Many vendors have put in place some sort of marketing portal or infrastructure for partners.  When I was at EMC we called it the Campaign Builder, Cisco has Partner Velocity, and this week Symantec announced the launch of Campaign Creator.  Like others that came before, Campaign Creator enables partners to choose campaigns, customize them, upload a logo, and launch them through the infrastructure.  But wait…there’s more.

Even with end-to-end marketing campaigns including emails, event checklists, event invites/reminders, banner ads, and landing pages partners still need help.  They are feet on the street or uber technical and trying to get in front of as many prospects as possible so editing HTMLs, developing marketing content, and producing events may not be a priority or even a capability.

Part II of Symantec’s announcement this week is about their Partner Support Center for Marketing.  Available to their solution providers 7:00 am MST – 6:00 pm MST or via email (see below).  Partners can call or email and receive assistance with uploading their logo, choosing their list, or just general marketing and program questions.  Is this the missing link?  Might be.  In my experience even if we built it, partners didn’t necessary take advantage of the tools.  A resource for partners to tap into a human to help with the execution is invaluable. The Partner Support Center will also be doing some outbound calling to partners to alert them of new campaigns or a webcast series.

Tricia Atchison, Director of Channel Marketing for Symantec adds, “Marketing is a big opportunity and statistics from IPED show that when you’re trying to broaden your customer base you can drive more revenue and more demand when you invest in your partner base. Our partners are stretched thin and this is something we can do to help them exponentially.”  Symantec isn’t restricting the Campaign Creator or the Partner Support Center to their elite partners either.  ”We just ask that they are in our program, not a specific tier. We feel strongly that this is something they can use to distinguish themselves without having to spend a ton of money.” says Atchison.

I applaud Symantec and the other vendors that step up and realize their partners need the help and they, as vendors, are best equipped to provide it.  That next step, which I wrote about in The Shift in Your Co-Marketing Programs is to incorporate social media tactics and better enable your partners to use them.

How are you vendors helping you?  Are you a Symantec partner who has used Campaign Creator or a partner who has used another vendor’s resources?  I’d love to hear feedback!

I have to admit, I love events and conferences.  Crazy, I know, but there is always so much energy when smart people getting together, and let’s not forget the expo!  Early in my career I was a corporate event planner and learned the importance of making a statement at the event.  Yours is the booth you want people to remember, so what are you going to do to make sure that happens?

• Know your target: What are the multiple audiences at the show/event? Which are you most concerned about?  What are they interested in hearing about?  What are their pain points and how can you solve them?
• Messaging: Whether it is your channel messaging, product messaging, or messaging specific to the event, make sure it carries through every piece of signage, collateral, and gimmicks.  Also make sure everyone going to the event knows what that is.
• Partnering: With so many booths at an expo it’s hard to stand out.  Partnering with non-competitive companies for a large give-away or something that will entice people to go to both of your booths and learn about your products/services will help to drive traffic.  Your customers now learn about them and vice versa.
• Your People: Bring your most energetic folks to work the booth.  If Bob knows everything about your product but he would rather sit in the corner and not talk to anyone, he’s not helping your cause.  I, for one, am not a fan of the scantily-clad booth babes who don’t even know the name of the company throwing the event BUT someone in-between to get traffic to your booth and get your overarching message out there is clutch!
• Take away: Literally, what are you giving people to take away to remember you and your booth?  They’ve now seen and talked to hundreds, if not thousands of people.  How are you going to stand out?  It’s always a good idea to give people something they will want to do once they are home such as enter a contest on your website, download an eBook, or use an augmented reality card.

Most importantly when deciding whether or not to go to the events, ask around.  Post questions on LinkedIn and Twitter, find out where your prospects are and what they are spending their time and money attending.

At the end of the day, have fun!  If you’re a fun company to work with (and have a kick ass product/service) people will spread the word.

