Why Your Channel Marketing Is Crazy Stupid

#GlennRobertson is MD of #PureChannels, the #ChannelMarketingAgency.

We discuss why most #MDF (#MarketingDevelopmentFunds) is better spent on buying lottery tickets. Partners are in business for their own reasons not the vendor's reasons. Vendors' attempts to get partners to market their products is so often a disappointing affair.

Never forget, partners don't care about you, your company, your products or your targets. They want to sell their services and your products are simply a means to sell those services. Think about that before you blow a load of cash and effort trying to get your partners to market your widget.

Glenn believes, as do I, that you will make your money work much harder for you if you use your MDF to help them get in front of more qualified prospects, market their own business and services, train them to sell more effectively.

Reframe what you do with those funds and start by calling them something else. Business development funds or sales development funds speaks to what partners actually want from vendors. They are looking to vendors to help them sell more products and services to help them grow their own businesses, to train them how sell those products and accompanying services.

Your channel is your biggest source of potential revenue and the greatest opportunity for sustained, manageable, predictable growth IF you do it right. If you don't, it's a money pit fraught with trouble. This means you MUST optimise their performance and introduce a level of mutual accountability where the partner determines how they will hold you accountable based on the criteria that matter the most to them and vice versa.

We explore the importance of #diversethinking, #constructiveconflict, #channelevolution and the trap of conservative, familiar thinking. Channel is not easy not is it a #GetOutOfSaleFreeCard. There are so many moving parts in the channel. It's a minefield. If your partners aren't working that is YOUR FAULT. When was the last time you asked your partners what they wanted, surveyed them, and put those recommendations into action? Invite the uncomfortable truth of negative feedback to help you to improve your partner experience which translates into improved customer experience. Stop playing the game of delayed catch up with your competition by following what others are doing 5 years after them.

You can contact Glenn via email glenn@purechannels.co.uk

Pure Channels can be found at https://purechannels.co.uk/

Download Glenn's whitepaper on The Future of MDF

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