences. Karl thinks the ChannelPro, ASCII, and TechFest events are good places for vendors to meet IT consultants and managed service providers.  If you’re a vendor, make sure you send great presenters to talk about what is in it for the partner, not the speeds and feeds of your product. And don’t forget to follow up when you get back to the office. [33:30] When you go to events to recruit partners, if you lead with a freebie at a show that’s not connected to what is going to help the partner, you have a disconnect. If you focus on getting warm bodies, rather than on performers who are going to embrace your technology, you have a disconnect. [33:30] Karl offers 10 5-week classes per year for a fee, plus mini-classes offered free to his MSP community. And he does live training on-site and takes on one or two coaching clients per year. [39:00] Karl is just finishing his 19th book, this one on Cloud Services. He takes the processes and procedures that have worked for him and shares them to help others. Relax, Focus, Succeed [43:00] Karl’s side passion is work-life balance. He wrote a book and has a blog called Relax, Focus, Succeed.  Through his own personal trauma, he learned that he could be more productive while working less. His secret to high productivity is prioritizing absolutely everything and being brutal about things that aren’t a priority. To Karl, a phone call is an interruption and doesn’t even put his phone number on his business card. [45:50]  Choose the single most important thing you need to do. And only do that. Then choose the next single most important thing you need to do, and only do that. Only do one thing at a time. And it makes everyone in the company far more effective. Which means that there’s some crap that’s just never going to get done. LINKS &amp; RESOURCES  Find Karl on LinkedIn Learn more about Small Biz Thoughts Relax, Focus, and Succeed Read The Anticipatory Organization by Daniel BurrusThe post Karl Palachuk: Creating Success with Managed Service Providers first appeared on Channel Journeys.

<h4>Keys to Success with Managed Service Providers</h4> <p>CJ16. This episode features Karl Palachuk, founder and CEO of <a href="http://blog.smallbizthoughts.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Small Biz Thoughts</a>. Karl’s mission is to train IT consultants and Managed Service Providers (MSPs) to be better at the business side of their business. He accomplishes this by writing, speaking, blogging, podcasting, coaching, and consulting. And that’s just his day job.</p> <p>We talk about the MSP community, the impact of exponential innovation, and his own secrets to massive productivity. If you want to know more about MSPs, how to find them, and how to make them successful, this episode is for you.</p> <h4>KEY TAKEAWAYS</h4> <ul> <li>There is whole new breed of 20-somethings setting up IT consulting companies, basically break-fix shops, who know nothing about the MSP world. Karl is bringing them into the fold. The don’t know who the distributors or vendors are, or what they should be selling.</li> <li>If you’re an MSP, pick a niche vertical and focus on finding technologies to serve that market. It will be a smaller market than if you were a generalist, but you can own that market and be the one that everyone turns to for help.</li> <li>ChannelPro, ASCII, and TechFest events are good places for vendors to meet IT consultants and managed service providers. Be sure to send your best presenters and focus on the partner, not your products.</li> <li>The secret to high productivity is prioritizing absolutely everything and being brutal about things that aren’t a priority.  Only do one thing at a time.</li> <li>Choose the single most important thing you need to do – and only do that. Then choose the next single most important thing you need to do, and only do that.</li> </ul> <h4>SHOW NOTES</h4> <h5>Market Dynamics</h5> <p>[3:30] A lot of people who were in the industry 10 years ago have either retired or gone out of business in the recession or have just decided to leave all together for whatever reason. Now we have a new influx of 20-somethings just starting their first business. They consider themselves IT consultants and have no idea what the term MSP even means.  And they’re asking the same questions that break-fix consultants asked 20 years ago.</p> <p>[7:00] We are in an era of exponential growth in technology, it’s no longer linear.  The innovation growth rate in not just computers, but in many industries, is doubling every year. This makes the statement “if we’re at 1%, we’re almost there” possible, and it’s creating new opportunities everywhere.</p> <p>[12:00] Whatever technology is going to change the world in 2020 is already here. So it’s not that difficult to anticipate the future (from the book <em>The Anticipatory Organization </em>by Daniel Burrus).</p> <p>[14:00] While some agents are starting to look more like MSPs and some VARs are becoming MSPs, there will always be break-fix consultants.</p> <h5>Keys to Success</h5> <p>[16:00] Most MSPs have the potential to add more advanced technologies. The most successful ones pick a niche vertical to focus on, adopt more  technology, and create services that address that niche.  It’s a smaller market, but they can own that market.</p> <p>[20:50] The challenge for his larger MSP clients, $5M to $10M in revenue, is freeing themselves from the operating procedures and culture that got them there and adopting new ways to get to the next level. Doubling from $10M to $20M is a lot different than getting from $5M to $10M.  For example, it takes a really good sales manager. But too much focus on sales and not enough on services can hurt you.</p> <p>[25:00] Once IT owners reach the limit of what they can sell, they should get outside help to hire a sales person and a sales manager.</p> <p>[27:45] The place for IT vendors and IT professionals (partners) to meet is on online communities and at conferences. Karl thinks the ChannelPro, ASCII, and TechFest events are good places for vendors to meet IT consultants and managed service providers.  If you’re a vendor, make sure you send great presenters to talk about what is in it for the partner, not the speeds and feeds of your product. And don’t forget to follow up when you get back to the office.</p> <p>[33:30] When you go to events to recruit partners, if you lead with a freebie at a show that’s not connected to what is going to help the partner, you have a disconnect. If you focus on getting warm bodies, rather than on performers who are going to embrace your technology, you have a disconnect.</p> <p>[33:30] Karl offers 10 5-week classes per year for a fee, plus mini-classes offered free to his MSP community. And he does live training on-site and takes on one or two coaching clients per year.</p> <p>[39:00] Karl is just finishing his 19th book, this one on Cloud Services. He takes the processes and procedures that have worked for him and shares them to help others.</p> <h5>Relax, Focus, Succeed</h5> <p>[43:00] Karl’s side passion is work-life balance. He wrote a book and has a blog called Relax, Focus, Succeed.  Through his own personal trauma, he learned that he could be more productive while working less. His secret to high productivity is prioritizing absolutely everything and being brutal about things that aren’t a priority. To Karl, a phone call is an interruption and doesn’t even put his phone number on his business card.</p> <p>[45:50]  Choose the single most important thing you need to do. And only do that. Then choose the next single most important thing you need to do, and only do that. Only do one thing at a time. And it makes everyone in the company far more effective. Which means that there’s some crap that’s just never going to get done.</p> <h4>LINKS &amp; RESOURCES</h4> <ul> <li>Find Karl on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/karlpalachuk/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a></li> <li>Learn more about <a href="http://blog.smallbizthoughts.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Small Biz Thoughts</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.relaxfocussucceed.com" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Relax, Focus, and Succeed</a></li> <li>Read <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Anticipatory-Organization-Disruption-Opportunity-Advantage/dp/1626344469" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank"><em>The Anticipatory Organization </em></a>by Daniel Burrus</li></ul>The post <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/karl-palachuk-managed-service-providers-success-cj16/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Karl Palachuk: Creating Success with Managed Service Providers</a> first appeared on <a href="https://channeljourneys.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Journeys</a>.

Karl Palachuk: Creating Success with Managed Service Providers

Angus Robertson

Building a successful SaaS channel can mean the difference between success or failure of your company. A great example of finding channel success out of multiple mergers and acquisitions is Recovery as a Service company, Axcient.  In this episode, Angus Robertson, Axcient’s Chief Revenue Officer and Vice-Chair of the CompTIA Business Applications Advisory Council, shares how they consolidated multiple strategies into a winning strategy of going 100% through MSPs.  Angus tells how Axcient redeveloped and executed their SaaS channel strategy to create a friction-less experience for partners and customers. And he shares the key performance indicators he uses to measure their SaaS channel success.  KEY TAKEAWAYS Four Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of a successful SaaS channel strategy are the LTV to CAC ratio, demand waterfall, sales velocity, and net promoter score. 1. LTV to CAC LTV to CAC compares the Lifetime Value of your customers to your Customer Acquisition Cost. Investors look at this ratio to see if you have product market fit and how smart you are with your marketing spend.   LTV is impacted by three variables; gross margin, churn, and how much your customers spend on your service CAC is how much are you spend on sales and marketing divided by the number of new customers you acquire in a given period of time A benchmark LTV to CAC ratio is 3:1  2. Demand Waterfall The Demand Waterfall is your sales funnel that traces a buyer from inquiry to close. It looks at both the quantity of leads that you can bring in and the quality of those leads.  Look at impressions on social media. Impressions can be how many people see your ad or look at a post on one of your social media channels, and then how that translates into visits to your website and into leads. Categorize your leads in two different ways; a thought leadership awareness, nurture type lead, and a lead that is already in a buyer cycle or has a funded project. Build a dashboard pulling data from your marketing and sales automation tools to see the whole demand waterfall and measure your lead conversion ratios.  3. Sales Velocity Sales velocity looks at how quickly leads are moving through your pipeline and how much value new customers are providing.  It’s a key sales measurement as it tells you how quickly you are making money.  To calculate your sales velocity, look at your number of sales opportunities you’re working in each period, multiplied by the average deal size, and then multiply it again by the win rate, and divide that number by the length of your sales cycle. Compare your sales velocity in different sales territories, from different campaigns, or even different channels. From that you can determine which territories, campaigns, or channels are doing better than others.  4. Net Promoter Score NPS, or Net Promoter Score is used to measure customer satisfaction and loyalty. It also measures your ability to create advocates or champions in your customer base or in your channel.  NPS comes from the question “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely is it that you would recommend our organization to a friend or colleague?” Based on the number your customers or partners choose, they are classified into “Detractors,” “Passives,” and “Promoters.” At NPS above 50 is excellent. Above 70 is world-class.   SHARE THIS The key measure at the end of the day is our ability to provide that experience and that satisfaction that creates customer and partner advocates.Click To Tweet If you're measuring churn, it's important, but it's really looking in the rear-view mirror. What you ought to be looking at are forward indicators of churn like your NPS.Click To Tweet LINKS &amp; RESOURCES  Follow Angus on LinkedIn and Twitter. Listen to more details on CAC, LTV, and the ideal ratio Learn more about Axcient. Learn more about CompTIA and how you can get involved. The post Angus Robertson: Key Indicators of a Successful SaaS Channel Strategy first appeared on Channel Journeys.

<p>Building a successful SaaS channel can mean the difference between success or failure of your company. A great example of finding channel success out of multiple mergers and acquisitions is Recovery as a Service company, Axcient. </p> <p>In this episode, Angus Robertson, Axcient’s Chief Revenue Officer and Vice-Chair of the CompTIA Business Applications Advisory Council, shares how they consolidated multiple strategies into a winning strategy of going 100% through MSPs.  Angus tells how Axcient redeveloped and executed their SaaS channel strategy to create a friction-less experience for partners and customers. And he shares the key performance indicators he uses to measure their SaaS channel success. </p> <h4>KEY TAKEAWAYS</h4> <p>Four Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of a successful SaaS channel strategy are the LTV to CAC ratio, demand waterfall, sales velocity, and net promoter score.</p> <h5>1. LTV to CAC</h5> <p>LTV to CAC compares the Lifetime Value of your customers to your Customer Acquisition Cost. Investors look at this ratio to see if you have product market fit and how smart you are with your marketing spend. </p> <ul> <li>LTV is impacted by three variables; gross margin, churn, and how much your customers spend on your service</li> <li>CAC is how much are you spend on sales and marketing divided by the number of new customers you acquire in a given period of time</li> <li>A benchmark LTV to CAC ratio is 3:1</li> </ul> <h5>2. Demand Waterfall</h5> <p>The Demand Waterfall is your sales funnel that traces a buyer from inquiry to close. It looks at both the quantity of leads that you can bring in and the quality of those leads.</p> <ul> <li>Look at impressions on social media. Impressions can be how many people see your ad or look at a post on one of your social media channels, and then how that translates into visits to your website and into leads.</li> <li>Categorize your leads in two different ways; a thought leadership awareness, nurture type lead, and a lead that is already in a buyer cycle or has a funded project.</li> <li>Build a dashboard pulling data from your marketing and sales automation tools to see the whole demand waterfall and measure your lead conversion ratios.</li> </ul> <h5>3. Sales Velocity</h5> <p>Sales velocity looks at how quickly leads are moving through your pipeline and how much value new customers are providing.  It’s a key sales measurement as it tells you how quickly you are making money.</p> <ul> <li>To calculate your sales velocity, look at your number of sales opportunities you’re working in each period, multiplied by the average deal size, and then multiply it again by the win rate, and divide that number by the length of your sales cycle.</li> <li>Compare your sales velocity in different sales territories, from different campaigns, or even different channels. From that you can determine which territories, campaigns, or channels are doing better than others.</li> </ul> <h5>4. Net Promoter Score</h5> <p>NPS, or Net Promoter Score is used to measure customer satisfaction and loyalty. It also measures your ability to create advocates or champions in your customer base or in your channel.</p> <ul> <li>NPS comes from the question “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely is it that you would recommend our organization to a friend or colleague?”</li> <li>Based on the number your customers or partners choose, they are classified into “Detractors,” “Passives,” and “Promoters.”</li> <li>At NPS above 50 is excellent. Above 70 is world-class. </li> </ul> <h4>SHARE THIS</h4> <p><em>The key measure at the end of the day is our ability to provide that experience and that satisfaction that creates customer and partner advocates.</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Fangus-robertson-saas-channel-strategy-cj37%2F&amp;text=The%20key%20measure%20at%20the%20end%20of%20the%20day%20is%20our%20ability%20to%20provide%20that%20experience%20and%20that%20satisfaction%20that%20creates%20customer%20and%20partner%20advocates.&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><p><em>If you're measuring churn, it's important, but it's really looking in the rear-view mirror. What you ought to be looking at are forward indicators of churn like your NPS.</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Fangus-robertson-saas-channel-strategy-cj37%2F&amp;text=If%20you%27re%20measuring%20churn%2C%20it%27s%20important%2C%20but%20it%27s%20really%20looking%20in%20the%20rear-view%20mirror.%20What%20you%20ought%20to%20be%20looking%20at%20are%20forward%20indicators%20of%20churn%20like%20your%20NPS.&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><h4>LINKS &amp; RESOURCES</h4> <ul> <li>Follow Angus on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/angusr1" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/angusr1?lang=en" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.</li> <li>Listen to more details on <a href="https://share.transistor.fm/s/30e87da9" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">CAC, LTV, and the ideal ratio</a></li> <li>Learn more about <a href="https://axcient.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Axcient</a>.</li> <li>Learn more about <a href="https://www.comptia.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">CompTIA</a> and how you can get involved.</li> </ul>The post <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/angus-robertson-saas-channel-strategy-cj37/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Angus Robertson: Key Indicators of a Successful SaaS Channel Strategy</a> first appeared on <a href="https://channeljourneys.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Journeys</a>.

