One thing we all have in common – we’re consumers. And as consumers we behave similarly and share many characteristics. We research online before buying things – like visiting Trip Advisor to check out what others are saying before we book our holiday. We probably then purchase that trip online through an e-commerce website that we have grown to like over the last 12 months.
Most of us participate in social media for work and play and pride ourselves in our publishing skills in our own little way.
Also it’s fair to say that we all seem to have less free time than ever and are less forgiving when we part with our hard earned cash! We expect anytime, anywhere, always-on information, thanks to the one thing that none of us can live without – our mobile phones.
My second bold claim is that most of you reading this article you are, in some way, part of the IT industry – more specifically you have an interest in indirect channels. That’s probably why you’re on this website in the first place. So far so good…
The question then is why tech companies operating channel programs often overlook or dismiss what is right in front of them: the hundreds or thousands of channel partners enrolled in your programs who are also consumers and therefore share a lot of the same habits and values. So, why is that familiarity of the consumer experience forgotten when you try to build a dialogue with your channel?
It is fair to say that when it comes to communicating with channel partners and driving real engagement, most companies are well behind the curve. Forrester does a good job of explaining the breadth of consumerization in the following quote: “At first glance, a vendor strategist might think consumerization is simply about using personal gadgets and online services for work – but it’s more than that. Payment models, self-service, intuitive user interfaces…” (Forrester, 2012). All of these aspects can come into play in a channel program. Who is providing a truly great online experience (that comes anywhere near what a consumer might expect)? Who provides anytime, anywhere communication accessible via a smartphone or tablet? And where’s the fun and creativity?
Channel teams (not just marketing people) need to start thinking of their channel partners as individuals, as consumers – instead of as sales reps or sales engineers, or worse still, treat them all the same.
Start by putting yourself in your reseller’s shoes. See how comfortable they are and then multiply that by 10 or 15 (other vendors trying to do the same thing)! Feeling inspired, motivated? I thought not. This is a great first step, not a comfortable one, but an important one to gain perspective. You’ll have a list of 10 things to change about your program right away.
Ask your partner contacts what they want from you and how they would like to be treated. Chances are you are doing a lot of things right but you’ll also discover 1 or 2 things that might make a big difference if they are changed. If 50% of your base say your MDF and co-marketing is too complicated, then you better give it your attention. If sales reps need to access content on the phone when they’re out with customers, then that might be a good use of your channel budget. Listening to your partners and acting upon their suggestions will go a very long way in building valuable relationships.
Finally, take note of the methods some of the big consumer companies are using to acquire, engage and retain customers, while turning them into real fans. Maybe you are even experiencing these things first-hand outside of the office. One trend that I’ve read about and experienced is gamification (applying techniques used in the gaming world to drive greater engagement with their customers). Adobe, IBM, Microsoft, Dell and others are already using it in their B2B marketing but it has great potential for the channel, as well.
Partner programs, like everything else in the world, need to keep up with the times. Thinking like a consumer and leveraging new approaches like gamification can help keep your channel program from feeling stale.Those that keep up, or better still, take the lead will be winners in more ways than one.
Last week I participated in a webinar with Dave Hafermann where we talked about CRM/PRM integration. Dave and I have worked together on several CRM/PRM projects – I focus on work with the marketing team and business processes and Dave drives the technical bits. We’ve distilled our experiences into a 4 step process shown in the diagram.
I wanted to revisit the sustain part of the diagram in this blog post. hawkeye has worked with several clients on CRM/PRM engagements and we are normally brought it somewhere around the “Design” phase. Of course, I work closely with my contacts to encourage a strongly shared channel vision and for the most part, clients are unable to secure funding for a process of this magnitude to begin the Design and Implementation stages until c-level executives have reached some meeting of the minds and agreed on a channel program vision.
But where I often see companies struggle is after the integration has taken place. It seems like we feel the hard part in this process is completing the technical implementation – deciding on a thorough roadmap with achievable goals along the way, and then achieving that vision. Really though, the biggest challenge turns out to be sustaining the solution once built. In our experiences with clients, these are the activities that matter most in sustaining your solution:
- Create ownership at every level of the organization. This was a theme in our presentation and that’s because without it, the quality and continuity of your PRM solution is going to suffer.
