Channel Management

Making your Channel “Product-Friendly”

by Al Morgan

A few months back Sridhar discussed the importance of tailoring your product or solution to the channel. It’s a vital step to ensuring that you will maximize the revenue opportunity through channels. An integrated program will ensure initial mindshare AND pave the way for initial success. Your channel partners have lots of products, and shifting attention to your solution will take focused effort. At Aventi, we have been assisting a major IT vendor roll out a major worldwide program to channel partners over the last few quarters and I’d like to share a few lessons learned.

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Posted January 25, 2010 | Permalink

Leading Globally Distributed Teams

by Sridhar Ramanathan

If you’re like most executives you manage a global team. But what’s the secret of running a team that cuts across time zones, cultures, and languages? How do you create a strong culture that balances centralized control with distributed authority? What metrics drive the right behaviors and business outcomes when you can’t see your team on a daily basis?

I had a great lunch with my friend, Suresh Balasubramanian, who is a director in charge of a sales/field marketing team in a very large software company. He built a good sized team that spans 13 time zones. Listen in on our lunch conversation and I think you’ll find it both entertaining (see his funny story at the end) and highly informative.

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Posted September 23, 2009 | Permalink

Announcing Aventi’s Vector for Channels

by Sridhar Ramanathan

I’m very pleased to announce a new Aventi Group’s offering masterminded by our very own Bill Reed. Aventi’s Vector for Channels is a deliverable made up of methods, tools, templates and even a bit of software aimed at helping technology clients optimize channel sales. Specifically, Vector for Channels is intended to help the VP of Sales/Marketing drive higher response rates from demand generation programs for the channel, increase channel sales rep effectiveness with sharper honed needs-based messaging, and to dynamically prioritized channel sales pipelines using and powerful, lead scoring system.

We encourage you to attend Bill’s webinar on Wednesday, August 19th at 8:00am PT. Click here to register for the event, and looking forward to having you join us.

Posted August 10, 2009 | Permalink

The Aventi Group Network -- Check It Out!

by Sridhar Ramanathan

Here's an invitation to all of you independent consultants who might consider joining the tight network of executive consultants in the Aventi Group extended team. Please join me and fellow founders, Bill Reed and Jeff Thompson, on a webinar for a discussion on how we leverage our flexible network of experts/executives to add unique value to our clients...and see how you can benefit from this for your own practice. Click here to register for the webinar on Wednesday, January 7, 2009 at 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM PST.

Posted December 31, 2008 | Permalink

Partners Revisited – Seven watch-outs

by

Jeff Thompson, my partner here at Aventi Group, and I recently worked on a project where we helped an important client revisit and optimize their channel strategy. The problem was that our client who sells directly and indirectly to the SMB segment, had partnerships agreements in place with over 9000 partners. But what they did not have is a clear picture of which partners were performing or even active. Note that this is a client for whom the SMB segment (yes I know it is not one monolithic segment) is key and selling through partners is very important. Also our client is a leader in understanding this segment and providing incentives for making their partners successful in selling to SMBs.

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Posted September 28, 2008 | Permalink

SDForum talk on "The Inside Scoop on Outsourced Telesales "

by Sridhar Ramanathan

Interested in learning more about teleprospecting/telesales? I'm the featured speaker for September's SDForum marketing session. Click here for details. Here's the overview:

More and more technology firms are turning to outside firms to handle telesales, inside sales, or teleprospecting rather than doing it internally. They hope to gain advantages in cost, speed, and expertise. But, unfortunately, not all these outsourcing partnerships deliver the expected results. Come to this session and hear about:

• What are the different types of telesales models?
• Why do companies outsource telesales?
• What criteria should you use to decide which firm to choose?
• What are the pitfalls to avoid in this outsourcing relationship?
• What are success metrics that help drive best results?

The talk is based on my recent blog entry on teleprospecting.

When: Monday, September 8th at 6:30pm
Where: DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary LLP office, 2000 University Ave, East Palo Alto, CA 94303

We hope to see you there. Enjoy networking with fellow entrepreneurs, marketers, and high tech folks in general.