Angus Robertson: Key Indicators of a Successful SaaS Channel Strategy

Tiffani Bova

This episode marks the one year anniversary of Channel Journeys! I’m honored to welcome Tiffani Bova, the growth and innovation evangelist at Salesforce and one of the top influencers in IT as my guest. Driving consistent channel growth in this era of digital transformation requires new ways of thinking. Tiffani is a thought leader on the topic of business growth and innovation. We discuss 5 paths to channel growth, applying the strategies from her bestselling book Growth IQ. You’ll learn that the path to growth is never about doing just one thing. Successful companies execute a combination of Growth IQ paths in a well thought out sequence. KEY TAKEAWAYS These 5 channel growth paths can be used in combination very effectively. Just make sure you apply them in a logical sequence.   1. PARTNERSHIPS The question is not whether you should have partners. The question today is, what kind of partner do you need? Do you need an ISV partner? Do you need a resale partner? Do you need an integration partner? Do you need a referral partner? You may need all of these types. As business models evolve, we have to continue looking at new partner models. 2. CO-OPETITION Many vendors have a protectionist, shortsighted view that prevents them from partnering with companies perceived as competitors. Zero-sum game thinking prevents companies from achieving faster growth. You have to believe that 1 + 1 = 3. And you have to take the customer’s perspective. Figure out what and who it takes to provide the end-to-end solution that gives your customers the business outcome they are seeking.  4. MARKET ACCELERATION Market acceleration is about expanding into new markets with existing products. Leveraging local sales and delivery partners is an excellent way to open new markets without the heavy investment of doing everything yourself. But first you have to make sure you have everything in place to support those partners. Do you have your website and documentation translated? Can you provide product support? Do you have partner enablement resources? 4. PRODUCT EXPANSION Product expansion is about selling new products into existing markets. Leveraging partners to build new offerings on top of your product or platform allow you and your partners to both focus on what you do best. Salesforce does a great job of this with their app exchange program.   5. OPTIMIZE SALES Streamlining your sales efforts to increase productivity can be even more effective than adding more sales resources. In the channel, look for ways to automate the administrative tasks that can consume over 60% of your channel manager’s time.  SHARE THIS The path to growth is not one thing. It isn't just partnerships. It isn't just competition. It isn't just customer experience. It isn't just getting better about selling. It's all of them. @Tiffani_BovaClick To Tweet …I put customer experience at the front of Growth IQ because behind every decision you make should be a customer. @Tiffani_BovaClick To Tweet Growth has less to do with your sales process or what you're selling. It has everything to do with how your customers feel when they engage with you. @Tiffani_BovaClick To Tweet FEEDBACK What do you think the partner of 2023 or 2025 is going to look like? Let Tiffani know by connecting with her on LinkedIn or Twitter. LINKS &amp; RESOURCES  Pick up a copy of Growth IQ Check out Tiffani’s podcast What’s Next! Follow Tiffani on LinkedIn and Twitter. The post Tiffani Bova – 5 Paths to Consistent Channel Growth first appeared on Channel Journeys.

<p>This episode marks the one year anniversary of Channel Journeys! I’m honored to welcome Tiffani Bova, the growth and innovation evangelist at Salesforce and one of the top influencers in IT as my guest. Driving consistent channel growth in this era of digital transformation requires new ways of thinking. Tiffani is a thought leader on the topic of business growth and innovation. We discuss 5 paths to channel growth, applying the strategies from her bestselling book Growth IQ. You’ll learn that the path to growth is never about doing just one thing. Successful companies execute a combination of Growth IQ paths in a well thought out sequence.</p> <h4>KEY TAKEAWAYS</h4> <p>These 5 channel growth paths can be used in combination very effectively. Just make sure you apply them in a logical sequence.  </p> <h5>1. PARTNERSHIPS</h5> <p>The question is not whether you should have partners. The question today is, what kind of partner do you need? Do you need an ISV partner? Do you need a resale partner? Do you need an integration partner? Do you need a referral partner? You may need all of these types. As business models evolve, we have to continue looking at new partner models.</p> <h5>2. CO-OPETITION</h5> <p>Many vendors have a protectionist, shortsighted view that prevents them from partnering with companies perceived as competitors. Zero-sum game thinking prevents companies from achieving faster growth. You have to believe that 1 + 1 = 3. And you have to take the customer’s perspective. Figure out what and who it takes to provide the end-to-end solution that gives your customers the business outcome they are seeking. </p> <h5>4. MARKET ACCELERATION</h5> <p>Market acceleration is about expanding into new markets with existing products. Leveraging local sales and delivery partners is an excellent way to open new markets without the heavy investment of doing everything yourself. But first you have to make sure you have everything in place to support those partners. Do you have your website and documentation translated? Can you provide product support? Do you have partner enablement resources?</p> <h5>4. PRODUCT EXPANSION</h5> <p>Product expansion is about selling new products into existing markets. Leveraging partners to build new offerings on top of your product or platform allow you and your partners to both focus on what you do best. Salesforce does a great job of this with their app exchange program.  </p> <h5>5. OPTIMIZE SALES</h5> <p>Streamlining your sales efforts to increase productivity can be even more effective than adding more sales resources. In the channel, look for ways to automate the administrative tasks that can consume over 60% of your channel manager’s time. </p> <h4>SHARE THIS</h4> <p><em>The path to growth is not one thing. It isn't just partnerships. It isn't just competition. It isn't just customer experience. It isn't just getting better about selling. It's all of them. @Tiffani_Bova</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Ftiffani-bova-consistent-channel-growth-cj40%2F&amp;text=The%20path%20to%20growth%20is%20not%20one%20thing.%20It%20isn%27t%20just%20partnerships.%20It%20isn%27t%20just%20competition.%20It%20isn%27t%20just%20customer%20experience.%20It%20isn%27t%20just%20getting%20better%20about%20selling.%20It%27s%20all%20of%20them.%20%40Tiffani_Bova&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><p><em>…I put customer experience at the front of Growth IQ because behind every decision you make should be a customer. @Tiffani_Bova</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Ftiffani-bova-consistent-channel-growth-cj40%2F&amp;text=%E2%80%A6I%20put%20customer%20experience%20at%20the%20front%20of%20Growth%20IQ%20because%20behind%20every%20decision%20you%20make%20should%20be%20a%20customer.%20%40Tiffani_Bova&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><p><em>Growth has less to do with your sales process or what you're selling. It has everything to do with how your customers feel when they engage with you. @Tiffani_Bova</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Ftiffani-bova-consistent-channel-growth-cj40%2F&amp;text=Growth%20has%20less%20to%20do%20with%20your%20sales%20process%20or%20what%20you%27re%20selling.%20It%20has%20everything%20to%20do%20with%20how%20your%20customers%20feel%20when%20they%20engage%20with%20you.%20%40Tiffani_Bova&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><h4>FEEDBACK</h4> <p>What do you think the partner of 2023 or 2025 is going to look like? Let Tiffani know by connecting with her on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffanibova/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/Tiffani_Bova?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.</p> <h4>LINKS &amp; RESOURCES</h4> <ul> <li>Pick up a copy of <a href="https://tiffanibova.com/GrowthIQ" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Growth IQ</a></li> <li>Check out Tiffani’s podcast <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/whats-next-with-tiffani-bova/id1262213009?mt=2" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">What’s Next!</a></li> <li>Follow Tiffani on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffanibova/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/Tiffani_Bova?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.</li> </ul>The post <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/tiffani-bova-consistent-channel-growth-cj40/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Tiffani Bova – 5 Paths to Consistent Channel Growth</a> first appeared on <a href="https://channeljourneys.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Journeys</a>.

Tiffani Bova – 5 Paths to Consistent Channel Growth

Dave Sobel

Are you tired of the same old channel conversations that take place at channel conferences year after year? Channel veteran and entrepreneur Dave Sobel sure is! He’s the guest on this super fun podcast where he insists on asking challenging, stimulating, controversial questions. The type of questions that everyone is afraid to ask. Why? As he puts it, where there’s mystery, there’s margin. Dave is the founder of MSP Radio, host of the Business of Tech podcast, and co-host of the Killing IT podcast. We talk about these questions and explore the channel challenges and opportunities coming from three disruptive trends in 2020.  KEY TAKEAWAYS Channel Disruptors in 2020. These are five hot topics that we in the channel should be talking about, but just aren’t.    Big Tech and Ethics   Regulation for Big Tech   Real security threats    Voice as a User Interface    Tying Business Outcomes to Business Mission and Ethics   SHARE THIS I want to start asking really hard questions. Like really difficult, intellectually stimulating, but challenging questions, partly because I've always said, in mystery, there's margin. @djdaveetClick To Tweet I think there's something wrong when an Amazon employee with a CompTIA certification pays more in actual taxes than Amazon the company @djdaveetClick To Tweet I really think that there is something here - helping customers be ethical, handling their customers data in a way that is core to their values and drives their business forward from that perspective. @djdaveetClick To Tweet LINKS &amp; RESOURCES  Connect with Dave on LinkedIn and Twitter Listen to MSP Radio Listen to The Killing IT Podcast The post Dave Sobel: The Top 5 Channel Disruptors In 2020 first appeared on Channel Journeys.

<p>Are you tired of the same old channel conversations that take place at channel conferences year after year? Channel veteran and entrepreneur Dave Sobel sure is! He’s the guest on this super fun podcast where he insists on asking challenging, stimulating, controversial questions. The type of questions that everyone is afraid to ask. Why? As he puts it, where there’s mystery, there’s margin. Dave is the founder of MSP Radio, host of the Business of Tech podcast, and co-host of the Killing IT podcast. We talk about these questions and explore the channel challenges and opportunities coming from three disruptive trends in 2020. </p> <h4>KEY TAKEAWAYS</h4> <p>Channel Disruptors in 2020. These are five hot topics that we in the channel should be talking about, but just aren’t. </p> <ol> <li> <h5>Big Tech and Ethics</h5> </li> <li> <h5>Regulation for Big Tech</h5> </li> <li> <h5>Real security threats </h5> </li> <li> <h5>Voice as a User Interface </h5> </li> <li> <h5>Tying Business Outcomes to Business Mission and Ethics</h5> </li> </ol> <h4>SHARE THIS</h4> <p><em>I want to start asking really hard questions. Like really difficult, intellectually stimulating, but challenging questions, partly because I've always said, in mystery, there's margin. @djdaveet</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Fdave-sobel-2020-top-5-channel-disruptors-cj45%2F&amp;text=I%20want%20to%20start%20asking%20really%20hard%20questions.%20Like%20really%20difficult%2C%20intellectually%20stimulating%2C%20but%20challenging%20questions%2C%20partly%20because%20I%27ve%20always%20said%2C%20in%20mystery%2C%20there%27s%20margin.%20%40djdaveet&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><p><em>I think there's something wrong when an Amazon employee with a CompTIA certification pays more in actual taxes than Amazon the company @djdaveet</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Fdave-sobel-2020-top-5-channel-disruptors-cj45%2F&amp;text=I%20think%20there%27s%20something%20wrong%20when%20an%20Amazon%20employee%20with%20a%20CompTIA%20certification%20pays%20more%20in%20actual%20taxes%20than%20Amazon%20the%20company%20%40djdaveet&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><p><em>I really think that there is something here - helping customers be ethical, handling their customers data in a way that is core to their values and drives their business forward from that perspective. @djdaveet</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Fdave-sobel-2020-top-5-channel-disruptors-cj45%2F&amp;text=I%20really%20think%20that%20there%20is%20something%20here%20-%20helping%20customers%20be%20ethical%2C%20handling%20their%20customers%20data%20in%20a%20way%20that%20is%20core%20to%20their%20values%20and%20drives%20their%20business%20forward%20from%20that%20perspective.%20%40djdaveet&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><h4>LINKS &amp; RESOURCES</h4> <ul> <li>Connect with Dave on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/davesobel/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/djdaveet?lang=en" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a></li> <li>Listen to <a href="https://www.mspradio.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">MSP Radio</a></li> <li>Listen to <a href="https://www.mspradio.com/show/the-killing-it-podcast/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">The Killing IT Podcast</a></li> </ul>The post <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/dave-sobel-2020-top-5-channel-disruptors-cj45/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Dave Sobel: The Top 5 Channel Disruptors In 2020</a> first appeared on <a href="https://channeljourneys.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Journeys</a>.

