In the B2B space, sales ecosystems have undergone a significant transformation over the years. Traditionally, the sales process involved a linear, transactional approach, characterized by one-to-many relationships between a vendor and its partners, which was transactional and product-centric. However, in today’s business landscape, sales ecosystems have emerged which are driven by many-to-many interactions happening among all of the participants. Ecosystems are more customer-centric; focused on building long-term relationships with all the participants, whether vendor, partner or customer. Let’s now explore the key differences between traditional sales ecosystems and modern sales ecosystems and discuss how businesses can adapt to the changing landscape by creating meaningful sales ecosystem plays for the modern sales ecosystems to drive revenue, growth and success.
The concept of sales ecosystems is not new. Sales ecosystems have always existed. Some of the key characteristics of the traditional sales ecosystem model are:
One-to-many or many-to-one interactions
Traditional sales ecosystems relied on one-to-many or many-to-one interactions, meaning the players in the sales ecosystems interacted with only one other participant at a time. Usually, it was “vendor-to-partners and partner-to-vendors or partner-to-customers”, kinds of relationships. Traditional sales ecosystems didn’t have partners interacting with each other much.
Transactional
Relationships between the participants in the traditional sales ecosystems were very transactional. Most of the focus in a traditional sales ecosystem relationship was on selling through partners. It was all about sales, and partners were simply a medium for vendors to get to the end-customer as fast as possible.
Product-oriented
Traditional sales ecosystems were product-oriented, meaning the whole sales model revolved around the product that the vendor had to offer. The entire sales set up, functioning of the channel and the roles of the participants in the sales ecosystem was centered around the product offered.
Siloed partner organizations operating independently of one another
Traditional channel partner models typically involved a vertical relationship between the vendor and their partners. There was no horizontal collaboration or communication among the partners. One reason for this was that traditional sales ecosystems didn’t have PRM software programs or partner marketing software platforms to facilitate data exchange and communication between the vendors and partners. The vendor would provide partners with sales and marketing collateral. The assumption was this was enough to drive sales.
Little or no automation
As discussed above, traditional sales ecosystems were not powered by PRM Software programs. They primarily relied on spreadsheets for partner and lead data management. There was little or no automation when it came to its various processes such as creating and sharing co-branded marketing and sales collateral, managing leads, commissions, partner referral payments, MDF or co-op fund disbursals, etc.,
Lack of visibility into the partner network
In the traditional sales ecosystem, without automation, there was a lack of visibility into partner activities. This created a number of challenges for vendors. Without access to detailed information on partner performance and activities, vendors traditionally struggled to identify areas where their partners needed additional support, such as sales training, marketing materials, business planning, etc. They also missed opportunities to collaborate with other partners on joint marketing campaigns or product development initiatives, which often led to missed sales and lost revenue.
Furthermore, this lack of visibility also negatively impacted partner engagement. Partners would usually become frustrated with a vendor for not providing them with the necessary support and resources to be successful. They also couldn’t actively promote the products or services because they didn’t have a clear understanding of the vendor’s goals and priorities.
So, what does the modern sales ecosystem look like?
The modern sales ecosystem is characterized by many-to-many interactions unlike the traditional sales ecosystem that followed a one-to-many or many-to-one model. Modern sales ecosystems also involve a more collaborative approach among all the participants of the sales ecosystem, including-
- Channel Partners
- Alliances
- Influencers
- Referral Partners
- OEMs
- Infrastructure Providers
- Application Partners
- Solution Partners
- Sales Partners
- Delivery Partners
- Information & Content Partners
- Customers
- Internal stakeholders, such as-
- Direct sales teams
- Channel account managers
- Direct sales account managers
- Corporate & Partner Marketing teams
Creating a winning modern sales ecosystem play
Traditional PRM software programs can’t enable the modern sales ecosystem effectively. Even the traditional partner roles, persona and types have transformed to bring more value to the table so as to fit into this new, modern sales ecosystem-based business model. For ecosystems to be successful, the participants must be able to deliver value to co-partners and end-clients.
Vendors need to understand where they fit into this modern sales ecosystem. They also need to identify their ideal partners based on partner expertise, client base and interest. As a vendor, before selecting a channel partner, it’s important to understand the client base and then look for partners who have experience and expertise in your industry or who serve a similar customer base. Vendors need to assess their potential channel partners’ capabilities, such as their sales and marketing expertise, technical capabilities, and operational processes.
The next step for vendors is to create a go-to-market strategy based on the ideal partner profiles and partner position or role in the sales ecosystem.
Companies must transform the way they do business and shift from a product-centric approach to a customer-centric approach and create an ecosystem that offers unique value propositions to the customer, at every stage – end-to-end. Some of the key differences between traditional and modern sales ecosystems are the many-to-many relationships that exist among the different players in the sales ecosystem, customer-centricity instead of product-centricity and the use of modern technology, AI, machine-learning, data, and the focus on building long-term relationships, with not just the customer, but with everyone in the sales ecosystem, rather than simply closing a sale.
