ZINFI Technologies, Inc.

Vendor organizations that sell through a network of channel partners (resellers, VARS, affiliates and agents) know that most of their partners do not have dedicated marketing resources to keep their respective websites updated with fresh content from their vendors. This is where content syndication can play a significant role, allowing vendors and their channel partners to significantly enhance brand presence, control and engagement with end prospects. To make this work, an organization will need to focus on seven core areas:* Deciding what to syndicate– The objective of content syndication is not to replicate a vendor’s website. On the contrary, the goal is to do two just things right: provide a set of core content that is relevant to a specific partner’s customer base, and make sure the content stays fresh and up to date. This is not the easiest of tasks, since many vendors have hundreds or even thousands of pages of content that can potentially be syndicated. Prioritizing is key.* Setting up showcases– Once you have determined what pages to use for your web content syndication program, the next step is to determine how many content syndication showcases to set up. Again, the goal here is not to push your entire web site through your partner’s site, but to select relevant groups of content, either by vertical market (healthcare, real estate, education, etc.) or by industry segment (small business, mid-market, enterprise, and so on).* Allowing customization– If all of your partners do not sell all of your product lines, you will need to provide your partners with the means to customize your content syndication showcases. This customization capability is critical to ensure partners can show the specific set of products, pages, collateral and other content that is relevant to their business.* Capturing leads– While protecting your brand message and getting the right content out to multiple end-users via your channel network are both critical, it is also important to make sure you and your partners can track leads. For this, you need to have in place a channel marketing automation platform that not only allows you to deliver dynamic content syndication, but also to track the leads that are being captured from different showcases.* Promoting showcases – With relevant showcases being syndicated via the partner website, the next most important task is that the partner is provided with the ability to promote those showcases via digital networks such as social or search. To make this happen, you should pick a channel marketing automation platform that allows you to provide marketing elements such as web banners, buttons and connectors to promote the showcases. Also, the content syndication capability should include an integrated email marketing capability to drive outbound campaigns to a partner’s installed base of customers and prospect* Running reports – No matter what content syndication platform you chose, you need to make sure the dynamic reporting engine gives you a complete sense of what is really going on with content marketing campaigns. The important thing is, once a partner is syndicating content, you need to be able to run analysis to see what showcases generate the most leads and what changes can make to render this investment even more effective. For this, you need powerful content syndication reporting capabiliti...

Vendor organizations that sell through a network of channel partners (resellers, VARS, affiliates and agents) know that most of their partners do not have dedicated marketing resources to keep their respective websites updated with fresh content from their vendors. This is where content syndication can play a significant role, allowing vendors and their channel partners to significantly enhance brand presence, control and engagement with end prospects. To make this work, an organization will need to focus on seven core areas:

* Deciding what to syndicate- The objective of content syndication is not to replicate a vendor’s website. On the contrary, the goal is to do two just things right: provide a set of core content that is relevant to a specific partner’s customer base, and make sure the content stays fresh and up to date. This is not the easiest of tasks, since many vendors have hundreds or even thousands of pages of content that can potentially be syndicated. Prioritizing is key.

* Setting up showcases- Once you have determined what pages to use for your web content syndication program, the next step is to determine how many content syndication showcases to set up. Again, the goal here is not to push your entire web site through your partner’s site, but to select relevant groups of content, either by vertical market (healthcare, real estate, education, etc.) or by industry segment (small business, mid-market, enterprise, and so on).

* Allowing customization- If all of your partners do not sell all of your product lines, you will need to provide your partners with the means to customize your content syndication showcases. This customization capability is critical to ensure partners can show the specific set of products, pages, collateral and other content that is relevant to their business.

* Capturing leads- While protecting your brand message and getting the right content out to multiple end-users via your channel network are both critical, it is also important to make sure you and your partners can track leads. For this, you need to have in place a channel marketing automation platform that not only allows you to deliver dynamic content syndication, but also to track the leads that are being captured from different showcases.