Dave Sobel: The Top 5 Channel Disruptors In 2020

Tricia Atchison

There’s a lot of complexity to building a successful marketing strategy. One of the biggest challenges is that partners have all levels of marketing expertise. Some partners are even better at marketing than their vendors. But many more have limited capabilities, and some have none at all. Most have a deep desire to do good marketing, even if they don’t know how and lack the infrastructure to do it. This week I spoke to both Tricia Atchison and David Pereira to learn how they help partners become successful marketers. Trisha Atchison is the Worldwide Director of Channel Marketing and Enablement at Citrix. David Pereira is the founder and president of Get Lift, a full service B2B marketing agency. David worked with Trisha to create KickStart, a program designed to help partners create and execute the most effective route to pipeline creation and sales growth. The program won Sirius Decisions’ Channel Marketing Program of the Year award.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Citrix’s Kickstart Channel Marketing program has five core components that enables their partners to execute an integrated marketing strategy. 1. Content  Content is king. The foundation of an award-winning program is having great content for partners.   2. Planning Planning is something many marketing programs don’t focus on enough. This includes joint business planning and creating quarterly or six-month marketing plans. 3. Budget  Find ways to make it easier for your partners to access marketing funds. Citrix integrated funding into the marketing planning process to fund a series of campaigns rather than a single activity or event. 4. Resources  Because Partners have different levels of marketing resources and infrastructure, they need varying levels of support. Citrix solves this by offering marketing agency support where the agency executes on the partners’ behalf. This provides more consistent execution and tracking of results.  5. Enablement Enablement is a foundation for success, and not just partner enablement. First you need to enable your partner managers on your marketing program, what it means for partners, and the ideal profile of partners who can benefit most from it.   SHARE THIS The first key to a successful Channel Marketing program is content because content is king. @tricia_atchisonClick To Tweet Sometimes you just have to be willing to put yourself out there, be bold, and not be afraid that it may not work perfectly the first time out the gate. @tricia_atchisonClick To Tweet LINKS &amp; RESOURCES  Follow Tricia on  LinkedIn and Twitter. Follow David on  LinkedIn and Twitter. Learn more about Citrix and Get Lift. The post Tricia Atchison: How to Build an Award Winning Channel Marketing Program first appeared on Channel Journeys.

<p>There’s a lot of complexity to building a successful marketing strategy. One of the biggest challenges is that partners have all levels of marketing expertise. Some partners are even better at marketing than their vendors. But many more have limited capabilities, and some have none at all. Most have a deep desire to do good marketing, even if they don’t know how and lack the infrastructure to do it.</p> <p>This week I spoke to both Tricia Atchison and David Pereira to learn how they help partners become successful marketers. Trisha Atchison is the Worldwide Director of Channel Marketing and Enablement at Citrix. David Pereira is the founder and president of Get Lift, a full service B2B marketing agency. David worked with Trisha to create KickStart, a program designed to help partners create and execute the most effective route to pipeline creation and sales growth. The program won Sirius Decisions’ Channel Marketing Program of the Year award.  </p> <h4>KEY TAKEAWAYS</h4> <p>Citrix’s Kickstart Channel Marketing program has five core components that enables their partners to execute an integrated marketing strategy.</p> <h5><strong>1. Content </strong></h5> <p>Content is king. The foundation of an award-winning program is having great content for partners.  </p> <h5><strong>2. Planning</strong></h5> <p>Planning is something many marketing programs don’t focus on enough. This includes joint business planning and creating quarterly or six-month marketing plans.</p> <h5><strong>3. Budget </strong></h5> <p>Find ways to make it easier for your partners to access marketing funds. Citrix integrated funding into the marketing planning process to fund a series of campaigns rather than a single activity or event.</p> <h5><strong>4. Resources </strong></h5> <p>Because Partners have different levels of marketing resources and infrastructure, they need varying levels of support. Citrix solves this by offering marketing agency support where the agency executes on the partners’ behalf. This provides more consistent execution and tracking of results. </p> <h5><strong>5. Enablement</strong></h5> <p>Enablement is a foundation for success, and not just partner enablement. First you need to enable your partner managers on your marketing program, what it means for partners, and the ideal profile of partners who can benefit most from it.  </p> <h4>SHARE THIS</h4> <p><em>The first key to a successful Channel Marketing program is content because content is king. @tricia_atchison</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Ftricia-atchison-award-winning-channel-marketing-program-cj35%2F&amp;text=The%20first%20key%20to%20a%20successful%20Channel%20Marketing%20program%20is%20content%20because%20content%20is%20king.%20%40tricia_atchison&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><p><em>Sometimes you just have to be willing to put yourself out there, be bold, and not be afraid that it may not work perfectly the first time out the gate. @tricia_atchison</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Ftricia-atchison-award-winning-channel-marketing-program-cj35%2F&amp;text=Sometimes%20you%20just%20have%20to%20be%20willing%20to%20put%20yourself%20out%20there%2C%20be%20bold%2C%20and%20not%20be%20afraid%20that%20it%20may%20not%20work%20perfectly%20the%20first%20time%20out%20the%20gate.%20%40tricia_atchison&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><h4>LINKS &amp; RESOURCES</h4> <ul> <li>Follow Tricia on  <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tricia-atchison/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/tricia_atchison" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.</li> <li>Follow David on  <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/djp55/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/djp55" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.</li> <li>Learn more about <a href="https://www.citrix.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Citrix</a> and <a href="https://www.getlift.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Get Lift</a>.</li> </ul>The post <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/tricia-atchison-award-winning-channel-marketing-program-cj35/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Tricia Atchison: How to Build an Award Winning Channel Marketing Program</a> first appeared on <a href="https://channeljourneys.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Journeys</a>.

Tricia Atchison: How to Build an Award Winning Channel Marketing Program

Rob Spee

I feel very fortunate to have such great channel talent on this podcast. It’s hard to keep up with all of the invaluable tips provided by my guests, who collectively represent centuries of channel experience.  In this episode, I highlight my top 10 channel tips from the first 10 episodes.   KEY TAKEAWAYS  Rob has a new gig as RVP Channels at Outsystems, the number 1 low-code development platform. The Channel Journeys Podcast will carry on with Rob’s mission of sharing channel knowledge and elevating the channel profession through provocative interviews with channel leaders. You can read even more of Rob’s top tips in an article published this week in the Software Executive Magazine, Channel Best Practices From The First 10 Channel Journeys Podcasts  SHARE THIS When you think about how your customers want to buy and who the customer is talking with throughout the buyers journey, you're going to see that they touch a lot of organizations that could be potential partners for you. - Rob SpeeClick To Tweet Partners are learning that the real money is in specialization. They want to create their own intellectual property, they want to add true business value. - Rob SpeeClick To Tweet LINKS &amp; RESOURCES    Follow Rob on Twitter and LinkedIn Read Rob’s Software Executive Magazine article Channel Best Practices From The First 10 Channel Journeys Podcasts   The post Rob Spee: Top 10 Channel Tips from the Channel Journeys Podcast first appeared on Channel Journeys.

<p>I feel very fortunate to have such great channel talent on this podcast. It’s hard to keep up with all of the invaluable tips provided by my guests, who collectively represent centuries of channel experience.  In this episode, I highlight my top 10 channel tips from the first 10 episodes.  </p> <h4>KEY TAKEAWAYS</h4> <ul> <li>Rob has a new gig as RVP Channels at <a href="https://www.outsystems.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Outsystems</a>, the number 1 low-code development platform.</li> <li>The Channel Journeys Podcast will carry on with Rob’s mission of sharing channel knowledge and elevating the channel profession through provocative interviews with channel leaders.</li> <li>You can read even more of Rob’s top tips in an article published this week in the Software Executive Magazine, <a href="https://www.softwareexecutivemag.com/doc/channel-best-practices-from-the-first-channel-journeys-podcasts-0001" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Best Practices From The First 10 Channel Journeys Podcasts</a></li> </ul> <h4>SHARE THIS</h4> <p><em>When you think about how your customers want to buy and who the customer is talking with throughout the buyers journey, you're going to see that they touch a lot of organizations that could be potential partners for you. - Rob Spee</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Frob-spee-top-10-channel-tips-cj32%2F&amp;text=When%20you%20think%20about%20how%20your%20customers%20want%20to%20buy%20and%20who%20the%20customer%20is%20talking%20with%20throughout%20the%20buyers%20journey%2C%20you%27re%20going%20to%20see%20that%20they%20touch%20a%20lot%20of%20organizations%20that%20could%20be%20potential%20partners%20for%20you.%20-%20Rob%20Spee&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><p><em>Partners are learning that the real money is in specialization. They want to create their own intellectual property, they want to add true business value. - Rob Spee</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Frob-spee-top-10-channel-tips-cj32%2F&amp;text=Partners%20are%20learning%20that%20the%20real%20money%20is%20in%20specialization.%20They%20want%20to%20create%20their%20own%20intellectual%20property%2C%20they%20want%20to%20add%20true%20business%20value.%20-%20Rob%20Spee&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><h4>LINKS &amp; RESOURCES</h4> <ul> <li> <ul> <li>Follow Rob on <a href="https://twitter.com/rob_spee" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertspee/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a></li> <li>Read Rob’s Software Executive Magazine article <a href="https://www.softwareexecutivemag.com/doc/channel-best-practices-from-the-first-channel-journeys-podcasts-0001" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Best Practices From The First 10 Channel Journeys Podcasts</a></li> </ul> </li> </ul>The post <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/rob-spee-top-10-channel-tips-cj32/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Rob Spee: Top 10 Channel Tips from the Channel Journeys Podcast</a> first appeared on <a href="https://channeljourneys.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Journeys</a>.

Rob Spee: Top 10 Channel Tips from the Channel Journeys Podcast

How to Accelerate Channel Performance in Hyper-Growth CJ12. This episode features Josh Lewis, Vice President of Global Channels at Alteryx, an analytics firm on hyper-growth. The channel strategy that got Alteryx to a $50M company wasn’t going to scale and continue fueling hyper-growth. The channel program reached a plateau. As a result, Josh needed to take a different approach to accelerate channel performance. Breakthrough performance is defined as a dramatic improvement achieved through consistent, focused, and synergistic efforts. Josh is adding fuel to a hyper-growth engine through consistent, focused, and synergistic efforts to drive breakthrough channel performance. This podcast is loaded with tips on recruiting, culture, and team alignment that you can use to accelerate channel performance in your own company. KEY TAKEAWAYS  Cull non-productive partners who aren’t willing or able to re-engage and commit.  Furthermore, take a data-driven, targeted approach to recruit new partners who have vertical industry expertise. Having a channel-friendly culture makes it easier to accelerate growth. Likewise, so does recruiting partners with cultures that match your company culture. Also seek ways to fuse your brand experience into your channel program. Align your channel teams and partners to the sales teams to gain sales relevancy.  Also hire, train and coach your channel managers to drive breakthrough performance from their partners.  SHOW NOTES [2:45] Alteryx an “overnight success” that started 23 years ago as a consulting company solving customer problems. Gradually shifted from services company to product company. Outside investment put them on hyper-growth track. Managing channels in hyper-growth requires special approach. Josh’s role is to add fuel to the growth engine. [5:00] Josh came into a good foundation of partners. However, what got them to a $50M company wasn’t going to scale. Needed to make existing partners more successful and bring on more. [6:55] Culture of partnering was there from the start. Josh found Alteryx to have a partner-friendly culture. But he needed to do more to make it easier for partners. Having the right culture in place makes it easier to accelerate. [8:20] The channel program reached a plateau. Therefore Josh needed to take a different approach. Had to be more selective about which partners can join the program. Needs partners who will build a practice; not single transaction partners. Understanding who shouldn’t be in the ecosystem as important as who should. [10:00] Culling old partners from your program is hard. Some are friends. But at some point it may not make sense for either side to continue. If partners want to reengage and commit, welcome them. But if not, it’s time to part ways. [11:00] Josh is getting hyper-focused and data-driven on partner recruiting. For example, he hired a partner development manager for healthcare. Spent months analyzing the most important characteristics and patterns of the ideal partner for that market segment. Then built a cadence with the marketing team to target those partners. They went healthcare events and made sure their value prop was crisp. Has had great results, finding and landing partners they couldn’t have otherwise. [12:00] They first looked at existing partners to see which ones were healthcare relevant. Then they used Alteryx’s own analytics to automate the analysis of partner data. Many happened to sell into healthcare, but weren’t healthcare partners. Wanted partners who woke up every day thinking healthcare and analytics. Analyzed industry reports, scanned websites, and attended events and trade-shows to develop a tight target list and hone value prop message. [15:20] Now he’s rolling out the same vertical-targeted recruiting model globally, targeting other verticals with collaboration between business development and marketing teams. [16:45] Also rolling out a new PRM system (Web Infinity) that will include full-blown deal registration system. This system is focused on the partner journey and allows them to segment partners by vertical. Can’t double staff, so needs systems that scale. [19:00] Also rolling out a new Partner Program in June, fusing the brand into the program. Want partner experience to mirror the Alteryx brand experience. More than just swag and t-shirts, its very much about getting partners aligned with how Alteryx views the customer. Building in measurements around customer success and certification. [20:30] Plans to start surveying partners this year to measure partner satisfaction. Have global partner advisory council to get feedback from their top partners and hold 3 partner summits. [23:00] Digging into their customer data and renewal rates. Looking at retention rates for partners versus direct customers. Found that reseller customers have higher renewal rates and higher growth rates than direct customers. (great sound clip) [25:30] Alteryx has a strong focus on land and expand. Hence partners play a major role in expansion. Rely on partners to have the deep industry domain knowledge to weave themselves into the customer’s analytic journey. [27:40] On hiring top talent, Josh looks for partner managers who have a big picture view. Looking for people who can run their own channel “franchise”, acting like a general manager of their region. Josh looks for sales relevance, meaning are his managers relevant to the direct sales team and to the partner. Not just managing transactions or the partner, but also working closely with the sales team. You have to hire people who understand that, who can develop trust internally with the sales team and externally with the partners. [30:00] A partner manager diminishes their value when isolated outside the sales motion.  Align your channel team with the regional sales team to achieve the highest partner-attach rates and most productive partners. [31:15] Likes to hire partner managers with both a direct and indirect sales background. Hire people interested in the big picture with intellectual curiosity. Then empower and enable them to think as general managers running a franchise. [32:30] Sometimes we hire transactional channel managers. There’s a need and a role for that. But when you’re looking to double the business you absolutely need people who can lead breakthrough performance from partners. [34:30] Channel relevancy in a company is based on chief executives’ perception of the channel and their experience with the channel. Sometimes channel chiefs can get too hung up on an approach and it becomes almost a religious conversation. [36:00] The importance of culture and cultural fit – the partners who are most successful are the ones with the strongest cultural fit. Therefore, find partners who speak your language. Its hard to measure on a dashboard, but you know it when you see it. [38:50] Josh made a leap into sales after getting his English major by getting a job at Eastman Kodak and going through their 3-4 month sales training program. [42:20] Tips for channel managers looking to rise up the ranks – it’s a journey. Have a personal network, find the right mentors, be humble. Learn new things and learn from the hard lessons. Find a great company and surround yourself with great people. LINKS &amp; RESOURCES  Find Josh on LinkedIn Learn more about AlteryxThe post Josh Lewis: Driving Breakthrough Channel Performance first appeared on Channel Journeys.

