The opening sessions were scheduled at BAX Energy, one of the Microsoft ISV Partners, headquartered in Catania, Sicily. The first day of sessions consisted of introductions across the group of companies, which were from Western European countries. We learned a lot about the current developments in Microsoft, seeking to constantly improve how they support partners, with much open discussion across the group. We also had a tour of BAX Energy; a very interesting company that places a big emphasis on innovation; it was truly inspiring how they conduct their business.
So on to day two, and our session on “Sales Channel Challenges”. This was a very interactive session, with great engagement from the participants. There was a good diversity of sales channels experience and maturity among the group and this really contributed to the overall learnings from the session. Below I have outlined how the presentation proceeded and interacted with the participants’ experiences in Sales Channels.
1) What is the best route to achieve your Company Goals?
• What are your target customer growth numbers in the next year, and in the next three years?
• What is the best way to achieve this?
• How can sales channels partners help?
2) Clarity on Your Bullseye Target Customer
The clearer your focus on your Bullseye Customer, then the clearer the message you can give to the market and to channels on where you can best meet the needs of the customer and best beat the competition.
The clearer you define what you want, the more likely you will be to get it.
This was highlighted by Microsoft in the previous day’s sessions also, asking companies to be very specific about what types of customers they want to assure success through their partnering program. Many companies spread their message too broad and this can result in a lot of wasted resources. Having a clearer message about your target customer enables the Microsoft team and even the market to more easily identify where you are relevant.
3) Company Evolution and Your Channel Evolution
From start-up to established, a company is continuing to learn what works best to take it to the next stage of growth. In the same way that a company needs to learn what product to sell to what customer, a company then needs to learn how Sales Channels will work to suit their particular product and industry.
Just because one partner doesn’t work, doesn’t mean that partnering doesn’t work for your business. Likewise, when you have partners that are delivering according to plan, you need to understand why and what makes this partnership work so well.
This is the continuous learning that allows a company to develop through its Channel Maturity with appropriate best next steps at each stage.
4) Group Workshop – Your Top 10 Channel Challenges
At this point we had a breakout session, asking the participants to join the relevant table according to the stage they believed themselves to be at:
1) Considering or Starting in Channels
2) Growing Channels
3) Established Channels
The task each table was charged with; “List Your Top 10 Channel Challenges”.
With flipcharts, markers, and ascribe selected in each group, the discussions began. Each group produced a good list of challenges, with obvious differences in the challenges according to their stage of channel evolution,
Invariably, the challenges at each stage lead to some common bottlenecks.
5) Business Process and Growth Bottlenecks
Taking a step back, I asked the participants to view the challenges they had outlined in relation to the typical bottlenecks to growth.
Your Sales and Delivery Process
We need to identify what you need more of, when and how, in order to meet your growth challenges:
Is it more Leads?
• What do you need to do in your current markets to build your pipeline?
• Do you need to access new regional markets to expand your market opportunity
Is it greater Credibility?
• How would an improved brand win more deals or even bigger deals?
Is it greater Delivery and Support Capabilities?
• Would local delivery capabilities improve lead generation and close more deals?
• Would more products broaden your appeal in existing markets?
The greatest bottleneck in business growth is How compelling is your Customer Value Proposition?”
The more compelling the proposition, the faster adoption rates increase, lowering the cost of marketing and sales.
In a commodity market, where there is little difference in the vendors’ propositions, price sensitivity and the race to the bottom will be of chief concern. The bottleneck may then move to “How compelling is your Partner Value Proposition?”
6) How Fast can You Grow through Sales Channels?
From a study Tenego carried out on the factors affecting the growth of sales channels, we identified 26 different factors, which then was narrowed down to 5 Key Factors:
1) Deal Size & Shape – Is there a Licence share for the partner AND is there Services Revenue for the partner?
2) Long Sales Cycles obviously take longer than Short Sales Cycles, and so also does the pace of learning of the business and of each partner.
3) Is there a big enough market and market demand?
4) Are there enough partner options (number of possible partner companies) for your business in the market?
5) Partner Deal Pace, can be determined by the pace of the partners business, the number of projects/new customers, etc, and then how prominently your solution features in their business
7) Select Your Top 3 Channel Challenges
Each of the groups got busy again discussing, scoring and prioritising their top 3 challenges. The session produced some interesting discussions between the groups with participants sharing their experiences to help others.