Posted August 27, 2008 | Permalink

Managed Services Provider (MSP) Study Now Available

by Sridhar Ramanathan

Our Managed Service Provider (MSP) Benchmark Study is now available. You’ll recall that we conducted MSP research in conjunction with Untangle, an open source network gateway company and partner to MSPs nationwide. Topics were:

• Comparison of MSP service offerings


• Benchmark on how these services are priced


• Insight into the next big offering in managed services

Click here to get the benchmark study. Untangle will be also hosting two webinar sessions where we’ll go over the findings and recommendations. Attendees will get the full report.

For your convenience, there will be two sessions:
Wednesday, July 30, 2008 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM PDT
(10am Pacific, 11am Mountain, 12pm Central, 1pm Eastern)
Click here to register.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM PDT
(10am Pacific, 11am Mountain, 12pm Central, 1pm Eastern)
Click here to register.

Posted July 15, 2008 | Permalink

Marketing to the SMB

by Sridhar Ramanathan

Over the holiday I read four business books but only one stood out as a “must read.” The book is “Drilling for Gold” by John Warrillow, and it’s full of very practical and insightful approaches to winning in the small/medium business (SMB) market.

Here are some US Census Bureau statistics that surprised me. There are 5.9M companies in the US with fewer than 2,500 employees. But 14% have no employees (just owners), 61% have four or fewer employees and 37% have 5-99 employees. Warrillow does a brilliant job in blowing up the “SMB” into actual segments and delineating some very sharp differences between them. Warrillow presents three useful archetypes that help us understand business owners.

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Posted January 9, 2007 | Permalink

Is Your Product "Channel-Friendly?" -- Part II

by Sridhar Ramanathan

Last night I had the privilege of addressing about 75 product managers at the Silicon Valley Product Management Association. My talk was entitled Is Your Product "Channel-Friendly?” Click here to Download slide deck

SVPMA board members told me that the level of audience interest and interactivity was unusually high. Definitely a timely topic. Half of my talk was about understanding the “channel.” The other half was a call to action for product managers to improve the likelihood that their product would produce brisk channel sales. I gave them the following litmus test to guide their actions. These tests come from having studied some of the most successful product companies that sell largely through the channel.

• Do you have a compelling, one sentence value proposition?
• Do you offer attractive margins for the channel (e.g. > 30%)?
• Can a channel sales rep prepare a quote in less than 5 minutes?
• Does it take less than 90-days to close a purchase order?
• Do you have a killer demo that channel reps can deliver in less than 15 minutes?
• For each dollar of your product sales, do you leverage $2-3 of other channel product sales?
• Do you create a reason for reps to call again within 6 months of initial purchase?
• Do you have a goal to drive down support cases?

At the end of the talk, I asked for a show of hands for each question. Surprisingly, only one third to half the audience could answer yes to each question, and no one could say yes to all eight. The point here was not to be right on all eight points but rather to drive changes in the product organization that will very positively impact channel sales. I welcome your reactions.

Posted October 5, 2006 | Permalink

Channel Sales – Where the Simplicity of a Toaster Rules

by Sridhar Ramanathan

One of my clients sent me a nice article as an example of my mantra on simplicity when it comes to channel sales. Checkout this article “Barracuda Keeps Programs to a Minimum—and Keeps Partners Active.” And for your information, Barracuda sells firewall appliances for spam, spyware, and instant messaging. Several key points to highlight as best practices here (still valid even if reality falls short of what this press release promises):

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Posted July 12, 2006 | Permalink

Alliance Development – Speeding Time-to-Contract

by Sridhar Ramanathan

A client Chief Operating Officer asked me how long it would take to have signed reseller agreements with target companies. My short answer to her was that we saw a range from 3-6 months for companies in the $10M-$100 bracket and more like 9-12 months for companies over $100M in sales. It got me thinking about what factors, besides company size, affect the time it takes to reach a contractual agreement. You could argue that what’s more important than time-to-contract is time-to-revenue. And you’d be right. But it is a fair question worthy of a thoughtful answer. We offer some hypotheses on what affects time to signature and how you might accelerate that so you can get on with the real objective—revenue growth.