<h4>How to Accelerate Channel Performance in Hyper-Growth</h4> <p>CJ12. This episode features Josh Lewis, Vice President of Global Channels at Alteryx, an analytics firm on hyper-growth. The channel strategy that got Alteryx to a $50M company wasn’t going to scale and continue fueling hyper-growth. The channel program reached a plateau. As a result, Josh needed to take a different approach to accelerate channel performance.</p> <p>Breakthrough performance is defined as a dramatic improvement achieved through consistent, focused, and synergistic efforts. Josh is adding fuel to a hyper-growth engine through consistent, focused, and synergistic efforts to drive breakthrough channel performance. This podcast is loaded with tips on recruiting, culture, and team alignment that you can use to accelerate channel performance in your own company.</p> <h4>KEY TAKEAWAYS</h4> <ul> <li>Cull non-productive partners who aren’t willing or able to re-engage and commit.  Furthermore, take a data-driven, targeted approach to recruit new partners who have vertical industry expertise.</li> <li>Having a channel-friendly culture makes it easier to accelerate growth. Likewise, so does recruiting partners with cultures that match your company culture. Also seek ways to fuse your brand experience into your channel program.</li> <li>Align your channel teams and partners to the sales teams to gain sales relevancy.  Also hire, train and coach your channel managers to drive breakthrough performance from their partners.</li> </ul> <h4>SHOW NOTES</h4> <p>[2:45] Alteryx an “overnight success” that started 23 years ago as a consulting company solving customer problems. Gradually shifted from services company to product company. Outside investment put them on hyper-growth track. Managing channels in hyper-growth requires special approach. Josh’s role is to add fuel to the growth engine.</p> <p>[5:00] Josh came into a good foundation of partners. However, what got them to a $50M company wasn’t going to scale. Needed to make existing partners more successful and bring on more.</p> <p>[6:55] Culture of partnering was there from the start. Josh found Alteryx to have a partner-friendly culture. But he needed to do more to make it easier for partners. Having the right culture in place makes it easier to accelerate.</p> <p>[8:20] The channel program reached a plateau. Therefore Josh needed to take a different approach. Had to be more selective about which partners can join the program. Needs partners who will build a practice; not single transaction partners. Understanding who shouldn’t be in the ecosystem as important as who should.</p> <p>[10:00] Culling old partners from your program is hard. Some are friends. But at some point it may not make sense for either side to continue. If partners want to reengage and commit, welcome them. But if not, it’s time to part ways.</p> <p>[11:00] Josh is getting hyper-focused and data-driven on partner recruiting. For example, he hired a partner development manager for healthcare. Spent months analyzing the most important characteristics and patterns of the ideal partner for that market segment. Then built a cadence with the marketing team to target those partners. They went healthcare events and made sure their value prop was crisp. Has had great results, finding and landing partners they couldn’t have otherwise.</p> <p>[12:00] They first looked at existing partners to see which ones were healthcare relevant. Then they used Alteryx’s own analytics to automate the analysis of partner data. Many happened to sell into healthcare, but weren’t healthcare partners. Wanted partners who woke up every day thinking healthcare and analytics. Analyzed industry reports, scanned websites, and attended events and trade-shows to develop a tight target list and hone value prop message.</p> <p>[15:20] Now he’s rolling out the same vertical-targeted recruiting model globally, targeting other verticals with collaboration between business development and marketing teams.</p> <p>[16:45] Also rolling out a new PRM system (Web Infinity) that will include full-blown deal registration system. This system is focused on the partner journey and allows them to segment partners by vertical. Can’t double staff, so needs systems that scale.</p> <p>[19:00] Also rolling out a new Partner Program in June, fusing the brand into the program. Want partner experience to mirror the Alteryx brand experience. More than just swag and t-shirts, its very much about getting partners aligned with how Alteryx views the customer. Building in measurements around customer success and certification.</p> <p>[20:30] Plans to start surveying partners this year to measure partner satisfaction. Have global partner advisory council to get feedback from their top partners and hold 3 partner summits.</p> <p>[23:00] Digging into their customer data and renewal rates. Looking at retention rates for partners versus direct customers. Found that reseller customers have higher renewal rates and higher growth rates than direct customers. (great sound clip)</p> <p>[25:30] Alteryx has a strong focus on land and expand. Hence partners play a major role in expansion. Rely on partners to have the deep industry domain knowledge to weave themselves into the customer’s analytic journey.</p> <p>[27:40] On hiring top talent, Josh looks for partner managers who have a big picture view. Looking for people who can run their own channel “franchise”, acting like a general manager of their region. Josh looks for sales relevance, meaning are his managers relevant to the direct sales team and to the partner. Not just managing transactions or the partner, but also working closely with the sales team. You have to hire people who understand that, who can develop trust internally with the sales team and externally with the partners.</p> <p>[30:00] A partner manager diminishes their value when isolated outside the sales motion.  Align your channel team with the regional sales team to achieve the highest partner-attach rates and most productive partners.</p> <p>[31:15] Likes to hire partner managers with both a direct and indirect sales background. Hire people interested in the big picture with intellectual curiosity. Then empower and enable them to think as general managers running a franchise.</p> <p>[32:30] Sometimes we hire transactional channel managers. There’s a need and a role for that. But when you’re looking to double the business you absolutely need people who can lead breakthrough performance from partners.</p> <p>[34:30] Channel relevancy in a company is based on chief executives’ perception of the channel and their experience with the channel. Sometimes channel chiefs can get too hung up on an approach and it becomes almost a religious conversation.</p> <p>[36:00] The importance of culture and cultural fit – the partners who are most successful are the ones with the strongest cultural fit. Therefore, find partners who speak your language. Its hard to measure on a dashboard, but you know it when you see it.</p> <p>[38:50] Josh made a leap into sales after getting his English major by getting a job at Eastman Kodak and going through their 3-4 month sales training program.</p> <p>[42:20] Tips for channel managers looking to rise up the ranks – it’s a journey. Have a personal network, find the right mentors, be humble. Learn new things and learn from the hard lessons. Find a great company and surround yourself with great people.</p> <h4>LINKS &amp; RESOURCES</h4> <ul> <li>Find <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuaalexanderlewis/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Josh on LinkedIn</a></li> <li>Learn more about <a href="https://www.alteryx.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Alteryx</a></li></ul>The post <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/josh-lewis-driving-channel-performance-cj12/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Josh Lewis: Driving Breakthrough Channel Performance</a> first appeared on <a href="https://channeljourneys.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Journeys</a>.

Josh Lewis: Driving Breakthrough Channel Performance

Sandra Glaser

The channel partner ecosystem is expanding with the digital transformation. And with that, many traditional partners have evolved with the times while many of them haven’t, or just simply can’t. This has caused the channel to be increasingly difficult to navigate. Vendors need to examine how their partner ecosystem has changed and develop a modern partner program. This week I talk to Sandra Glaser Cheek, the global VP of channel sales at Ciena. Sandra has experience in channel leadership roles at many big brands, including Amazon and Adobe. We discuss why it’s time for a modern partner program, what that would look like, and how her company is able to handle a whole network of different partner types by launching a personalized partner program. KEY TAKEAWAYS Why It’s Time For A Modern Partner Program  The channel is being introduced to many new partner types, while existing partners are evolving and adopting new multiple business models. Partners want to engage in different ways, depending on the situation. In the past there was a homogeneous environment of resell partners. But now there are a wide variety of partner types. Partners no longer fit into just one category. As a result, they need a personalized program. A “one size program” no longer fits all. When you look at how most partners make the majority of their revenue, it is through services. The enablement to do that has become more important than the financial incentive for the sale.  Tiers are becoming a thing of the past. Instead of being based on tiers, incentives like Market Development Funds (MDF) should be based on the strength of your partner’s proposal and the investment you’re making to drive alignment to the goals.  How to Design a Modern Partner Program  When designing a modern partner program, look holistically at the channel and what you need to grow your business  Look at the data, and talk to your partners, find their pain points. Understanding the types of partners you have and where they’re going with their businesses is a really important piece of assessing whether you need a new program or not.  Enablement typically used to mean standardized technical support, training, certifications, and specializations.  Now it means personalized training and support, especially for the partner that has a deep specialization in a particular vertical market  SHARE THIS Why aren't partner programs keeping up with the times? Not only are we introducing new partner types into our ecosystems, but our existing partners are evolving, and they have multiple business models. @sgcheekClick To Tweet We need to look holistically at the channel - what is it that you're looking for to grow your business? @sgcheekClick To Tweet LINKS &amp; RESOURCES  Follow Sandra on Twitter and on LinkedIn Learn more about Ciena The post Sandra Glaser Cheek: Why it’s Time for a Modern Partner Program first appeared on Channel Journeys.

<p>The channel partner ecosystem is expanding with the digital transformation. And with that, many traditional partners have evolved with the times while many of them haven’t, or just simply can’t. This has caused the channel to be increasingly difficult to navigate. Vendors need to examine how their partner ecosystem has changed and develop a modern partner program.</p> <p>This week I talk to Sandra Glaser Cheek, the global VP of channel sales at Ciena. Sandra has experience in channel leadership roles at many big brands, including Amazon and Adobe. We discuss why it’s time for a modern partner program, what that would look like, and how her company is able to handle a whole network of different partner types by launching a personalized partner program.</p> <h4>KEY TAKEAWAYS</h4> <h5><strong>Why It’s Time For A Modern Partner Program</strong></h5> <ul> <li>The channel is being introduced to many new partner types, while existing partners are evolving and adopting new multiple business models. Partners want to engage in different ways, depending on the situation.</li> <li>In the past there was a homogeneous environment of resell partners. But now there are a wide variety of partner types. Partners no longer fit into just one category. As a result, they need a personalized program. A “one size program” no longer fits all.</li> <li>When you look at how most partners make the majority of their revenue, it is through services. The enablement to do that has become more important than the financial incentive for the sale. </li> <li>Tiers are becoming a thing of the past. Instead of being based on tiers, incentives like Market Development Funds (MDF) should be based on the strength of your partner’s proposal and the investment you’re making to drive alignment to the goals.</li> </ul> <h5><strong>How to Design a Modern Partner Program</strong></h5> <ul> <li>When designing a modern partner program, look holistically at the channel and what you need to grow your business </li> <li>Look at the data, and talk to your partners, find their pain points. Understanding the types of partners you have and where they’re going with their businesses is a really important piece of assessing whether you need a new program or not. </li> <li>Enablement typically used to mean standardized technical support, training, certifications, and specializations.  Now it means personalized training and support, especially for the partner that has a deep specialization in a particular vertical market</li> </ul> <h4>SHARE THIS</h4> <p><em>Why aren't partner programs keeping up with the times? Not only are we introducing new partner types into our ecosystems, but our existing partners are evolving, and they have multiple business models. @sgcheek</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Fsandra-glaser-modern-partner-program-cj30%2F&amp;text=Why%20aren%27t%20partner%20programs%20keeping%20up%20with%20the%20times%3F%20Not%20only%20are%20we%20introducing%20new%20partner%20types%20into%20our%20ecosystems%2C%20but%20our%20existing%20partners%20are%20evolving%2C%20and%20they%20have%20multiple%20business%20models.%20%40sgcheek&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><p><em>We need to look holistically at the channel - what is it that you're looking for to grow your business? @sgcheek</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Fsandra-glaser-modern-partner-program-cj30%2F&amp;text=We%20need%20to%20look%20holistically%20at%20the%20channel%20-%20what%20is%20it%20that%20you%27re%20looking%20for%20to%20grow%20your%20business%3F%20%40sgcheek&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><h4>LINKS &amp; RESOURCES</h4> <ul> <li>Follow Sandra on <a href="https://twitter.com/sgcheek" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandra-glaser-cheek/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a></li> <li>Learn more about <a href="https://www.ciena.com/?src=LinkedIn" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ciena</a></li> </ul>The post <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/sandra-glaser-modern-partner-program-cj30/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sandra Glaser Cheek: Why it’s Time for a Modern Partner Program</a> first appeared on <a href="https://channeljourneys.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Journeys</a>.