Fail is a bit of a harsh term I guess.  Do channels crash and burn?  Not necessarily.  But some channels are not as productive as they could be and there are certainly ways to overcome challenges.  In my time in the channel I’ve seen different personalities of channel programs.  You have the “our products speak for themselves so we’ll get partners no matter what”, others that think “if we bend over backwards with our programs partners will sell our lackluster products”, and others that get it, “our products are sound but our program needs to have a value proposition as well”.  With so many products and programs to choose from, partners are inundated with messaging.

So what are the key elements a company must have to cut through the noise?

• Product:  The product must speak for itself.  Partners develop long term relationships with their customers and therefore will only implement solutions that they know will fit the customers needs.  Sorry to say, you could have the best program/incentives/relationships out there, if the product is a dud they won’t do any good.
• Joint Value Proposition:  Many vendors are so direct focused they can’t stop talking about how great they are.  Stop.  Help develop a join value proposition for your products with your partners services that your partners can use to go out and market themselves.  Partners are going to sell what makes them look good and if you’re not helping them they will sell someone else.
• Marketing Assistance:  Historically solution providers have not had the best marketing resources at their finger tips.  If your company wants these partners to sell your products, they need help.  And not the corporate marketing (which is usually geared toward enterprise customers) repurposed so they can add a logo.  Partners tend to sell into the SMB and need messaging/content/vehicles to that effect.
• Sales support:  Channel partners walk into a sales call selling a solution, not just the specific products.  If they don’t feel confident either through training or actual in-person sales support, they certainly won’t lead with your product.
• Incentives/Margin:  Incentives never hurt but they aren’t going to sway a partner from one product to another.  That said, if they aren’t going to make money selling your product then what’s the point.  As I wrote about in “Are you a Cow, Dog, Star, or Problem Child” make sure your margins fit the product.
• Post-sales support:  Again, your partner is in it for the long haul with their customers.  If they can’t trouble-shoot and solve problems easily with your support team they will hesitate to sell your products next time.

Your channel should be a true partnership.  What is in it for vendors AND channel partners?  That said, channel partners should bring things to the table as well; joining webinars, attending training, marketing your products, and of course bringing you into sales calls.  The next step is measuring but that’s a whole separate blog post.

Vendors, how do you stack up?  Solution Providers, what are your experiences with vendors being sensitive to your needs?

While I’m really excited to see that companies are realizing how important it is to incorporate social med

ia into their channel I see a couple vendors hiring recent college grads and expecting them to take on the “Social Media Strategy”.  Gen Yers, also known as Millennials, are bringing some amazing things to the work place with their tactical use of social media however, I have a couple of issues with the mind set here:

Ensuring that partners promote your messaging and products consistently is always a challenge.  As a channel professional myself I always looked for ways we could better support partners who have little to no marketing resources.  Last week I did a webinar with Josh Gibbs of SharedVue, a syndication and marketing support infrastructure.  I actually reviewed their product back in June of 2009 and boy have they made progress since.

The replay of the webinar can be found here and walks you through the challenges:

• Partners sell multiple products from multiple vendors so they are going to lead with whichever product makes them look good.
• Partners lack marketing know how.  They tend to be more technically inclined, that’s why they are such great VARs, SIs, or ISVs.
• Partners websites are cumbersome and updating content is not as easy as it should be.  Partner sites do not tend to show vendor products and information accurately. Images are not high resolution, product pages may show old products, or there may not be any products at all.
• Marketing resources are limited for many partners.  Put yourself in the shoes of an SMB business owner, do you hire more feet on the street or a marketing executive?  Most marketing resources at channel partners tend to be administrators or business owners who are already spread thin.
• Customers are already blocking out messages because they have been so bombarded.  With more and more companies trying to reach prospects partners need help standing out by providing value.

Overwhelming, I know, but not to worry, the webinar details how vendors can help their partners, big and small, deal with the above challenges.  Whether social media, multi-touch campaigns, syndication, or marketing automation, see how any and all can drive more business through your channel.  Some of them don’t even cost you money…it’s just about restructuring the resources you already have.

Have any of you used these tools?  What are you doing to support your partners demand gen goals?  Would love to get your feedback.

