article |
October 14, 2011
Do we Need to Update our Channel Management Strategy?
By:
In a recent survey we conducted with 187 companies on sales performance, a misaligned channel strategy was cited by 28% of the respondents as the primary root cause of poor results this year.
Most companies rely on the channel for 30% or more of their revenue. That concentration of revenue presents a great opportunity given the scale advantages but it also represents a significant risk. So how do we know if our channel management strategy needs to be updated.
Begin by asking the following questions:
There are many more questions that need to be asked but these 5 give us an idea of the change in the environment. Let’s discuss the loss of a customer to bring this to life.
The lost revenue stings but it may be a sign of something much worse. One of our clients experienced this situation and they performed a Loss Analysis Interview with the customer. The interview identified poor customer service by the partner as the reason for defection.
Our client immediately changed their channel management strategy to include quality of first line customer support as a selection and de-selection criteria. This was distilled into tactics such as:
Key Takeaways: Review your channel environment for clues that signal new opportunities or potential risks and modify your channel management strategy now. Also, download our channel management Whitepaper.
Comments welcome below. Follow @MakingTheNumber
Of all the challenges that sales leaders have faced this past year, effectively evolving field selle...
At this point in 2020, all your competitors have undergone some variation of a “digital transf...
While the world innovated rapidly and continually adopts many advanced technologies, the sales envir...
Over the last 6 months, there have only been an elite few known as “Accelerators” &mdash...
If you are reading this article and you work in the B2B space, you have most likely been inundated w...
As a sales leader, you view the revenue planning process as a tug-of-war between reality and board e...
Legacy companies have been able to withstand nearly every possible economic condition over several d...
The software industry has experienced more disruption in the last 6 months than in the previous 10 y...
SBI TV episodes bring you Sales and Marketing insights from B2B industry thought leaders and growth experts, on topics like product, pricing, customer experience and success, and go to market. Catch up on new and previous episodes here.