Sandra Glaser Cheek: Why it’s Time for a Modern Partner Program

Why SaaS Channels are Vital to SaaS Growth This episode on SaaS Channels features Sunir Shah, founder of three SaaS organizations. He has his own SaaS company, AppBind. He runs the SaaS Connect conference. And he founded the Cloud Software Association, a network of over 2,000 companies building the market and channel for cloud software distribution. The subscription model of SaaS has driven many SaaS companies to only sell direct. Sunir has a depth of SaaS business development expertise. Sunir provides 5 big reasons why SaaS channels are so important for the success of SaaS companies and when to build them.  And he tells us what he’s doing with his company AppBind to make it easier for SaaS Channel partners to buy and manage multiple SaaS subscriptions they sell as part of their bundled service to their clients. KEY TAKEAWAYS SaaS Connect  SaaS Connect is a meeting-central event. Over 300 SaaS partners, vendors, investors, and other leaders convene to learn best practices and form new partnerships. The event is designed to meet everyone and build a network you can carry forward.  Why We Need SaaS Channels  Integrations and open APIs were once seen as a crazy idea, just as some today think  SaaS channels and partnerships is a crazy idea. Today, the majority of SaaS is sold direct. However, you can’t expect to own the entire customer experience or reach every customer in the world. SaaS growth is being limited by a lack of SaaS channels. While Gartner predicts SaaS revenues to reach $85 billion in 2019, Microsoft’s revenue alone is over $100B. The big difference is that Microsoft is channel-driven and very proud that for every $1 Microsoft makes their partners make $10, and they generate more than 95 percent of our business through their partner ecosystem. The biggest problem threatening SaaS growth is that most SaaS investors and CEOs still want to control the customer from beginning to end, and they see partners as a threat. SaaS adoption is key to reducing churn, yet most SaaS companies attempt to handle the customer experience on their own, or compete with their partners in providing on-boarding and adoption services. In contrast, one CEO took a giant step in supporting his SaaS channel by eliminating the company’s Customer Success team and putting 90% of the on-boarding role in the hands of their partners. The SaaS Growth Ceiling is when the number of customers your acquiring every month equals the number of customers who are turning away every month. And it’s a trap. Because no matter how hard you work, you will always stay at the same place or start declining. One way out of the Growth Ceiling is to grow customer acquisition exponentially through SaaS channels.  Source: The SaaS growth ceiling: what happens when churn takes hold by ChartMogel Building SaaS Channels  The SaaS partner ecosystem depends on your offering. It may include a developer network, a service network, and a network of commercial channel partners depending on where you fit. With SaaS, you must generate customer demand for your product first before your channel partner will sell it. Focus on making sure that customers like your product, work on your direct sales, messaging, marketing, and building product market fit. Make enough case studies and proof that your thing is working, then you can start to build up your SaaS channels.  Solving a SaaS Challenge with AppBind  Software has always been a partnership play. One piece of software can’t solve an entire business problem. That is why partners play a key role in integrating and bundling multiple offerings. They add their own IP to provide a service that solves customer’s business problems. AppBind solves the billing challenge partners face when combining multiple SaaS products into a bundled service. For example, with AppBind, a social marketing agency can buy SaaS subscriptions for  a social media scheduler, advertising, dashboards, buffer accounts, etc. , mark them up, and sell them as part of a bundled service to clients, and manage all the subscriptions in one place. With AppBind, Managed Service Providers (MSPs) can control all of their SaaS subscriptions, many with different billing metrics, that make up their service offerings.  SHARE THIS You can't own the entire customer experience. You need to develop an ecosystem of partners around you because you can't phone and email every customer in the world. - @SunirClick To Tweet The channel is the most important future development we need to build in order to get SaaS to grow. - @SunirClick To Tweet The biggest, biggest, biggest, biggest problem absolutely, is that most SaaS investors and CEOs still want to control the customer from beginning to end and they see partners as a threat. - @SunirClick To Tweet The predictable part of SaaS predictable revenue is that it will hit a ceiling and then you're stuck. So what's your next leverage? It’s the channel. - @SunirClick To Tweet LINKS &amp; RESOURCES  Follow Sunir on LinkedIn and Twitter Learn more about AppBind Join the Cloud Software Association Learn more about SaaS Connect Read Rob’s 4 SaaS Channel Takeaways from SaaS Connect The post Sunir Shah: 5 Reasons You Need SaaS Channels first appeared on Channel Journeys.

<h4>Why SaaS Channels are Vital to SaaS Growth</h4> <p>This episode on SaaS Channels features Sunir Shah, founder of three SaaS organizations. He has his own SaaS company, AppBind. He runs the SaaS Connect conference. And he founded the Cloud Software Association, a network of over 2,000 companies building the market and channel for cloud software distribution.</p> <p>The subscription model of SaaS has driven many SaaS companies to only sell direct. Sunir has a depth of SaaS business development expertise. Sunir provides 5 big reasons why SaaS channels are so important for the success of SaaS companies and when to build them.  And he tells us what he’s doing with his company AppBind to make it easier for SaaS Channel partners to buy and manage multiple SaaS subscriptions they sell as part of their bundled service to their clients.</p> <h4>KEY TAKEAWAYS</h4> <h5>SaaS Connect</h5> <ul> <li>SaaS Connect is a meeting-central event. Over 300 SaaS partners, vendors, investors, and other leaders convene to learn best practices and form new partnerships. The event is designed to meet everyone and build a network you can carry forward.</li> </ul> <h5>Why We Need SaaS Channels</h5> <ol> <li>Integrations and open APIs were once seen as a crazy idea, just as some today think  SaaS channels and partnerships is a crazy idea. Today, the majority of SaaS is sold direct. However, you can’t expect to own the entire customer experience or reach every customer in the world.</li> <li>SaaS growth is being limited by a lack of SaaS channels. While <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/gartner-predicts-saas-revenues-to-reach-85-billion-in-2019/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Gartner predicts SaaS revenues to reach $85 billion in 2019</a>, Microsoft’s revenue alone is over $100B. The big difference is that Microsoft is channel-driven and very proud that <a href="https://mspoweruser.com/microsoft-says-partners-earn-nearly-10-every-1-microsoft-takes/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">for every $1 Microsoft makes their partners make $10</a>, and they generate more than 95 percent of our business through their partner ecosystem.</li> <li>The biggest problem threatening SaaS growth is that most SaaS investors and CEOs still want to control the customer from beginning to end, and they see partners as a threat.</li> <li>SaaS adoption is key to reducing churn, yet most SaaS companies attempt to handle the customer experience on their own, or compete with their partners in providing on-boarding and adoption services. In contrast, one CEO took a giant step in supporting his SaaS channel by eliminating the company’s Customer Success team and putting 90% of the on-boarding role in the hands of their partners.</li> <li>The <a href="https://blog.chartmogul.com/saas-growth-ceiling/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SaaS Growth Ceiling</a> is when the number of customers your acquiring every month equals the number of customers who are turning away every month. And it’s a trap. Because no matter how hard you work, you will always stay at the same place or start declining. One way out of the Growth Ceiling is to grow customer acquisition exponentially through SaaS channels.</li> </ol> <p><em>Source: <a href="https://blog.chartmogul.com/saas-growth-ceiling/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">The SaaS growth ceiling: what happens when churn takes hold</a> by ChartMogel</em></p> <h5>Building SaaS Channels</h5> <ul> <li>The SaaS partner ecosystem depends on your offering. It may include a developer network, a service network, and a network of commercial channel partners depending on where you fit.</li> <li>With SaaS, you must generate customer demand for your product first before your channel partner will sell it.</li> <li>Focus on making sure that customers like your product, work on your direct sales, messaging, marketing, and building product market fit. Make enough case studies and proof that your thing is working, then you can <a href="https://robspee.com/dina-moskowitz-saas-marketplace-cj11/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">start to build up your SaaS channels</a>.</li> </ul> <h5>Solving a SaaS Challenge with AppBind</h5> <ul> <li>Software has always been a partnership play. One piece of software can’t solve an entire business problem. That is why partners play a key role in integrating and bundling multiple offerings. They add their own IP to provide a service that solves customer’s business problems.</li> <li>AppBind solves the billing challenge partners face when combining multiple SaaS products into a bundled service. For example, with AppBind, a social marketing agency can buy SaaS subscriptions for  a social media scheduler, advertising, dashboards, buffer accounts, etc. , mark them up, and sell them as part of a bundled service to clients, and manage all the subscriptions in one place.</li> <li>With AppBind, Managed Service Providers (MSPs) can control all of their SaaS subscriptions, many with different billing metrics, that make up their service offerings.</li> </ul> <h4>SHARE THIS</h4> <p><em>You can't own the entire customer experience. You need to develop an ecosystem of partners around you because you can't phone and email every customer in the world. - @Sunir</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Fsunir-shah-saas-channels-cj18%2F&amp;text=You%20can%27t%20own%20the%20entire%20customer%20experience.%20You%20need%20to%20develop%20an%20ecosystem%20of%20partners%20around%20you%20because%20you%20can%27t%20phone%20and%20email%20every%20customer%20in%20the%20world.%20-%20%40Sunir&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><p><em>The channel is the most important future development we need to build in order to get SaaS to grow. - @Sunir</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Fsunir-shah-saas-channels-cj18%2F&amp;text=The%20channel%20is%20the%20most%20important%20future%20development%20we%20need%20to%20build%20in%20order%20to%20get%20SaaS%20to%20grow.%20-%20%40Sunir&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><p><em>The biggest, biggest, biggest, biggest problem absolutely, is that most SaaS investors and CEOs still want to control the customer from beginning to end and they see partners as a threat. - @Sunir</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Fsunir-shah-saas-channels-cj18%2F&amp;text=The%20biggest%2C%20biggest%2C%20biggest%2C%20biggest%20problem%20absolutely%2C%20is%20that%20most%20SaaS%20investors%20and%20CEOs%20still%20want%20to%20control%20the%20customer%20from%20beginning%20to%20end%20and%20they%20see%20partners%20as%20a%20threat.%20-%20%40Sunir&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><p><em>The predictable part of SaaS predictable revenue is that it will hit a ceiling and then you're stuck. So what's your next leverage? It’s the channel. - @Sunir</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Fsunir-shah-saas-channels-cj18%2F&amp;text=The%20predictable%20part%20of%20SaaS%20predictable%20revenue%20is%20that%20it%20will%20hit%20a%20ceiling%20and%20then%20you%27re%20stuck.%20So%20what%27s%20your%20next%20leverage%3F%20It%E2%80%99s%20the%20channel.%20-%20%40Sunir&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><h4>LINKS &amp; RESOURCES</h4> <ul> <li>Follow Sunir on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sunirshah/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/Sunir" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a></li> <li>Learn more about <a href="http://www.appbind.com" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">AppBind</a></li> <li>Join the <a href="http://www.cloudsoftwareassociation.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Cloud Software Association</a></li> <li>Learn more about <a href="http://www.saasconnect.org" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">SaaS Connect</a></li> <li>Read Rob’s <a href="https://www.channelpartnersonline.com/blog/4-saas-channel-takeaways-from-saas-connect/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">4 SaaS Channel Takeaways from SaaS Connect</a></li> </ul>The post <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/sunir-shah-saas-channels-cj18/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sunir Shah: 5 Reasons You Need SaaS Channels</a> first appeared on <a href="https://channeljourneys.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Journeys</a>.

Sunir Shah: 5 Reasons You Need SaaS Channels

Craig Schlagbaum

How to accelerate growth using Agents and Managed service providers This episode features Craig Schlagbaum, Vice President of Indirect Channels for the business solutions side of Comcast. Craig is an industry veteran and decorated channel chief. He shares why the telecom agent model has been so successful, but why MSPs are vital to his channel growth. And Craig tells how the agent and MSP worlds are colliding in a channel convergence. Along the way you’ll learn Craig’s secrets to success with tips you can leverage to take your channel business and your channel career to the next level. KEY TAKEAWAYS  Under the Telco partner model, Agents and MSPs get the benefit of residual commissions for life of a customer from an asset-less income stream; they don’t own asset or pay debt on it. Many SaaS companies are replicating this model. The Master Agent is a distributor of services. They provide credit to their agents who can’t wait for residual stream in the form of an advance on commissions. The key difference between the telco partner program and traditional ISV partner program is the financial model. Both channels look see ease of doing business, from quote to cash, as top priority. Most of Craig’s partners are not interested in the reseller model where the partner bills the customer. Craig says they’ve proven wrong the idea that you must bill the customer to own the customer. Agents control the customer even though Comcast bills the customer directly. Craig sees a channel convergence of the Agent and MSP business models. He says MSPs could end up with 3 revenue streams; Revenue from services they bill on their own paper for a service that they created, Residual commissions for services from other providers, and Revenue from the heavy lifting of integration and support services.   Comcast’s secret sauce is how much emphasis they put on ease of doing business and sales operations. Craig calls this focus on Partner Experience PX19. Under PX19, they track key metrics including sales per month, churn rates, how long it takes Comcast to get partners a quote, get their customers installed, and get commissions paid.  SHOW NOTES The AGent Model [4:00] Telco companies traditionally sold directly so they don’t have the channel participation rates you see with many IT vendors like Cisco and Microsoft. But Comcast’s partner business is in the double digits and growing at more than 20% per year. [5:45] Comcast has thousands of partners. Most, around 80%, are agents, acting like independent insurance agents or financial brokers. But fastest growing segment are MSPs who control end-to-end network and software and get benefit of residual income for life of customers. [8:00] MSPs get benefit of residual income for life of customer from an asset-less income stream; they don’t own asset or pay debt on it. [10:00] The Master Agent is a distributor of services. Provide credit to their agents who can’t wait for residual stream in the form of an advance on commissions. Channel Convergence [10:00] The telco agent financial model with a residual commission is a blueprint that is being used by SaaS companies. [13:00] Telcos and SaaS firms are both looking to MSPs who can offer solution consisting of multiple providers and offer greater level of service to their customers. [16:00] The more the telcos offerings move up market from commodity voice to complex data services like SDN, the more MSPs and VARs will need to be involved to support customers, driving more channel convergence. [17:00] Key differences in telco partner program is the financial model. Main thing his channel looks for is ease of doing business from quote to cash, no different that ISV partners. Provide online tools for partners to see what customers are doing with the products. The Secret Sauce [18:00] Comcast’s secret sauce is how much emphasis they put on ease of doing business and sales operations. [19:00] Key partner metrics he tracks are sales per month, churn rates, how long it takes Comcast to get partner’s a quote, get their customers installed, and get commissions paid. [21:00] Has both a field and an inside channel team of about 40 people supporting thousands of partners, supported by sales engineers and specialized SDN team, and an ops team that support the master agents and distributors. [23:00] Envisions a portion of the 100,000+ MSPs moving to selling telco services. Some MSPs are getting their in a more clandestine way. MSPs partner with agents under their own agreed to terms. MSPs could end up with 3 revenue streams; revenue from services they built, revenue from residual commissions for services from other providers, and revenue from the heavy lifting of integration services. [25:00] Barriers to entry that VARs used to face doesn’t exist for the millennial world today.  You don’t have to put up any cash to start representing hundreds of services with residual commissions. [28:00] Most of his partners are not interested in the reseller model where partner bills the customer. Craig says they’ve proven wrong the idea that you must bill the customer to own the customer.  Agents control the customer even though the billing is done by Comcast. [31:30] Secrets to Craig’s success is always putting the partner first, seeing the partner as the customer, and improving the partner experience. Logs over 100,000 miles per year on getting out to see partners. [34:00] It took 2 or 3 years to get executives fully on board with channel strategy. It took Craig acting as a chief culture officer to get their support. You have to be patient, but over time the channel will win out. [38:30] Craig got into the channel business because his father was in it. His dad helped start the channel at IBM in the early 1980s. LINKS &amp; RESOURCES  Find Craig on LinkedIn and Twitter Learn more about the Comcast Partner Program and Partner Experience PX19 Read Rob’s take on Channel ConvergenceThe post Craig Schlagbaum: Driving Sales and Channel Convergence first appeared on Channel Journeys.