Awhile ago, I wrote about the “new” breed of solution providers entering the market thanks to the cloud.  While many traditional solution providers have struggled to make the shift in their business model to the cloud, new entrants have picked up the slack in a big way.  Those business consultants mentioned in my previous post (accountants, HR consultants, and marketing consultants) are not the only “new” solution providers in the game.  Many telecomm agents have realized the business model is exactly the same as their current model so the learning curve lies in the infrastructure expertise.

So how steep is that learning curve?  Multiple agents we’ve spoken with say not steep at all, traditional VARs would argue with that.

I would suggest if the cloud is something you are considering as a solution provider, do not make this decision lightly.  If you have a client that wants a cloud solution and you have yet to make the leap, try partnering with another firm that does as opposed to doing one-offs.  A few resources helping to bridge that gap are below:

MSPSN provides the framework for the SMB Solution Provider Community to communicate and collaborate, the training and guidance in mastering the Managed Services Provider (MSP) business model, and the tools to manage and build their businesses.

MSPAlliance‘s mission is to promote the Managed Services Industry, as a true and viable profession to the IT Business Consumer. By building a community of trusted, accredited providers the world over, we have become the world’s largest professional association and accrediting body for the Managed Services Industry.

CloudCamp is an unconference where early adopters of Cloud Computing technologies exchange ideas. With the rapid change occurring in the industry, we need a place we can meet to share our experiences, challenges and solutions. At CloudCamp, you are encouraged you to share your thoughts in several open discussions, as we strive for the advancement of Cloud Computing.

What do you think?  Is that learning curve too steep?  What other resources will help traditional VARs make the jump?

]]> http://www.channelmavenconsulting.com/2010/06/the-new-new-breed-of-var/feed/ 0 http://www.channelmavenconsulting.com/2010/05/the-shift-in-your-co-marketing-programs/ http://www.channelmavenconsulting.com/2010/05/the-shift-in-your-co-marketing-programs/#comments Thu, 27 May 2010 09:57:58 +0000 Channel Maven http://www.channelmavenconsulting.com/?p=475

No matter what you call them, co-marketing, co-branding, MDF programs, or Co-op most vendors provide their partners with assistance to market the joint product and services value proposition.  There is a fundamental shift in the types of resources your partners need and I haven’t seen many vendors catching on.  Are you?  First let’s talk about why co-marketing is so important.

Why should you participate in co-marketing if you don’t already?

1. While your corporate marketing teams are spending oodles of time and money getting your messages out to the masses your partners can increase that reach to their current and future prospects exponentially.
2. Partners prefer to sell what’s easy to sell.  That means what they best understand technically AND which have resources committed to demand generation.
3. We all know loyalty doesn’t really exist anymore but you will certainly be at the top of a partners product list are investing in their business.

Okay, now that we’ve established it’s better for your business and most certainly your partners’ businesses to develop co-marketing programs, what’s this shift?  You’ve heard me talk about social media and how important it is for the channel here, here, and here mostly about communicating with partners and end-users.  It’s even more important to help your partners leverage these tools to drive demand.  Here is how social media should shift your co-marketing campaigns:

1. LinkedIn should play a huge part in any campaign you are funding.  Do your partners know how to use it?  Make sure you have the resources to hand them so they can post out events, promotions, email campaigns through LinkedIn.  It can be a webinar or a “how-to” guide but it has to be something they can use over and over again.
2. Twitter may not be for everyone but if some of your partners are using it, show them how to better use it to get the word out about an event, campaign, survey, webcast they are doing.  It starts with building 2-way conversations so tell them about twitter early and often, not the day of launch.
3. SEO plays a huge role when prospects are searching for a product, service, problem solver on Google or Bing which is well, just about all the time.  91% of IT decision makers will search for a product even if they know what they need before purchasing.  So how can you help?  Let your partners use MDF to pay for an SEO and/or social media consultant.
4. Facebook, in my opinion is not a great B2B tool but if your partners are selling direct to customers they should absolutely have a guide similar to those on LinkedIn and Twitter to show them how to use it correctly.
5. Training provides partners with tools they can continue to use for each and every campaign they do.  There are a ton of programs and people out there who can teach your partners to leverage social media the RIGHT way.

