Channel Management Blog
Our blog features channel management tips, best practices and expert insights to help you get the most out of your PRM and create a successful partner program.
5 Reasons Channel Managers Don’t Need a Mobile Strategy
Over the past two years all the buzz in the channel has been about having a mobile strategy. Mobile is the latest in a long line of shiny new things that seem to surface every other year, promising to “engage the channel”. Most people I talk to about “Mobile” cite statistics about the number of […]
Determining the ROI of Your Channel
Everyone is looking to get an ROI read on their indirect sales channel, especially those organizations that are just starting out with a partner program. If you’ve been tasked with managing this initiative, odds are your CEO is regularly asking, “what are we getting out of the channel?” This is true especially for CEOs who […]
Structuring a Partner Program to Get the Partner Behaviors You Want Part 1
If you’ve ever had a spiff program not work the way you’d hoped, you already know that partners can behave in completely unexpected ways… Or are they really that unexpected? With a little forethought, if you consider what an incentive program is actually enticing, you will see pretty quickly that the partners’ behavior is completely […]
The Channel as Search Engine Optimizer
Five Steps for Dominating SEO Using Your Channel Lets face it: The reason you build a reseller channel is to accelerate your company’s sales ten times faster than you could by building a direct sales force. Historically, Partner Relationship Management has focused on providing static marketing materials, funds for marketing campaigns, and distribution of leads […]
Joint Business Planning: A Myth or Necessity?
I bet you’re hoping I’m going to say “myth.” No one likes planning, right? But we might as well face facts: joint planning with partners is a critical best practice, and vendors that make the effort are much better positioned to have a successful channel. Joint planning keeps your partnerships from going dormant. Vendors usually […]
How to Minimize Indirect Sales Channel Conflict
Notice the title isn’t “How to Prevent Indirect Sales Channel Conflict.” That’s because, unfortunately, conflict within a partner program is pretty much unavoidable. But accepting that on the front end makes it a lot easier to mitigate the negative effects. So the question then becomes, “How will you manage and minimize conflict within your channel […]
Three Keys to Partner Engagement
I was recently asked by a new customer if we had any documentation or training materials for partners that would get them more engaged and keep their new Partner Portal top of mind. I thought about it, and responded, “No,” not because Channeltivity doesn’t have documentation and training materials—we do. I answered “no” because I […]