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Posted May 30, 2006 | Permalink

Is Your Product "Channel Friendly"?

by Sridhar Ramanathan

A lot has to happen right to drive real revenue with your channel partners. We’ve had the fortune of working with storage companies such as Seagate, Bell Micro ($2B+ storage distributor) and security products companies (Symantec, Cisco, Reactivity, InfoExpress, and others). This experience has really helped us see that it’s not enough to do the usual tactics to drive revenue---marketing distribution funds, partner rep training, web portals loaded with sales tools, lead gen campaigns, advertising, promotions, one-to-one sales rep bonding, etc. All of that is expected. What’s essential is a product suited to the channel. Here are our recommendations.

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Posted May 7, 2006 | Permalink

Bonding with your Channel Partners’ Sales Reps

by Sridhar Ramanathan

Over lunch today one of our clients mused how challenging it has been to been for his sales force to bond with their channel partner sales reps on a one-on-one level. Turns out this is a very common challenge that many of our clients face. So what are some best practices that we’ve seen from vendors that rely heavily on the channel such as VMware (now part of EMC), Cisco, and HP?. Here’s our short list for recommended practices for channel sales reps:

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Posted March 2, 2006 | Permalink

Guy’s Truth -- Partner for Spreadsheet Reasons

by Sridhar Ramanathan

Over a decade at HP deeply instilled within me the importance of metrics. In fact it so drove the culture that people used to say “tell me how you’re measured, and I’ll tell you how you behave.” I took this to heart and built metrics into the marketing function and the P&Ls that I managed. Very likely this was a major reason for my promotions. That practice continues today with even greater emphasis from Mark Hurd, CEO.

Our consulting practice exposes us to many startups and large technology companies. Sadly, not enough companies apply metrics rigorously to business partnerships. Guy Kawasaki does a brilliant job of articulating the importance of basing alliances on fundamental metrics (ones that impact business performance) in the The Art of the Start. Here’s a snippet: “An effective partnership can produce attractive results for a startup. It can speed entry into a new geographic area or market segment, open additional channels of distribution, accelerate new product development, and reduce costs. I call these ‘spreadsheet’ reasons because they change your financial forecast.”

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Posted December 23, 2005 | Permalink

Channel Results Come From Relationship

by Sridhar Ramanathan

We’ve all heard the rule of thumb that it costs a company typically four times as much to win a customer as it does to retain one. Very true. And the same applies to channel partnerships. I have a simple model for the lifecycle of a channel partnership. Notice how the “acquisition” phase -- prospecting for channel partners through to contracting-- is only half the picture in terms of phases.

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Posted December 5, 2005 | Permalink

Momentum is Everything

by Sridhar Ramanathan

We’re leading the charge for the channel strategy and tactics for one of our technology clients. They intend to sell 100% of their security appliance products via the channel within 18 months, up from only 10% today sold indirect. The key is signing up and ramping up new channel partners. I’ve found the best results have come from partnerships where the focus was on closing business even before the contract was officially signed.

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Posted November 22, 2005 | Permalink

Is “Bell Curve” Thinking Flattening Your Channel Performance?

by Al Morgan

We’ve all grown up with the “bell curve” as the standard for measuring performance. During my 14 years at HP, performance evaluations were always “curved”, even though the vast majority of my peers were high performance, talented, and trained individuals. “President’s Club” and similar practices reinforce the belief that rewarding a few will incent the others. Are you using the same approach with your channel? If so, you may not be setting yourself up for success.

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Posted August 27, 2005 | Permalink

Ensuring Liftoff for a New Business Partnership

by Al Morgan

Business alliances are critical to reaching new markets and expanding geographic reach. Every day the business news tells of major alliances forming – and yet we all know that many alliances never reach their full potential. There are some basic reasons some partnerships accelerate to stardom and some never get off the ground – and they are all rooted in people, performance and measures.

Let's assume that a new alliance has all the basics, grounded in good due diligence on both sides:

• There is a good-sized target market.
• The products and services from both sides complement each other well.
• Both sides are eager to work together, and have set aggressive sales goals.

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Posted August 4, 2005 | Permalink