* Promoting showcases - With relevant showcases being syndicated via the partner website, the next most important task is that the partner is provided with the ability to promote those showcases via digital networks such as social or search. To make this happen, you should pick a channel marketing automation platform that allows you to provide marketing elements such as web banners, buttons and connectors to promote the showcases. Also, the content syndication capability should include an integrated email marketing capability to drive outbound campaigns to a partner’s installed base of customers and prospect

* Running reports - No matter what content syndication platform you chose, you need to make sure the dynamic reporting engine gives you a complete sense of what is really going on with content marketing campaigns. The important thing is, once a partner is syndicating content, you need to be able to run analysis to see what showcases generate the most leads and what changes can make to render this investment even more effective. For this,

As the world gets more and more digitized, and technology touches every aspect of our lives, one evolution that is consistent across all segments of lives is software-driven automation of work steps. Whether it’s in the connected home or connected workplace, intelligent manufacturing processes, financial management, and business automation are here to stay, and will only increase with time. Within this fundamental change, the most recent evolution has been in the area of automated channel marketing software.

So why is the category of& channel marketing software growing and why is it needed? And, who should consider deploying it? Before we answer these questions in detail, let’s look at the underlying factors that are driving the evolution of this new category.

Over the past two decades, the Internet has become not only a medium for content distribution but also a utility that - just like electricity, water, air conditioning, or heating - keeps an organization running. Today the Internet is a utility that allows businesses to distribute content and people to communicate, but it also has become a medium for distributing software that automates business workflow. Software that used to run on our desktops gradually moved to centralized servers and, over the past decade, outside the organization to the cloud. This trend accelerated due to the abundance of bandwidth and storage and the evolution of web services platforms that can run software in the cloud, eliminating the need to install programs onsite.

A brief summary of the evolution of enterprise automation software looks like this:

Phase 1 (Broad Enterprise Automation)- The first category of enterprise automation software is in the area of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), which includes Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Manufacturing Resource Management, Financial Resource Management, etc. This is where companies like SAP, Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM have created technologies, and continue to dominate end-to-end automation and management of business processes. In this phase, we also saw the evolution of Business Intelligence software that pulls data together from multiple systems to give a holistic view of the enterprise, with the goal here of enabling data-driven management decision-making and resource allocation.

Phase 2 (More Deeper and More Specialized Tools)- During the past decade, we have seen the evolution of marketing automation software designed for the mid-market and enterprise space from players like Eloqua (acquired by Oracle), Pardot and ExactTarget (both acquired by Salesforce.com), Marketo, Hubspot, Act-On Software and many more. Most of these organizations today boast multi-billion valuations representing the future potential of growth in their respective segments. There also has been innovation in small business marketing automation areas - driven by players like ConstantContact and Vertical Response. As a result, it is now accepted that when it comes to core business processes like sales, marketing, manufacturing, and finance, automation is critical not only to reduce cost, and increase repeatability and reproducibility, but also to create a competitive advantage against other players in the marketplace.

Amazon is first a software company, and secondarily a reseller of products and services. We have seen businesses like bookstores – for example Borders in the U.S. – going out of business, simply because they did not compete in the arena of digitized content and distribution of goods and services via Internet process automation. The same thing is happening with all companies that are not adopting digital sales and marketing processes using end-to-end automation, and the same logic applies to the recent evolution of automated channel marketing software. If you are selling direct, the chances are you have already automated your sales and marketing processes, or are in the process of doing so. Otherwise, you risk going out of business, just like old-school bookstores. However, if you are selling indirectly, through a channel, it’s possible that you may have not considered automation yet, simply because it is a new and rapidly evolving segment.

So what is the state of the channel marketing automation software industry today, and where is it going? Here is a brief summary.