<h4>How to accelerate growth using Agents and Managed service providers</h4> <p>This episode features Craig Schlagbaum, Vice President of Indirect Channels for the business solutions side of Comcast. Craig is an industry veteran and decorated channel chief. He shares why the telecom agent model has been so successful, but why MSPs are vital to his channel growth. And Craig tells how the agent and MSP worlds are colliding in a channel convergence. Along the way you’ll learn Craig’s secrets to success with tips you can leverage to take your channel business and your channel career to the next level.</p> <h4>KEY TAKEAWAYS</h4> <ul> <li>Under the Telco partner model, Agents and MSPs get the benefit of residual commissions for life of a customer from an asset-less income stream; they don’t own asset or pay debt on it. Many SaaS companies are replicating this model.</li> <li>The Master Agent is a distributor of services. They provide credit to their agents who can’t wait for residual stream in the form of an advance on commissions.</li> <li>The key difference between the telco partner program and traditional ISV partner program is the financial model. Both channels look see ease of doing business, from quote to cash, as top priority.</li> <li>Most of Craig’s partners are not interested in the reseller model where the partner bills the customer. Craig says they’ve proven wrong the idea that you must bill the customer to own the customer. Agents control the customer even though Comcast bills the customer directly.</li> <li>Craig sees a channel convergence of the Agent and MSP business models. He says MSPs could end up with 3 revenue streams;<br><ol> <li>Revenue from services they bill on their own paper for a service that they created,</li> <li>Residual commissions for services from other providers, and</li> <li>Revenue from the heavy lifting of integration and support services.</li> </ol> </li> <li>Comcast’s secret sauce is how much emphasis they put on ease of doing business and sales operations. Craig calls this focus on Partner Experience PX19. Under PX19, they track key metrics including sales per month, churn rates, how long it takes Comcast to get partners a quote, get their customers installed, and get commissions paid.</li> </ul> <h4>SHOW NOTES</h4> <h5>The AGent Model</h5> <p>[4:00] Telco companies traditionally sold directly so they don’t have the channel participation rates you see with many IT vendors like Cisco and Microsoft. But Comcast’s partner business is in the double digits and growing at more than 20% per year.</p> <p>[5:45] Comcast has thousands of partners. Most, around 80%, are agents, acting like independent insurance agents or financial brokers. But fastest growing segment are MSPs who control end-to-end network and software and get benefit of residual income for life of customers.</p> <p>[8:00] MSPs get benefit of residual income for life of customer from an asset-less income stream; they don’t own asset or pay debt on it.</p> <p>[10:00] The Master Agent is a distributor of services. Provide credit to their agents who can’t wait for residual stream in the form of an advance on commissions.</p> <h5>Channel Convergence</h5> <p>[10:00] The telco agent financial model with a residual commission is a blueprint that is being used by SaaS companies.</p> <p>[13:00] Telcos and SaaS firms are both looking to MSPs who can offer solution consisting of multiple providers and offer greater level of service to their customers.</p> <p>[16:00] The more the telcos offerings move up market from commodity voice to complex data services like SDN, the more MSPs and VARs will need to be involved to support customers, driving more channel convergence.</p> <p>[17:00] Key differences in telco partner program is the financial model. Main thing his channel looks for is ease of doing business from quote to cash, no different that ISV partners. Provide online tools for partners to see what customers are doing with the products.</p> <h5>The Secret Sauce</h5> <p>[18:00] Comcast’s secret sauce is how much emphasis they put on ease of doing business and sales operations.</p> <p>[19:00] Key partner metrics he tracks are sales per month, churn rates, how long it takes Comcast to get partner’s a quote, get their customers installed, and get commissions paid.</p> <p>[21:00] Has both a field and an inside channel team of about 40 people supporting thousands of partners, supported by sales engineers and specialized SDN team, and an ops team that support the master agents and distributors.</p> <p>[23:00] Envisions a portion of the 100,000+ MSPs moving to selling telco services. Some MSPs are getting their in a more clandestine way. MSPs partner with agents under their own agreed to terms. MSPs could end up with 3 revenue streams; revenue from services they built, revenue from residual commissions for services from other providers, and revenue from the heavy lifting of integration services.</p> <p>[25:00] Barriers to entry that VARs used to face doesn’t exist for the millennial world today.  You don’t have to put up any cash to start representing hundreds of services with residual commissions.</p> <p>[28:00] Most of his partners are not interested in the reseller model where partner bills the customer. Craig says they’ve proven wrong the idea that you must bill the customer to own the customer.  Agents control the customer even though the billing is done by Comcast.</p> <p>[31:30] Secrets to Craig’s success is always putting the partner first, seeing the partner as the customer, and improving the partner experience. Logs over 100,000 miles per year on getting out to see partners.</p> <p>[34:00] It took 2 or 3 years to get executives fully on board with channel strategy. It took Craig acting as a chief culture officer to get their support. You have to be patient, but over time the channel will win out.</p> <p>[38:30] Craig got into the channel business because his father was in it. His dad helped start the channel at IBM in the early 1980s.</p> <h4>LINKS &amp; RESOURCES</h4> <ul> <li>Find Craig on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigschlagbaum/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/craigschlagbaum" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a></li> <li>Learn more about the <a href="https://business.comcast.com/partner" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Comcast Partner Program</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/2019-year-growth-px-19-craig-schlagbaum/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Partner Experience PX19</a></li> <li>Read <a href="https://www.channelfutures.com/business-models/channel-convergence-will-never-happen-and-thats-a-good-thing" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Rob’s take on Channel Convergence</a></li></ul>The post <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/craig-schlagbaum-driving-channel-convergence-cj17/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Craig Schlagbaum: Driving Sales and Channel Convergence</a> first appeared on <a href="https://channeljourneys.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Journeys</a>.

Craig Schlagbaum: Driving Sales and Channel Convergence

Matt Reaves

Creating Value-Added Distribution  CJ3.  This episode features Matt Reaves, channel chief, distribution veteran, and long-distance swimmer. Matt tells how his career went from drilling for oil to creating a value-added distribution model and becoming a leading distributor for IBM.  Hear Matt’s view on the role of distribution today and learn about his personal journey from horseback riding next to the pyramids of Egypt to swimming with sharks in the San Francisco bay. KEY TAKEAWAYS  [4:40] Matt went to high school in Cairo where he rode horses next to the pyramids and graduated under the Sphynx. [7:00] Joined the oil business right out of college and worked their until the oil crash. [9:00] Transitioned from oil to the channel by working as an IT reseller calling on doctors. [11:00] Joined Dallas distributor Horizon Technology as the 32nd employee in 1990.  Horizon became Pro America, one of three IBM distributors at the time.  Developed the value distribution model where you could earn more margin for delivering more value. [14:00] Pro America merged with Dickens Data Systems in Atlanta, then acquired by Pioneer Standard (Keylink), then by Arrow. [15:45] Role of distribution today – still have the reach and scale most companies don’t have, adapting to changing markets by building new services like cloud portals, and changing to become IoT and analytics companies.  And still provide channel credit that keeps the wheels turning. [19:30] True character comes out when times are tough, not when things are good. [21:30] Channels are all about influence. Direct sales are all about command and control. [30:00]  Jumped out of a boat into the shark-infested waters of San Francisco bay to swim 1.5 miles from Alcatraz to Ghirardelli Square to prove he could and raise money for Alzheimer’s research. [35:00] Matt’s passion is passing on his channel knowledge on to those entering the field today, and hopes that other channel pros will do the same.  LINKS &amp; RESOURCES  Find Matt Reaves on LinkedIn Wild World of Sports Thrill of Victory and Agony of Defeat  2019 Alcatraz Sharkfest Swim The post Matt Reaves: Swimming with Sharks from Drilling to Distribution first appeared on Channel Journeys.

<h4>Creating Value-Added Distribution </h4> <p>CJ3.  This episode features Matt Reaves, channel chief, distribution veteran, and long-distance swimmer. Matt tells how his career went from drilling for oil to creating a value-added distribution model and becoming a leading distributor for IBM.  Hear Matt’s view on the role of distribution today and learn about his personal journey from horseback riding next to the pyramids of Egypt to swimming with sharks in the San Francisco bay.</p> <h4>KEY TAKEAWAYS</h4> <ul> <li>[4:40] Matt went to high school in Cairo where he rode horses next to the pyramids and graduated under the Sphynx.</li> <li>[7:00] Joined the oil business right out of college and worked their until the oil crash.</li> <li>[9:00] Transitioned from oil to the channel by working as an IT reseller calling on doctors.</li> <li>[11:00] Joined Dallas distributor Horizon Technology as the 32nd employee in 1990.  Horizon became Pro America, one of three IBM distributors at the time.  Developed the value distribution model where you could earn more margin for delivering more value.</li> <li>[14:00] Pro America merged with Dickens Data Systems in Atlanta, then acquired by Pioneer Standard (Keylink), then by Arrow.</li> <li>[15:45] Role of distribution today – still have the reach and scale most companies don’t have, adapting to changing markets by building new services like cloud portals, and changing to become IoT and analytics companies.  And still provide channel credit that keeps the wheels turning.</li> <li>[19:30] True character comes out when times are tough, not when things are good.</li> <li>[21:30] Channels are all about influence. Direct sales are all about command and control.</li> <li>[30:00]  Jumped out of a boat into the shark-infested waters of San Francisco bay to swim 1.5 miles from Alcatraz to Ghirardelli Square to prove he could and raise money for Alzheimer’s research.</li> <li>[35:00] Matt’s passion is passing on his channel knowledge on to those entering the field today, and hopes that other channel pros will do the same.</li> </ul> <h4>LINKS &amp; RESOURCES</h4> <ul> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-reaves-7476a311/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Find Matt Reaves on LinkedIn</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2AZH4FeGsc" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Wild World of Sports Thrill of Victory and Agony of Defeat</a></li> <li> <p><a href="https://raceroster.com/events/2019/18582/2019-alcatraz-sharkfest-swim" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">2019 Alcatraz Sharkfest Swim</a></p> </li></ul>The post <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/matt-reaves-swimming-sharks-drilling-distribution-cj3/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Matt Reaves: Swimming with Sharks from Drilling to Distribution</a> first appeared on <a href="https://channeljourneys.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Journeys</a>.

