The objective behind creating the Channel Transformation Framework was to produce a picture of maturity for channel professionals wanting to assess what they are doing in the channel space and for areas to further develop or grow.
Our findings
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Since launching the framework, we’ve had Vendors from the hardware, enterprise software, network, dev-ops and security space all complete assessments – and measure their activities against the averages.
Through these assessments, an interesting – and surprising – theme is developing. With the exception of a small handful, most of these Vendors scored consistently lowest in two areas. Firstly, low scores against activities directly growing channel revenue (namely channel marketing). Secondly, they were low scoring against activities to measure channel performance.
This was surprising since growth is almost universally at the top of the list of priorities for most of the Vendors we work with and speak to. Equally, the measurement of channel performance is essential to assess investment value and ROI.
Conversely, these Vendors scored more highly for activities related to Partner recruitment, enablement and engagement.
Getting the recruitment, enablement and engagement of Partners right is undeniably important in seeing channel success – but growth and measurement are the key levers for sustained success.
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What does success look like?
We see global Vendors, successful in channel marketing, having an approach which is driven by a good central strategy – solid, invested-in programmes for top partners and a great education to go alongside self-service marketing material.
When measuring investment and ROI, ensuring that all areas of regular investment (such as MDF) are supported by a process and platform and then bringing data together to look at where investment is driving revenue should be a long term aim.
How do you measure up in the channel space? Why not try our assessment and see. It’s completely free and takes a few minutes, but you get a custom report on how you are doing against averages for 7 key pillars of Channel Transformation.