Channel marketing automation software today- There are thirty or more vendors - like ZINFI - who are turning over something in the range of $5-10 million a year in revenue, focused on various aspects of channel marketing automation software. Some providers target their offerings at specific technology segments and automation workflows related to the management of resellers, VARs, system integrators, or managed services Some channel marketing automation software vendors are in the business of automating vertical industry segments like a retail franchise, affiliate marketing, healthcare, insurance or real estate. However, all share broadly the same goal, which is to automate two or more tiers of marketing and sales processes via channel marketing automation software. This is something that older school direct marketing automation vendors do not do today.

The future of channel marketing automation software- Just as standalone products have become features over time in all other automation sectors, it is clear that most of the sub-segments discussed above will be absorbed into a single segment of multi-tier marketing and sales automation for different vertical market This evolution represents the next phase of the channel marketing automation software segment, which we will discuss in a future article. How do we know it’s coming? Well, we have already experienced the evolution of Unified Partner Management that basically now comprises Partner Relationship Management and Partner Marketing Management. These two distinct workflows now can be unified under one software platform and provide true end-to-end visibility, scalability, and control to channel professionals.

Channel marketing automation software is at an exciting phase in its development. Even in its early days of evolution it already has produced significant cost savings through streamlining of process steps, elimination of wasted labor, and freeing up marketing and sales funds to invest in strategic growth areas. It will continue to do so on an even greater scale in the years to come.

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As the world gets more and more digitized, and technology touches every aspect of our lives, one evolution that is consistent across all segments of lives is software driven automation of work steps. Whether it’s in the connected home or connected work place or intelligent manufacturing processes or financial management, business automation is here to stay, and will only increase with time. Within this fundamental change the most recent evolution has been in the area of automated channel marketing software.So why is the category of channel marketing software growing and why is it needed? And, who should consider deploying it? Before we answer these questions in detail, let’s look at the underlying factors that are driving the evolution of this new category.Over the past two decades, the Internet has become not only a medium for content distribution, but also a utility that – just like electricity, water, air conditioning or heating – keeps an organization running. Today the Internet is a utility that allows businesses to distribute content and people to communicate, but it also has become a medium for distributing software that automates business workflow. Software that used to run on our desktop, gradually moved to centralized servers and, over the past decade, outside the organization to the cloud. This trend accelerated due to the abundance of bandwidth and storage and the evolution of web services platforms that can run software in the cloud, eliminating the need to install programs onsite.A brief summary of the evolution of enterprise automation software looks like this:* Phase 1 (Broad Enterprise Automation)– The first category of enterprise automation software has been in the area of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), which included Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Manufacturing Resource Management, Financial Resource Management, etc. This is where companies like SAP, Microsoft, Oracle and IBM have created technologies, and continue to dominate end-to-end automation and management of business processes. In this phase we also saw the evolution of Business Intelligence software that pulls data together from multiple systems to give a holistic view of the enterprise, with the goal here of enabling data-driven management decision-making and resource allocation.* Phase 2 (More Deeper and More Specialized Tools)– During the past decade, we have seen the evolution of marketing automation software designed for the mid-market and enterprise space from players like Eloqua (acquired by Oracle), Pardot and ExactTarget (both acquired by Salesforce.com), Marketo, Hubspot, Act-On Software and many more. Most of these organizations today boast multi-billion valuations representing the future potential of growth in their respective segments. There also has been innovation in small business marketing automation areas – driven by players like ConstantContact and Vertical Response. As a result, it is now accepted that when it comes to core business processes like sales, marketing, manufacturing and finance, automation is critical not only to reduce cost, increase repeatability and reproducibility, but also to create competitive advantage against other players in the market place.Amazon is first a software company, and secondarily a reseller of products and services. We have seen business like bookstores – for example Borders in the U.S. – going out of business, simply because they did not compete in the arena of digitized content and distribution of goods and services via Internet process automation. The same thing is happening with all companies that are not adopting digital sales and marketing processes using end-to-end automation, and the same logic applies to the recent evolution of automated channel marketing software. If you are selling direct, the chances are you have already automated your sales an...