- Have a single owner/champion for the PRM infrastructure. Because IT has an endless list of company-wide, urgent priorities to juggle, it’s best that this be someone from the Business team. Plus, the business team is going to understand the dynamics of the channel. The ideal ownership arrangement is to have a business-side owner with a strong IT champion (on the inside) – your perfect partnership.
- Establish a PRM governance office consisting of Business and IT members. This is essentially a steering committee for your solution that reviews and prioritizes ongoing investment requests.
- Establish clear PRM process controls, UAT policy, and release cycles. Your solution will (should!) be constantly evolving and you need to ensure that everyone knows the process. This helps avoid any unrealistic expectations and should reduce friction with IT.
- Provide skills training and build it into job descriptions AND compensation plans. The reality is that for most people, PRM does not come naturally. Yup, that includes marketing people! People in the best position to add valuable information to the system to be trained on the system – Sales and Account Management are key here.
- Establish PRM success metrics and build in a means of collecting necessary data to report on performance. A good place to start is with the factors that contributed to the vision and vision goals established at the outset. Make sure this information can be collected consistently and analysed over time.
- Establish data quality metrics and owners for the metrics. You need to have formal procedures for collecting, maintaining and updating data – and these all need to comply with data privacy and opt-ins at the country level. Don’t forget processes for receiving data from other internal sources like Finance.
- Establish PRM Administration policy, access controls and security. Your CRM/PRM integration helped you reach a single source of truth – knowledge – of your channel program and data. With all this great data now available, you need to be sure that not only will everyone have the data they need to complete tasks, but there need to be clear access levels and processes to ensure data integrity and limit misuse of data. And don’t forget to factor in data privacy and compliance needs here as well.
- Communicate, communicate, communicate. I can’t say it enough – you have to continue to communicate with all your constituents and stakeholders to keep your CRM/PRM solution viable.
Do you have items to add to this list based on your experiences in a CRM/PRM integration project? Alternatively I love to hear your experiences – how did you and your organization manage (or not) to keep things going after implementation? Let me know!
It’s not a revelation when we read that channel partners often feel frustrated, because IT manufacturers fail to understand their business. This is partly due to the partner being bombarded with communication and services that are not best suited to help them grow their business. It doesn’t matter whether this lack of understanding is perceived or real … perception is reality.
Partners complete lengthy partner program registration forms, participate in vendor surveys and/or speak regularly to their account managers in order to inform vendors about their business. Combine this with the information available through POS data and the web stats generated every time a partner logs into a partner program, and it’s no surprise that they feel frustrated when this information is being overlooked. What is surprising is the lack of precision and insight observed in channel marketing when compared to other industries that embrace direct marketing—industries that typically collect less data about their customers.
When you add everything up, channel marketing has the potential to be a rich direct marketing opportunity. Read more…
Looking back on 2010
Many of you in the channel entered 2010 with a backlist of projects that had been shelved and needed to be implemented at some point during this year. Armed with a list of priority projects and a new calendar, campaigns and projects were scheduled, promises were made to your partners, and then the clock started ticking. Here we are, 12 months later, and soon you can take a well earned rest and take stock. Looking back was it a great year, good year or a frustrating one—depending on how much you were able to cross off of your list.
The downside of missing projects are the missed opportunities, or the “what ifs.” What if I had launched the demand generation campaign a quarter earlier? What if we hired a channel account manager to onboard the new partners that we spent so much time recruiting?
The upside is that you’re not the only one asking these questions. At hawkeye, we work with many vendors and our new business team has talked to dozens of new companies this year at channel conferences in Europe and the US. What we have observed is that missed projects are a common problem in the channel industry. It seems that everyone has too much to do, with too little resources. Unfortunately, these occurrences are now considered “business as usual,” but what things can you change to improve your project success rate in 2011? Read more…
Hi Jim, how’s the new Chevy running?
Jim lives across the way from you. You don’t know him too well, but he seems like an OK guy. The kind of guy you wouldn’t mind knowing a bit better. So you drop over for a chat next time he’s out watering the lawn. You’ve noticed the shiny new Chevy parked on the driveway so, naturally, the car’s the ice-breaker.
Besides, you own a store that stocks aftermarket auto parts, and that model Chevy doesn’t have SatNav as standard…
You can probably see where this story is going. The point is that Jim is much more likely to buy his SatNav from someone he knows, someone he trusts and someone he thinks will understand his needs, rather than wandering into a downtown store at random and hoping to find the best deal.
If only you could drop by and say ‘hi’ all your customers, in person. Read more…