That is just the tip of the iceberg but the bottom line is there are many tools out there your partners need to be accessing and ways in which your co-marketing mindset should shift.  Are any vendors already engaging in some co-marketing programs that include social media?  Would love to hear about them!

Are you a girl?  Are you in tech?  Are you a member of Girls in Tech?  You should be.  So disclaimer up front, I am honored to be named the new managing director of the Girls in Tech Boston chapter.  Girls in Tech is a global organization (yes even chapters in India and China) that provides women with a forum for networking, personal and professional development, and education.  While I’ve been a part of several organizations like this I found Girls in Tech to be one more thing that really stood out….fun oh and free, did I mention free?

Such a great group of women and acknowledgement from the industry (including men) that made me decide this was the organization I was going to put more time into.

Why the blog post?  I’m so excited about Girls in Tech I want more people to join!  Not just the Boston Chapter…find a chapter near you.  If there isn’t one, find out how you can get involved on a corporate level.  If you’re a guy who knows a girl in tech…tell her about it!

If you are in the Boston area, please join the LinkedIn Group and Facebook Page.  Look forward to seeing you soon!

As more and more solution providers try to figure out where they fit in the cloud, key vendors are enabling them to build a business around it.  Long Jump has been around for 7 years and in their own words “version 7 is all about collaboration”.  Collaboration with and between ISVs, solution providers, developers, tenant-to-tenant, Global platform users, and public web visitors.

So how does Long Jump enable these partners in the cloud?  By providing them with licensing capabilities to basically build an application on an integrated end-to-end platform.  These turnkey applications, for instance an event planning application, can be leveraged by clients and partners and constantly improved through product approval submissions to the developers.  Partners can also create social networks within the platform.  Can you say cloud and social?

While I’m not a developer, I can certainly see the value to partners of being able to create a product to call their own.  But is this something partners want?  Are they being forced out of their comfort zone by being expected to morph into manufacturers?  Long Jump and others still provide their products for resale so it’s not an all or nothing but what would solution providers prefer?  Which SP’s are comfortable with this and which want to go back to the days of selling really big hardware and on premise software?

More and more channel programs are incorporating technology and service “Specializations” into their Channel Programs.  The Specializations enforce specific training and requirements but also promise partners stronger benefits.

Symantec, with an already strong Channel Program, recently announced that Specializations will become the cornerstone of that program.  Symantec has put in place security and storage product Specializations as well as an overarching SMB segment Specialization.  Symantec is giving their partners plenty of time to prepare for the change, launching the program fully in December of 2010.  More information on Symantec’s new specializations can be found on their site or press release.

Benefits for Symantec’s and other manufacturer’s partners who reach this level include; opportunity registration, complex solution selling, marketing support, training, and partner finder listings.  In looking at other manufacturers who have made the switch, I think Symantec has done a very decent job of keeping their partners needs and capabilities in mind.

While more and more manufacturers are instituting Specializations, how is that changing the way partners sell products?  It’s not unusual for a solution provider to sell anywhere from 3-20 different products and services.  Are they expected to reach Specialization status in every channel program?  If a channel partner does not have a Specialization status, and therefore doesn’t have access to all of the benefits, would they still sell that product?

After talking to several channel partners about these Specializations it seems they will obtain status for certain products and will either go without the extra benefits or partner with solution providers who have the specialization they do not.  As I wrote in my Partner to Partner post many solution providers are teaming up to grow their business without straining personnel and financial resources.  Symantec has done a great job here, connecting solution providers with each other to complete a sale.

While I understand the strategy around instituting specializations and the benefits to the end-customer, it’s very important that manufacturers continue to provide support for those partners in the Long Tail.  While manufacturers are catering to the partners with specializations selling more complex solutions with marketing and training support, are the partners who engage in smaller more consistent sales feeling the love?

What do you think?  How many specializations can you handle without having to put your business card on a 4X6 index card or take a year off to gain all the certifications you’ll need?