As the world gets more and more digitized, and technology touches every aspect of our lives, one evolution that is consistent across all segments of lives is software driven automation of work steps. Whether it’s in the connected home or connected work place or intelligent manufacturing processes or financial management, business automation is here to stay, and will only increase with time. Within this fundamental change the most recent evolution has been in the area of automated channel marketing software.

So why is the category of channel marketing software growing and why is it needed? And, who should consider deploying it? Before we answer these questions in detail, let’s look at the underlying factors that are driving the evolution of this new category.

Over the past two decades, the Internet has become not only a medium for content distribution, but also a utility that - just like electricity, water, air conditioning or heating - keeps an organization running. Today the Internet is a utility that allows businesses to distribute content and people to communicate, but it also has become a medium for distributing software that automates business workflow. Software that used to run on our desktop, gradually moved to centralized servers and, over the past decade, outside the organization to the cloud. This trend accelerated due to the abundance of bandwidth and storage and the evolution of web services platforms that can run software in the cloud, eliminating the need to install programs onsite.

A brief summary of the evolution of enterprise automation software looks like this:

* Phase 1 (Broad Enterprise Automation)- The first category of enterprise automation software has been in the area of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), which included Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Manufacturing Resource Management, Financial Resource Management, etc. This is where companies like SAP, Microsoft, Oracle and IBM have created technologies, and continue to dominate end-to-end automation and management of business processes. In this phase we also saw the evolution of Business Intelligence software that pulls data together from multiple systems to give a holistic view of the enterprise, with the goal here of enabling data-driven management decision-making and resource allocation.

* Phase 2 (More Deeper and More Specialized Tools)- During the past decade, we have seen the evolution of marketing automation software designed for the mid-market and enterprise space from players like Eloqua (acquired by Oracle), Pardot and ExactTarget (both acquired by Salesforce.com), Marketo, Hubspot, Act-On Software and many more. Most of these organizations today boast multi-billion valuations representing the future potential of growth in their respective segments. There also has been innovation in small business marketing automation areas - driven by players like ConstantContact and Vertical Response. As a result, it is now accepted that when it comes to core business processes like sales, marketing, manufacturing and finance, automation is critical not only to reduce cost, increase repeatability and reproducibility, but also to create competitive advantage against other players in the market place.

Amazon is first a software company, and secondarily a reseller of products and services. We have seen business like bookstores – for example Borders in the U.S. – going out of business, simply because they did not compete in the arena of digitized content and distribution of goods and services via Internet process automation. The same thing is happening with all companies that are not adopting digital sales and marketing processes using end-to-end automation, and the same logic applies to the recent evolution of automated channel marketing software. If you are selling direct, the chances are you have already automated your sales and marketing processes,

Over my three decades’ experience in channel sales management, I have watched some people rise to the top, while others just don't know why they are not getting promoted. Based on from-the-trenches observations, I have some suggestions about how to break the deadlock if you feel you haven’t achieved the recognition you deserve. I have identified nine typical behavior patterns that our organization has consistently observed to be drivers of individual growth and promotion by effectively developing core channel sales management skills.

Integrity Comes First - We are all under pressure to perform, but it is absolutely vital to avoid the temptation to take shortcuts. We have all heard hair-raising stories of attempts to trick the system: fake invoices sent to fake email addresses to book fake revenue; asking a partner to buy product and side-sell to another to make profit and share commissions; having a partner buy at the end of the quarter and then return via another service provider. In the end, whatever the pressure or the short-term justification, it rarely works out in the long run. These practices all eventually come to light. Once anyone’s credibility takes a hit, the word spreads fast, and reputation repair is a long and tough process. No matter what, put your reputation first. Your professional reputation is your key to success in channel management.