Matt Reaves: Swimming with Sharks from Drilling to Distribution

Jeff Mattan

Valuable tips for moving from a traditional channel model to a SaaS Partner Program Transitioning the channel to the cloud and SaaS subscriptions is still a massive challenge. This week’s episode features Jeff Mattan, a channel veteran who has extensive experience in this channel transformation.  Over the course of his channel careers, Jeff has worked with telco agents, MSPs, and IT Solution Providers as a supplier of telco services, networking, and now security solutions. We talk about channel convergence, the pros and cons of different channel models, and how SaaS vendors can reduce partner disruption.  And Jeff provides valuable tips on how to develop a SaaS Partner Program that will attract the right partners who provide the right services to drive greater customer success and accelerate revenue growth. KEY TAKEAWAYS SaaS Partner Program Tips  For SaaS companies selling directly to customers and paying a monthly recurring commission to the partner who makes the sale fits very well with telco agents who are used to that model. However, it is a massive disruption to most MSPs and Resellers who are used to billing the customer. They want the control of owning the customer and are reluctant to accept the referral-for-commission model. The downside or limitation of the agent model is that agents aren’t staffed or equipped to do product adoption and integrations services that will increase customer success and reduce churn. Adding a channel model where the partner can do the billing will open the doors to MSPs and Resellers who can provide additional services and integrations. The subscription model is still a change for the traditional reseller used to selling large deals. Show them that you understand the cashflow struggle of moving from a large transaction perpetual license to smaller transaction subscription model. Paying the partner in perpetuity on a subscription may seem expensive and unwarranted, but you have to match what your competitors are doing or you’re going to lose your partners. Instead, look at your sales process and make it easier to buy your product to reduce costs.  Other Partner Program Tips   If you have a tier-based Partner Program, promote partners to higher tier at least every quarter instead of waiting to end of year, otherwise partners may hold deals until next year to get the added benefits of higher tier. Be incredibly honest with partners about what types of products and services will be profitable for the partner and which won’t. Let them know it’s not just you or them, the whole market is shifting. When building your program, lay out the entire customer journey, from influence and buying to provisioning and implementing. Break it into stages to find what’s valuable, who can do it, can the partner make money doing it. Could give you room to reduce residuals if partner can make more money on the services around your product. Depending on your product and target customer, consider adding a referral program, a residual commission program, and a reseller program to your Partner Program to offer the most flexibility and attractiveness to a wide variety of partner types. It takes a lot of work to develop a comprehensive Partner Program that is at the same time simple for the partner and makes you easy to work with. But all that upfront work will be worth it. Reevaluate your partner program in relationship to the customer journey and your channel’s role at least once a year.   You have to really spend time and energy in hand-to-hand relationships with your clients to ask the hard questions and make sure that what you’re hearing is genuine interest that translates into a path to creating economic value for that audience and revenue for your company.  SHARE THIS There are places today where you (the partner) can make money, but they are not where you are today. So you need to reinvest- @jeffmattanClick To Tweet The supplier needs to be flexible in setting up a Partner Program that has different elements to drive different behaviors with different of partners - @robspeeClick To Tweet When it comes to Partner Program design, spend time on planning. Whiteboard the entire customer journey. Segment it. Determine where partners can add services and make money. The design program around that. @jeffmattanClick To Tweet LINKS &amp; RESOURCES  Follow Jeff on Twitter and LinkedIn Read Rob’s blog on Why Channel Convergence Won’t Happen The post Jeff Mattan: How to transition to a SaaS Partner Program first appeared on Channel Journeys.

<h4>Valuable tips for moving from a traditional channel model to a SaaS Partner Program</h4> <p>Transitioning the channel to the cloud and SaaS subscriptions is still a massive challenge. This week’s episode features Jeff Mattan, a channel veteran who has extensive experience in this channel transformation.  Over the course of his channel careers, Jeff has worked with telco agents, MSPs, and IT Solution Providers as a supplier of telco services, networking, and now security solutions.</p> <p>We talk about <a href="robspee.com/cj17" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">channel convergence</a>, the pros and cons of different channel models, and how SaaS vendors can reduce partner disruption.  And Jeff provides valuable tips on how to develop a SaaS Partner Program that will attract the right partners who provide the right services to drive greater customer success and accelerate revenue growth.</p> <h4>KEY TAKEAWAYS</h4> <h5><strong>SaaS Partner Program Tips</strong></h5> <ul> <li>For SaaS companies selling directly to customers and paying a monthly recurring commission to the partner who makes the sale fits very well with telco agents who are used to that model. However, it is a massive disruption to most MSPs and Resellers who are used to billing the customer. They want the control of owning the customer and are reluctant to accept the referral-for-commission model.</li> <li>The downside or limitation of the agent model is that agents aren’t staffed or equipped to do product adoption and integrations services that will increase customer success and reduce churn.</li> <li>Adding a channel model where the partner can do the billing will open the doors to MSPs and Resellers who can provide additional services and integrations.</li> <li>The subscription model is still a change for the traditional reseller used to selling large deals. Show them that you understand the cashflow struggle of moving from a large transaction perpetual license to smaller transaction subscription model.</li> <li>Paying the partner in perpetuity on a subscription may seem expensive and unwarranted, but you have to match what your competitors are doing or you’re going to lose your partners. Instead, look at your sales process and make it easier to buy your product to reduce costs.</li> </ul> <h5><strong>Other Partner Program Tips </strong></h5> <ul> <li>If you have a tier-based Partner Program, promote partners to higher tier at least every quarter instead of waiting to end of year, otherwise partners may hold deals until next year to get the added benefits of higher tier.</li> <li>Be incredibly honest with partners about what types of products and services will be profitable for the partner and which won’t. Let them know it’s not just you or them, the whole market is shifting.</li> <li>When building your program, lay out the entire customer journey, from influence and buying to provisioning and implementing. Break it into stages to find what’s valuable, who can do it, can the partner make money doing it. Could give you room to reduce residuals if partner can make more money on the services around your product.</li> <li>Depending on your product and target customer, consider adding a referral program, a residual commission program, and a reseller program to your Partner Program to offer the most flexibility and attractiveness to a wide variety of partner types.</li> <li>It takes a lot of work to develop a comprehensive Partner Program that is at the same time simple for the partner and makes you easy to work with. But all that upfront work will be worth it.</li> <li>Reevaluate your partner program in relationship to the customer journey and your channel’s role at least once a year.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>You have to really spend time and energy in hand-to-hand relationships with your clients to ask the hard questions and make sure that what you’re hearing is genuine interest that translates into a path to creating economic value for that audience and revenue for your company.</li> </ul> <h4>SHARE THIS</h4> <p><em>There are places today where you (the partner) can make money, but they are not where you are today. So you need to reinvest- @jeffmattan</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Fjeff-mattan-saas-partner-program-cj21%2F&amp;text=There%20are%20places%20today%20where%20you%20%28the%20partner%29%20can%20make%20money%2C%20but%20they%20are%20not%20where%20you%20are%20today.%20So%20you%20need%20to%20reinvest-%20%40jeffmattan&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><p><em>The supplier needs to be flexible in setting up a Partner Program that has different elements to drive different behaviors with different of partners - @robspee</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Fjeff-mattan-saas-partner-program-cj21%2F&amp;text=The%20supplier%20needs%20to%20be%20flexible%20in%20setting%20up%20a%20Partner%20Program%20that%20has%20different%20elements%20to%20drive%20different%20behaviors%20with%20different%20of%20partners%20-%20%40robspee&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><p><em>When it comes to Partner Program design, spend time on planning. Whiteboard the entire customer journey. Segment it. Determine where partners can add services and make money. The design program around that. @jeffmattan</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Fjeff-mattan-saas-partner-program-cj21%2F&amp;text=When%20it%20comes%20to%20Partner%20Program%20design%2C%20spend%20time%20on%20planning.%20Whiteboard%20the%20entire%20customer%20journey.%20Segment%20it.%20Determine%20where%20partners%20can%20add%20services%20and%20make%20money.%20The%20design%20program%20around%20that.%20%40jeffmattan&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><h4>LINKS &amp; RESOURCES</h4> <ul> <li>Follow Jeff on <a href="https://twitter.com/Jeffhikes" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmattan/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a></li> <li>Read Rob’s blog on <a href="•%09https:/www.channelpartnersonline.com/blog/forget-channel-convergence-because-its-not-happening/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Why Channel Convergence Won’t Happen</a></li> </ul>The post <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/jeff-mattan-saas-partner-program-cj21/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Jeff Mattan: How to transition to a SaaS Partner Program</a> first appeared on <a href="https://channeljourneys.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Journeys</a>.

Jeff Mattan: How to transition to a SaaS Partner Program

Laura Steward

Are You Asking the Questions to Get the Answers You Need or the Answers you Want? Business models are constantly changing and evolving. And companies that adjust and adapt are the ones that survive. Doing things the way we have always done them is what can leave our channel programs and our companies stagnant or on the verge of collapse. The key to avoiding this unwanted situation is found in the questions that we ask. This week’s guest is Laura Steward, an entrepreneur strategist, author, and host of the “It’s All about the Questions” podcast. Laura is also a former Managed Service Provider and frequent channel speaker. Learn about diversity of thought and the channel questions we should be asking ourselves and our customers to uncover new opportunities and minimize new threats. KEY TAKEAWAYS   Diversity of Thought  Start by learning from people from all different backgrounds with different perspectives. This creates diversity of thought and forces us to examine ourselves and start asking the questions that matter. Diversity is important, however diversity of thought is what moves innovation forward. Diversity drives change. Learning from different people with different perspectives will change your channel journey for the better. The best way to ask the right channel questions is to surround yourself with people who think differently and have different perspectives than you. These are the people who will force you to examine your own way of thinking.  Asking the Right Questions  One of the first things we really need to do on both sides of the channel is just stop. We need to stop and give ourselves that moment to think about what we’re about to ask and the answers that we get. At least once a quarter, stop and look at your businesses. Look at your client makeup. Determine who is buying your product and who isn’t. If they aren’t buying from you, why not? Ask clients what is and isn’t working for them and how you can best help them. This is an important piece in learning what they truly need and how you can help them get there.  Channel Questions  Technology innovations including IoT, Cloud, and SaaS to deliver business outcomes rather than the traditional products and services is driving innovation and change in the channel. Do you have the right partners? What do you need to change to attract the right partners and get the results you are seeking? Hacking is a massive problem and partners need to be looking more closely at what bad people could be doing. How are they thinking? What are the questions they’re asking themselves? Are they hacking your business to reach your clients?  Analyzing and Predicting Trends  Paying attention to soft trends and hard trends is important for businesses to recognize new opportunities and red flags of what is coming. Channel pros need to be anticipating changes. Look forward to see where people and business are going and create environments to support and benefit from these changes.  SHARE THIS The best way to make sure you're asking the right questions is to surround yourself with people who think differently and have different perspectives. @TheLauraStewardClick To Tweet Think carefully about the channel questions you're asking. Is your mind open to hearing the answers you really need and not just want you want to hear? @TheLauraStewardClick To Tweet Partners need to be asking their customers where do they want to go? Customers aren't buying a product or a solution anymore, they want to buy a business outcome. -Rob SpeeClick To Tweet LINKS &amp; RESOURCES  Follow Laura on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube Listen to Laura’s podcast It’s All About the Questions Get Laura’s book “What Would A Wise Woman Do?“ Get Mastering Fear: A Navy SEAL’s Guide by Brendan Webb and The Anticipatory Organization by Daniel Burrus The post Laura Steward: Asking the right channel questions first appeared on Channel Journeys.

<h4><strong>Are You Asking the Questions to Get the Answers You Need</strong> or the Answers you Want?</h4> <p>Business models are constantly changing and evolving. And companies that adjust and adapt are the ones that survive. Doing things the way we have always done them is what can leave our channel programs and our companies stagnant or on the verge of collapse. The key to avoiding this unwanted situation is found in the questions that we ask.</p> <p>This week’s guest is Laura Steward, an entrepreneur strategist, author, and host of the “<a href="https://www.laurasteward.com/category/its-all-about-the-questions" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">It’s All about the Questions</a>” podcast. Laura is also a former Managed Service Provider and frequent channel speaker. Learn about diversity of thought and the channel questions we should be asking ourselves and our customers to uncover new opportunities and minimize new threats.</p> <h4>KEY TAKEAWAYS</h4> <h5> </h5> <h5>Diversity of Thought</h5> <ul> <li>Start by learning from people from all different backgrounds with different perspectives. This creates diversity of thought and forces us to examine ourselves and start asking the questions that matter.</li> <li>Diversity is important, however diversity of thought is what moves innovation forward.</li> <li>Diversity drives change. Learning from different people with different perspectives will change your channel journey for the better.</li> <li>The best way to ask the right channel questions is to surround yourself with people who think differently and have different perspectives than you. These are the people who will force you to examine your own way of thinking.</li> </ul> <h5><strong>Asking the Right Questions</strong></h5> <ul> <li>One of the first things we really need to do on both sides of the channel is just stop. We need to stop and give ourselves that moment to think about what we’re about to ask and the answers that we get.</li> <li>At least once a quarter, stop and look at your businesses. Look at your client makeup. Determine who is buying your product and who isn’t. If they aren’t buying from you, why not?</li> <li>Ask clients what is and isn’t working for them and how you can best help them. This is an important piece in learning what they truly need and how you can help them get there.</li> </ul> <h5>Channel <strong>Questions</strong></h5> <ul> <li>Technology innovations including IoT, Cloud, and SaaS to deliver business outcomes rather than the traditional products and services is driving innovation and change in the channel. Do you have the right partners? What do you need to change to attract the right partners and get the results you are seeking?</li> <li>Hacking is a massive problem and partners need to be looking more closely at what bad people could be doing. How are they thinking? What are the questions they’re asking themselves? Are they hacking your business to reach your clients?</li> </ul> <h5><strong>Analyzing and Predicting Trends</strong></h5> <ul> <li>Paying attention to soft trends and hard trends is important for businesses to recognize new opportunities and red flags of what is coming.</li> <li>Channel pros need to be anticipating changes. Look forward to see where people and business are going and create environments to support and benefit from these changes.</li> </ul> <h4>SHARE THIS</h4> <p><em>The best way to make sure you're asking the right questions is to surround yourself with people who think differently and have different perspectives. @TheLauraSteward</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Flaura-steward-channel-questions-cj24%2F&amp;text=The%20best%20way%20to%20make%20sure%20you%27re%20asking%20the%20right%20questions%20is%20to%20surround%20yourself%20with%20people%20who%20think%20differently%20and%20have%20different%20perspectives.%20%40TheLauraSteward&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><p><em>Think carefully about the channel questions you're asking. Is your mind open to hearing the answers you really need and not just want you want to hear? @TheLauraSteward</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Flaura-steward-channel-questions-cj24%2F&amp;text=Think%20carefully%20about%20the%20channel%20questions%20you%27re%20asking.%20Is%20your%20mind%20open%20to%20hearing%20the%20answers%20you%20really%20need%20and%20not%20just%20want%20you%20want%20to%20hear%3F%20%40TheLauraSteward&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><p><em>Partners need to be asking their customers where do they want to go? Customers aren't buying a product or a solution anymore, they want to buy a business outcome. -Rob Spee</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Flaura-steward-channel-questions-cj24%2F&amp;text=Partners%20need%20to%20be%20asking%20their%20customers%20where%20do%20they%20want%20to%20go%3F%20Customers%20aren%27t%20buying%20a%20product%20or%20a%20solution%20anymore%2C%20they%20want%20to%20buy%20a%20business%20outcome.%20-Rob%20Spee&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><h4>LINKS &amp; RESOURCES</h4> <ul> <li>Follow Laura on <a href="https://twitter.com/thelaurasteward" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/thelaurasteward/" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCljSEPc9UkLETKD4qjC5wfw" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">YouTube</a></li> <li>Listen to Laura’s podcast <a href="https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-its-all-about-the-qu-27703266/" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">It’s All About the Questions</a></li> <li>Get Laura’s book “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/What-Would-Wise-Woman-Questions/dp/1614483442" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">What Would A Wise Woman Do?</a>“</li> <li>Get <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Fear-Navy-SEALs-Guide/dp/0525533567" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Mastering Fear: A Navy SEAL’s Guide</a> by Brendan Webb and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/s?k=anticipatory+organization&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjw8-LnBRAyEiwA6eUMGqkVKZRZ_uqoN1UEIzHos4BshWI-IWqeTmW7OwL9TNBGFtEqhug9KhoCAxUQAvD_BwE&amp;hvadid=241635732669&amp;hvdev=c&amp;hvlocphy=9032457&amp;hvnetw=g&amp;hvpos=1t1&amp;hvqmt=e&amp;hvrand=18063795640570778251&amp;hvtargid=aud-647846986441%3Akwd-376444930068&amp;hydadcr=21905_10171115&amp;tag=googhydr-20&amp;ref=pd_sl_3wcfyl35fc_e" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Anticipatory Organization</a> by Daniel Burrus</li> </ul>The post <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/laura-steward-channel-questions-cj24/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Laura Steward: Asking the right channel questions</a> first appeared on <a href="https://channeljourneys.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Journeys</a>.

