Channel Champion

In the beloved film classic, “The Wizard of Oz”, when Dorothy asks Glinda--the kindly witch of the North—how to start her journey to Emerald City, Glinda responds, “It’s always best to start at the beginning.”  

In my opinion, Glinda would not be my first choice as a channel program consultant.  Effective channel program planning actually starts with a clear vision of the “end game,” in other words identifying the success metrics that originally inspired you to create the program.  It may be growing the size of your partner channel or--more commonly-- increasing channel revenues over a certain period of time.

Surprisingly a number of companies that have approached us looking for solutions to automate their channel programs have failed to articulate their business objectives, either because the objectives are poorly defined or are not defined at all. Here are a few open-ended questions that should stimulate your thinking when it comes to identifying program objectives:

1. What are you trying to achieve with this program?
2. Are your program objectives supported by your corporation’s business objectives?
3. How can you quantify or measure the progress of your program objectives?
4. What channel partner behaviors are you trying to motivate?
5. What do your channel partners gain by participating?
6. Are your products, channel, and marketplace conducive to launching a specific type of program?
7. Do you have an execution strategy which logically maps back to your program objectives?

A hosted solution such as one provided by CCI is able to collect, measure, and report on data metrics which are the life blood of your program.  It is the heart and circulatory system pumping information throughout the program body over time.  But it is you, the channel sales or marketing director, who must develop the program idea and justify the reasons for the program’s existence.  You are Oz’s Scarecrow with the newly minted brain and you are chartered with this task.  Or would you prefer to steal the broomstick of that other witch?   

Michael DeBarros is the Business Development Manager at CCI. He is a veteran of 22 years in technology sales and has held channel management positions at two leading software companies. Michael's experience in working for both partners and vendors offers unique insight into today's channel challenges.