Focus on Relationships– Channel sales success is built upon relationships. Before a channel partner cares about what you know, or what you need to close your quarter, they first need to know what you can do for them. I can’t count the number of times channel partners have told me, “I never hear from my channel rep till the end of the quarter, when they want me to buy something immediately so that they can meet their quota. And you know what I do then? I ask for deep discounts because I know their backs are against the wall and they end up selling product to me at whatever price I want. If the rep really cared about me and had shown they were going to help me grow my business, I might not only buy at full price, but possibly do something more ambitious.”

If you figure out how you can integrate your priorities with a strategy to help your partners grow, you will be able to work towards mutually beneficial end results.

Feed the Run Rate- Channel sales is a run rate business. There is very little you can do this quarter to impact this quarter’s numbers. Yes, of course you need to support your partners to drive deals, but use automation as much as you can to analyze and strategize for the future. Chances are you have a CRM system, and if you do then use it! Figure out how best you can leverage it to track what is going on a day-to-day basis with your territory or region, and what needs to change. Partner profiling tied to dynamic analytics and reports can greatly enhance your insights about your run rate business. This will give you a clear picture of who is performing and who is not, and will give you insights into patterns and trends that require further investigation and resolution.

Build A Bridge Towards Future- While you feed your run rate business, you also need to build a process for understanding your partner base. This is achieved via partner profiling to work out who has the potential to move up to the next tier. You can do this by sending a simple survey asking about their concerns and needs.

This allows you to identify the high potential and high-risk partners. You can then actively plan ahead, working with select sets of partners to address their issues, which may vary from technical support (our article on Are You Relevant To Your Channel Partner?), sales support, marketing support, etc. It is incredibly important at this stage to prioritize, take a structured approach focused on your channel sales management goals, and not get sucked into the day-to-day crisis management cycle, which tends to be very common in the channel - something is always blowing up somewhere.

Build a System- For you to effectively build pipeline, you will need to depend on a system so you not only have deal closure, but a pipeline that is constantly growing. This is where Channel Marketing Automation comes in. If your organization has a Partner Marketing Management or Partner Relationship Management platform then exploit it fully. Learn it, use it, and promote it. It will help you to build your system very quickly.

We have repeatedly seen that channel sales reps and managers who use automated platforms effectively are by default two to three times more effective than those who don’t. How do we know? Our platforms can track results by territory, so we have been able to track how partner productivity grows in one territory versus another simply because of effective use of automation. This is not a conjecture; this is based on fact and proven by results. So if your channel team is not currently using automation, be proactive and vocal and promote the use of such a system.

Build Your Internal Network- Your relationship with your internal colleagues in product management, marketing, engineering and technical support is critical if you are to be effective in getting things done for your partners. When you know from which partners your growth is likely to come and understand the technical or support issues, you can be specific about areas that need work and on which you will need help from your cross functional colleagues. And, in the same way that your relationship with your partners is closely tied to your ability to help them, your relationship with your internal colleagues is a two-way street. For them to go the extra mile for you, you need to relate your requests to their most important priorities.

Be specific. Gather data. Product managers are trying to grow their product lines. They are your best allies. Support Managers are trying to improve customer satisfaction rate, they are your best advocates. Don’t just send emails stating what doesn’t work - although you have to do this from time to time to get things fixed and done - but also let your colleagues know what does work. Share success stories from your partner base. Build your internal relationship equity to make things happen and solve problems. Happy customers enhance your image - and your colleagues’ - internally and externally.

Know Your Products- Most articles on sales efficiency focus on product expertise as a critical factor, but if you have been around in a channel sales management role in your current company for a while you probably know the existing products. But most technology companies are constantly introducing new products and pricing, so staying ahead of the curve is important. It is important that your internal network perceives you to be knowledgeable and don’t think you are reaching out for information that you should know. Familiarity with your solutions will make it easier for you to distribute relevant content to your partners.

