2X Channel Performance at Half the Cost!

System Definition- A set of things that work together as part of an interconnecting network.

We all adopt systems to organize our processes and simplify our lives. Almost every walk of life uses systems to reduce costs, scale productivity, and create efficiency. The channel is no different! We have been using a proven channel model (systems) for decades to generate the benefits of cost, scale, and efficiency. The problem with all systems, is they require tuning and innovation to stay relevant with the times. "What we did ten years ago may not be relevant today." Today's Channel Model is in need of an upgrade! The traditional opportunistic partner sales model is challenged?too:

1. Scale revenue performance.
2. Lower costs to improve channel ROI.
3. Transition passive partners to active sellers.
4. Provide actionable performance intelligence to simplify channel management.

Adopting a next generation channel architecture will solve these problems and more. Let's explore the benefits of the Channel Force Partnerships 3.0?model.

Partnerships 3.0 Data-Driven Structured Performance Model

Challenging economic conditions, emerging consumption models, and changing B2B buying behaviors are highlighting deficiencies in the pervasive fulfillment model to consistency produce new revenue! The traditional opportunistic channel model of the past will not produce better results in the future.?It's?time to rethink channel sales creation and build a model developed for?today's?partnering and sales environment.

Partnerships 3.0 Model Overview

The next evolution in channels is data-driven channel planning with structured partner performance (Partnerships 3.0). This next-generation sales creation model is designed to dramatically improve target market coverage, top-of-funnel demand creation, sales performance, and visibility to partner sales strategy execution. Data-driven channels are based on three foundational principles:

1. Performance Management: Data-driven channel management optimizes solution sales performance.
2. Sales Enablement: Strategy-driven enablement and structured demand creation creates active sellers.
3. Demand Creation: Incentivizing partner seller strategy execution and equipping partner sellers with sales plays and an automated buyers journey's improves sales performance.

Incorporating these principles in your channel sales process, has a dramatic impact to improve the performance of your partner ecosystem. Data-driven planning coupled with structured demand creation creates the following benefits:

• Significantly grows channel sales revenue.
• Creates a better partner model ROI by lower the cost of sales for the channel.
• Transitions passive partners to active sellers, solving the 80/20 rule channel?challenge,?provides?a recipe for partners to create new demand.
• Creates unprecedented visibility to partner seller demand creation activity.
• Improves target market coverage by solution.
• Creates better sales alignment between vendor, channel, and partner sales?organizations,?providing actionable data to identify issues, coarse correct and measure KPI’s.

By structuring partner sales activities, channel organizations can finally benchmark expected quarterly sales results, collect partner seller prospecting activity, customer engagement and conversion data, and provide real-time visibility to sales strategy execution activity.

To achieve better results, the Partnerships 3.0 model incorporates a number of new elements to the traditional channel sales process:

I. Data-Driven Channel Planning: Partnerships 3.0 introduces a comprehensive channel planning process using market intelligence, internal systems, CRM, and survey data to develop solution specific channel sales strategies, enablement, and execution plans, to optimize a?solution's?sales performance through the partner community.

II. Strategy-Driven Sales Enablement: Strategy enablement compliments your product and general sales enablement practices, teaching partner sellers to execute a solution specific sales play designed to make selling easy and profitable.

III. Structured Partner Led Demand Creation: Structured demand creation uses a target account list and scoring method to assess partner seller relationship strength and assign account coverage. Partner sellers are incentivized to proactively prospect using sales plays and campaigns, incorporating our 4321 prospecting process.

IV. Automated Buyers Journey: Incorporating next generation B2B?buyer's?journey option provides potential buyers an automated AI driven content experience that dramatically improve engagement rates, drive greater revenue and lowers customer acquisition costs. Adding a self-paced, customized journey option to your partner marketing allows for the capture of customer responses provides consumer intelligence, documenting engagements and individual preferences that?cut?the sales cycle in half.

V. Data-Driven Performance Management: Partner Seller strategy execution progress is?collected,?identifying each action taken with a target account. Strategy execution data provides demand creation visibility and campaign performance, partner, channel manager and target account opportunity metrics. This actionable data makes channel management easy, providing near?real-time?visibility to the performance of your channel sales strategy execution.

The methodology is?modular,?allowing companies to adopt the entire model or just one aspect of the process. In addition, the architecture is flexible allowing third party technology companies to integrate into the model. Finally, Partnerships 3.0 provides?for customizations to fit any sales methodology or existing channel program.

Summary: The traditional channel model is in need of an upgrade. While there are a number of new and exciting approaches to addressing the challenges facing todays channel, Partnerships 3.0 provides a systematic approach to solve the root issue, the unstructured last mile to channel sales creation. Partnerships 3.0 provides a comprehensive framework and suite of products and services to help companies transition their passive channels too active sellers generating tremendous revenue growth. If you would like to better understand the model, see a demo of the TAPapp, or Splashmetrics Buyers Journey, reach out to me at [email protected]. We can benchmark projected results and run an ROI specific to your channel model.