One of the key areas vendors struggle with often, is visibility into partner activities. Vendors invest heavily in channel programs, partner training, and channel enablement tools but are never really sure how many of their channel partners are actually benefiting from these. In fact, a lot of channel bosses believe that the 80-20 rules apply to the channel model, i.e, the majority of the business is generated by 20% of the channel partners. Ask them again, who than 20 % are, and they will say they have no idea! The only way to change this is with 360-degree partner visibility. Partner visibility provides vendors with the insight they need into partner activities, which helps them gauge partner’s interest and brand engagement levels and even partner’s sales and marketing capabilities.
A 360-degree partner visibility allows vendors to adopt different approaches to partner engagement, training, rewards and recognitions and even have different types of partner programs. It also helps partners make optimum utilization of resources, by focusing on partners who drive more revenue instead of just sharing the resources equally among all partners. For example, a highly engaged partner may be given a larger MDF budget than someone with a lower engagement level, or a partner who is engaged but not driving enough sales may be provided with additional training and support. Ultimately, it helps vendors identify and let go of partners who are wilfully not engaging with their brand, or are unable to drive revenue despite ample training and support.
Leading research firm, SiriusDecisions’ partner participation scorecard offers some ideas on how vendors may structure their partner support system and partner investment around partner engagement levels.
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