Most large companies have enormous amounts of information in their partner portal which makes it is very difficult for partners to find the information they need. Be your partners’ short cut. Get familiar with the portal and save links to the portal by product category that you can easily text and email information to your partners.

Be Organized- For you to effectively do the seven things listed above, you need to be or become highly organized. There are plenty of self-help tools out there on how you can do better at managing your time and getting more things done. Personally I am a big fan of David Allen’s book, “Getting Things Done”. We are all different, so analyze the times and activities at which you are most productive. If you are a morning person, figure out how to make the most your morning and factor in your less challenging tasks for afternoons. If you are more of a late night person, perhaps that’s when you schedule complex reporting, planning or research. The key is to plan every day, every week and every month - in short, become a list master. Write it, track it, and update it as you get it done using whatever system that works for you as long as you commit to having a system, because you will always have more than you can handle in a day in your channel sales management role and a system ensures that you will stay on track even though the list keeps on growing.

Stay Healthy- As Steven Covey said “Sharpen The Saw”, health covers both emotional and physical wellbeing. Over the years I have consistently seen that channel account reps, managers and leaders who are physically and emotionally fit will always outstrip their peers by effectively managing stress, planning ahead and executing day in and day out. It’s all about building run rate from within - not just controlling external factors, but managing what drives you so that you can drive what is important in your channel sales management role.

You have a quota, so you must meet that output. If you manage these nine key input drivers you will make your numbers happen, not by magic but through logic, and – not for just one quarter, but quarter after quarter after quarter.

For more information, please check this article.

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Over my three decades’ experience in channel sales management, I have watched some people rise to the top, while others just don’t know why they are not getting promoted. Based on from-the-trenches observations, I have some suggestions about how to break the deadlock if you feel you haven’t achieved the recognition you deserve. I have identified nine typical behavior patterns that our organization has consistently observed to be drivers of individual growth and promotion by effectively developing core channel sales management skills.* Integrity Comes First – We are all under pressure to perform, but it is absolutely vital to avoid the temptation to take shortcuts. We have all heard hair-raising stories of attempts to trick the system: fake invoices sent to fake email addresses to book fake revenue; asking a partner to buy product and side-sell to another to make profit and share commissions; having a partner buy at the end of the quarter and then return via another service provider. In the end, whatever the pressure or the short-term justification, it rarely works out in the long run. These practices all eventually come to light. Once anyone’s credibility takes a hit, the word spreads fast, and reputation repair is a long and tough process. No matter what, put your reputation first. Your professional reputation is your key to success in channel management.* Focus on Relationships– Channel sales success is built upon relationships. Before a channel partner cares about what you know, or what you need to close your quarter, they first need to know what you can do for them. I can’t count the number of times channel partners have told me, “I never hear from my channel rep till the end of the quarter, when they want me to buy something immediately so that they can meet their quota. And you know what I do then? I ask for deep discounts because I know their backs are against the wall and they end up selling product to me at whatever price I want. If the rep really cared about me and had shown they were going to help me grow my business, I might not only buy at full price, but possibly do something more ambitious.”If you figure out how you can integrate your priorities with a strategy to help your partners grow, you will be able to work towards mutually beneficial end results.* Feed the Run Rate– Channel sales is a run rate business. There is very little you can do this quarter to impact this quarter’s numbers. Yes, of course you need to support your partners to drive deals, but use automation as much as you can to analyze and strategize for the future. Chances are you have a CRM system, and if you do then use it! Figure out how best you can leverage it to track what is going on a day-to-day basis with your territory or region, and what needs to change. Partner profiling tied to dynamic analytics and reports can greatly enhance your insights about your run rate business. This will give you a clear picture of who is performing and who is not, and will give you insights into patterns and trends that require further investigation and resolution.* Build A Bridge Towards Future– While you feed your run rate business, you also need to build a process for understanding your partner base. This is achieved via partner profiling to work out who has the potential to move up to the next tier. You can do this by sending a simple survey asking about their concerns and needs.This allows you to identify the high potential and high-risk partners. You can then actively plan ahead, working with select sets of partners to address their issues, which may vary from technical support (our article on

