On August 6, 1991, the Internet was officially unveiled and our world hasn’t been the same since. Sales and Marketing are not immune. Both have evolved exponentially, especially in the past decade as ‘inbound marketing’ commanded a seat at the head of the strategy table.
Inbound. The Game Changer.
Over the past two decades, SEO morphed from a new concept to buzzword to a job title and is now revered as a seriously compelling marketing tactic. And, just when we thought we understood it, social media took off like wild fire, joined forces with SEO, and sent direct mail and other ‘old school’ marketing tactics rolling away like tumbleweeds.
Somewhere in that shake up, cold calling morphed into social selling, relevant content dominated our conversations, and everything grew wings and began relocating to the cloud. Change. Big change, Big Data, the Internet of Things happened, and the App economy appeared like magic, right before our eyes.
We lost some great companies along the way. Kodak moments and Saturday night trips to Blockbuster are gone. While others like Polaroid and Garmin who were ‘left for dead’ have been cleverly rejuvenated and live to see another day. It’s the nature of the business, right? Change and evolve or risk obsolescence.
The Channel is not immune to the ripple effect from both sides. Technology is growing at the speed of our imaginations, entire portions of our business infrastructures are now intangible and alliances are forming left and right. All of this is a shift away from the once simple channel sales model of Vendor-Distributor-Partner; the one we knew before we all carried tiny computers in our pockets that double as phones…soon to be watches and then...
The New Channel
Early last month our CEO, Heather K. Margolis and 49 other channel sales and marketing change agents were named to The Var Guy’s Top 50 Channel Influencers List 2015.
Thousands of nominations poured in and undoubtedly it was a large undertaking to sift though so many worthy candidates to choose only 50. The result? It’s loud and clear: there’s a strong dedication from influencers to take the Channel to the next level.
Partner programs are a main focus as Vendors restructure how they do business in the cloud. Portals and marketing automation, demand generation, and social and content syndication are leading the way for those programs. Partners are in a unique position where they can be more choosey about which Vendors they work with. Alliance partnerships between Vendors are helping inform Partners who they want to align with as converged solutions begin leading the way to new sales. And, the Public sector is gaining exposure in the Channel as well.
“This is an exciting time to be working in the channel,” says Heather K. Margolis, “I feel good about the direction we’re headed and am very thankful to have a team of forward thinking channel marketing professionals behind me as we help shape the future for Vendors and Partners.”
As we all move together into a leaner, more automated channel environment, it’s comforting to know the influencers leading the way are dedicated to keeping the Channel strong, Partners happy and Vendors innovating.
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Photo Credits: Fire Brand Social Media, KMS Associates inc., The Var Guy
