Making the Channel Gears Mesh

3 Steps to Successful Joint Partner Planning

The state of the technology partner channel may well be summed up with the saying, “May you live in an interesting age.” With the other kind of age (the “uninteresting” one) a time of peace and tranquility, some have gone so far as to call this saying a curse.

That might be a little dramatic. But there is nothing peaceful or tranquil about today’s channel. Vendors are restraining their channel programs budgets just as the channel partner landscape becomes more fluid. Partner account managers routinely find themselves trying to attain very precise ROI metrics even as their head count either shrinks or remains static. Partners find their business models turning upside down as the move to the cloud changes the dominant revenue stream model. Meanwhile, the number of new partners entering the channel continues to explode.

One clear path to stability amid all this commotion is joint partner planning whereby vendors and partners work together to maximize resources and align themselves for future success. The challenge for vendors is to find the right partners to work with—to separate the wheat from the chaff, the rock stars of the future from the golden oldies of the past. Then they must find ways to fine tune the planning process for each partner in order to maximize opportunity—for themselves and for their partners.

We will also discuss research that sheds new light on the importance of joint partner planning—and what some of the more advanced vendors are doing to ensure the success of such planning.