Laura Steward: Asking the right channel questions

Jeff Ponts

Tips on Navigating the Evolving MSP Channel The MSP Channel is evolving, creating challenges for vendors and MSPs (Managed Service Providers). With the popularity of the cloud, new technologies, and the exponential rate of innovation, vendor and partner companies need to dig in on their own domain expertise and keep the end customer in the forefront of their minds. This week’s guest is Jeff Ponts, founder of master agency Datatel Solutions. Jeff made a bold move when founded his company 16 years ago. He bet the farm on Managed Service Providers when all the other Master Agents were working with telco agents. We discuss how Datatel has been successful in leveraging the MSP channel. And Jeff shares what vendors and MSPs can do to stay relevant and drive business growth for both partners and vendors. KEY TAKEAWAYS Advice to Vendors  Vendors need to get out of the mindset that they only have one route to market. MSPs are a powerful channel to leverage. Put more focus on the end customer and go more in depth into knowing the partners they use and why.  Advice to MSPs  The most successful MSP’s pick a vertical and develop deep domain expertise. They really go after their local market and focus heavily on their marketing. And they’re continuously learning new applications. With new technologies popping up all the time, MSP’s have to fight to stay relevant. One way to do this is by integrating their marketing and sales strategies. Change is inevitable. Be nimble and don’t get married to a platform because that platform is going to change.  SHARE THIS The most successful MSPs I see are the ones that just kill it in their local markets and the ones that went vertical. -Jeff Ponts.Click To Tweet If you're not a software integrator, get to know one. -Jeff Ponts.Click To Tweet Change is inevitable. You have to be nimble. Don't get married to a platform because that platform is going to change. -Jeff PontsClick To Tweet LINKS &amp; RESOURCES  Follow and reach out to Jeff about his missionary endeavors on LinkedIn Learn more about Datatel Solutions Listen to The Secrets to Success with Managed Service Providers Listen to the Incentive Models for the Changing Partner Ecosystem Webinar The post Jeff Ponts: How to Navigate the Evolving MSP Channel first appeared on Channel Journeys.

<h4>Tips on Navigating the Evolving MSP Channel</h4> <p>The MSP Channel is evolving, creating challenges for vendors and MSPs (Managed Service Providers). With the popularity of the cloud, new technologies, and the exponential rate of innovation, vendor and partner companies need to dig in on their own domain expertise and keep the end customer in the forefront of their minds.</p> <p>This week’s guest is Jeff Ponts, founder of master agency Datatel Solutions. Jeff made a bold move when founded his company 16 years ago. He bet the farm on Managed Service Providers when all the other Master Agents were working with telco agents. We discuss how Datatel has been successful in leveraging the MSP channel. And Jeff shares what vendors and MSPs can do to stay relevant and drive business growth for both partners and vendors.</p> <h4>KEY TAKEAWAYS</h4> <h5><strong>Advice to Vendors</strong></h5> <ul> <li>Vendors need to get out of the mindset that they only have one route to market. MSPs are a powerful channel to leverage.</li> <li>Put more focus on the end customer and go more in depth into knowing the partners they use and why.</li> </ul> <h5>Advice to MSPs</h5> <ul> <li>The most successful MSP’s pick a vertical and develop deep domain expertise. They really go after their local market and focus heavily on their marketing. And they’re continuously learning new applications.</li> <li>With new technologies popping up all the time, MSP’s have to fight to stay relevant. One way to do this is by integrating their marketing and sales strategies.</li> <li>Change is inevitable. Be nimble and don’t get married to a platform because that platform is going to change.</li> </ul> <h4>SHARE THIS</h4> <p><em>The most successful MSPs I see are the ones that just kill it in their local markets and the ones that went vertical. -Jeff Ponts.</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Fjeff-ponts-evolving-msp-channel-cj28%2F&amp;text=The%20most%20successful%20MSPs%20I%20see%20are%20the%20ones%20that%20just%20kill%20it%20in%20their%20local%20markets%20and%20the%20ones%20that%20went%20vertical.%20-Jeff%20Ponts.&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><p><em>If you're not a software integrator, get to know one. -Jeff Ponts.</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Fjeff-ponts-evolving-msp-channel-cj28%2F&amp;text=If%20you%27re%20not%20a%20software%20integrator%2C%20get%20to%20know%20one.%20-Jeff%20Ponts.&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><p><em>Change is inevitable. You have to be nimble. Don't get married to a platform because that platform is going to change. -Jeff Ponts</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Fjeff-ponts-evolving-msp-channel-cj28%2F&amp;text=Change%20is%20inevitable.%20You%20have%20to%20be%20nimble.%20Don%27t%20get%20married%20to%20a%20platform%20because%20that%20platform%20is%20going%20to%20change.%20-Jeff%20Ponts&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><h4>LINKS &amp; RESOURCES</h4> <ul> <li>Follow and reach out to Jeff about his missionary endeavors on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffery-ponts-25547a4/" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a></li> <li>Learn more about <a href="http://www.datatelsolutions.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Datatel Solutions</a></li> <li>Listen to <a href="http://www.robspee.com/cj16" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">The Secrets to Success with Managed Service Providers</a></li> <li><strong>Listen to the </strong><a href="https://www.channelmechanics.com/channel_resources/webinar-download-incentive-models-for-changing-partner-ecosystem/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank"><strong>Incentive Models for the Changing Partner Ecosystem Webinar</strong></a></li> </ul>The post <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/jeff-ponts-evolving-msp-channel-cj28/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Jeff Ponts: How to Navigate the Evolving MSP Channel</a> first appeared on <a href="https://channeljourneys.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Journeys</a>.

Jeff Ponts: How to Navigate the Evolving MSP Channel

Dave Taylor

The “SaaSier” your business, the more likely you need non-traditional channels. And the non-traditional channel everyone is talking about is the “shadow channel”.  This week I’m talking with Dave Taylor, Impartner’s gregarious Chief Marketing Officer. We discuss how to reach and motivate this emerging influencer channel through referral-based programs. KEY TAKEAWAYS What exactly is the shadow channel?  Shadow channel refers to people and organizations influencing the technology buyer, but not traditionally included in channel programs. This includes accountants, lawyers, consultants, or even Uber drivers that happen to overhear a conversation in the backseat of their car.  Referral programs are well suited for this non-traditional and non-transactional channel that isn’t selling your product, only influencing the purchase.  How to build and leverage a referral program  Segment your referral partners between managed and unmanaged based on the level of referral activity and potential. Use an automation tool to manage all of the communications and payments to your referral partners. Delayed, missing, and incorrect payments will damage your channel reputation. Set a metric, such as number of referrals per month, when you will bump referral partners up into a sell-with or sell-through model that has more obligations and higher rewards.  If a partner who’s in a higher tier is failing to meet that tier’s obligations, bump them back down to that referral status.  Carefully document the terms and conditions that an incoming partner has to click to accept so they know they will be bumped down. Even at the onboarding stage, bring traditional partners on at referral status. If they aren’t meeting expectations, keep them at the referral tier until they do.   SHARE THIS Onboard faster and offboard slower. Make sure partners meet the terms and conditions and they're willing to invest the way you are going to invest in them. -Dave TaylorClick To Tweet Whether your referral partners are managed or unmanaged, you need a lot of automation, because you're managing the payments and communications. -Dave TaylorClick To Tweet Being metric-based in how you manage your channel is one of the most important things that can happen because it eliminates all the hunch and variability. -Dave TaylorClick To Tweet LINKS &amp; RESOURCES  Follow Dave on LinkedIn. Learn more about Amplifinity and Referral Partner Programs Read how Influencer Partner Programs are Gaining Traction With B2B Marketers Learn how you can become an influencer with Janet Schijns The post Dave Taylor: How to Build a Shadow Channel Program first appeared on Channel Journeys.

<p>The “SaaSier” your business, the more likely you need non-traditional channels. And the non-traditional channel everyone is talking about is the “shadow channel”.  This week I’m talking with Dave Taylor, <a href="https://www.impartner.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Impartner’s</a> gregarious Chief Marketing Officer. We discuss how to reach and motivate this emerging influencer channel through referral-based programs.</p> <h4>KEY TAKEAWAYS</h4> <h5>What exactly is the shadow channel?</h5> <ul> <li>Shadow channel refers to people and organizations influencing the technology buyer, but not traditionally included in channel programs. This includes accountants, lawyers, consultants, or even Uber drivers that happen to overhear a conversation in the backseat of their car. </li> <li>Referral programs are well suited for this non-traditional and non-transactional channel that isn’t selling your product, only influencing the purchase.</li> </ul> <h5>How to build and leverage a referral program</h5> <ul> <li>Segment your referral partners between managed and unmanaged based on the level of referral activity and potential.</li> <li>Use an automation tool to manage all of the communications and payments to your referral partners. Delayed, missing, and incorrect payments will damage your channel reputation.</li> <li>Set a metric, such as number of referrals per month, when you will bump referral partners up into a sell-with or sell-through model that has more obligations and higher rewards. </li> <li>If a partner who’s in a higher tier is failing to meet that tier’s obligations, bump them back down to that referral status. </li> <li>Carefully document the terms and conditions that an incoming partner has to click to accept so they know they will be bumped down.</li> <li>Even at the onboarding stage, bring traditional partners on at referral status. If they aren’t meeting expectations, keep them at the referral tier until they do. </li> </ul> <h4>SHARE THIS</h4> <p><em>Onboard faster and offboard slower. Make sure partners meet the terms and conditions and they're willing to invest the way you are going to invest in them. -Dave Taylor</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Fdave-taylor-shadow-channel-program-cj39%2F&amp;text=Onboard%20faster%20and%20offboard%20slower.%20Make%20sure%20partners%20meet%20the%20terms%20and%20conditions%20and%20they%27re%20willing%20to%20invest%20the%20way%20you%20are%20going%20to%20invest%20in%20them.%20-Dave%20Taylor&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><p><em>Whether your referral partners are managed or unmanaged, you need a lot of automation, because you're managing the payments and communications. -Dave Taylor</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Fdave-taylor-shadow-channel-program-cj39%2F&amp;text=Whether%20your%20referral%20partners%20are%20managed%20or%20unmanaged%2C%20you%20need%20a%20lot%20of%20automation%2C%20because%20you%27re%20managing%20the%20payments%20and%20communications.%20-Dave%20Taylor&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><p><em>Being metric-based in how you manage your channel is one of the most important things that can happen because it eliminates all the hunch and variability. -Dave Taylor</em><br/><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanneljourneys.com%2Fdave-taylor-shadow-channel-program-cj39%2F&amp;text=Being%20metric-based%20in%20how%20you%20manage%20your%20channel%20is%20one%20of%20the%20most%20important%20things%20that%20can%20happen%20because%20it%20eliminates%20all%20the%20hunch%20and%20variability.%20-Dave%20Taylor&amp;via=channeljourneys&amp;related=channeljourneys" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Click To Tweet</a><br/> </p><h4>LINKS &amp; RESOURCES</h4> <ul> <li>Follow Dave on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/davertaylor" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>.</li> <li>Learn more about <a href="https://www.impartner.com/partner-referral-programs/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Amplifinity and Referral Partner Programs</a></li> <li>Read how <a href="https://www.channelmarketerreport.com/2019/10/influencer-partner-programs-gaining-traction-with-b2b-marketers/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Influencer Partner Programs are Gaining Traction With B2B Marketers</a></li> <li>Learn how you can <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/janet-schijns-channel-influencer-cj38/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">become an influencer with Janet Schijns</a></li> </ul>The post <a href="https://channeljourneys.com/dave-taylor-shadow-channel-program-cj39/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Dave Taylor: How to Build a Shadow Channel Program</a> first appeared on <a href="https://channeljourneys.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Channel Journeys</a>.

Dave Taylor: How to Build a Shadow Channel Program

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