Over my three decades’ experience in channel sales management, I have watched some people rise to the top, while others just don't know why they are not getting promoted. Based on from-the-trenches observations, I have some suggestions about how to break the deadlock if you feel you haven’t achieved the recognition you deserve. I have identified nine typical behavior patterns that our organization has consistently observed to be drivers of individual growth and promotion by effectively developing core channel sales management skills.

* Integrity Comes First - We are all under pressure to perform, but it is absolutely vital to avoid the temptation to take shortcuts. We have all heard hair-raising stories of attempts to trick the system: fake invoices sent to fake email addresses to book fake revenue; asking a partner to buy product and side-sell to another to make profit and share commissions; having a partner buy at the end of the quarter and then return via another service provider. In the end, whatever the pressure or the short-term justification, it rarely works out in the long run. These practices all eventually come to light. Once anyone’s credibility takes a hit, the word spreads fast, and reputation repair is a long and tough process. No matter what, put your reputation first. Your professional reputation is your key to success in channel management.

* Focus on Relationships– Channel sales success is built upon relationships. Before a channel partner cares about what you know, or what you need to close your quarter, they first need to know what you can do for them. I can’t count the number of times channel partners have told me, “I never hear from my channel rep till the end of the quarter, when they want me to buy something immediately so that they can meet their quota. And you know what I do then? I ask for deep discounts because I know their backs are against the wall and they end up selling product to me at whatever price I want. If the rep really cared about me and had shown they were going to help me grow my business, I might not only buy at full price, but possibly do something more ambitious.”

If you figure out how you can integrate your priorities with a strategy to help your partners grow, you will be able to work towards mutually beneficial end results.

* Feed the Run Rate- Channel sales is a run rate business. There is very little you can do this quarter to impact this quarter’s numbers. Yes, of course you need to support your partners to drive deals, but use automation as much as you can to analyze and strategize for the future. Chances are you have a CRM system, and if you do then use it! Figure out how best you can leverage it to track what is going on a day-to-day basis with your territory or region, and what needs to change. Partner profiling tied to dynamic analytics and reports can greatly enhance your insights about your run rate business. This will give you a clear picture of who is performing and who is not, and will give you insights into patterns and trends that require further investigation and resolution.

* Build A Bridge Towards Future- While you feed your run rate business, you also need to build a process for understanding your partner base. This is achieved via partner profiling to work out who has the potential to move up to the next tier. You can do this by sending a simple survey asking about their concerns and needs.

This allows you to identify the high potential and high-risk partners. You can then actively plan ahead, working with select sets of partners to address their issues,

If an Information Technology (IT) solution provider doesn’t manage a few key technology trends effectively (please read our previous article "3 Macro Trends That Could Put Your IT Channel Partners Out of Business"), the significant opportunities they create may be dwarfed by the seven major risks associated with these changes, and could result in the partner’s going out of business. These seven risks barriers remain pretty much the same as they were during previous business cycle changes in the channel in reference to Channel Marketing Automation. This time round, the big difference, is that it’s getting much harder for a solution provider to fight this current wave of changes because complexity and specialization in the channel is driving a more permanent and far-reaching alteration in business models.

Loss of Existing Clients - Let’s start with a simple example of Office365. If you are a 150-person organization - like ZINFI - you’ll be familiar with the scenario. We needed IT support to make sure our Microsoft enterprise license could be deployed and supported globally with our IT staff. From time to time, our IT team reached out to our Microsoft reseller for support. However, as we made the migration to an Office365 infrastructure, the need for external support for this core productivity tool dropped to zero.Today, this has happened across most business applications like voice, video, or collaboration software. However, we have also added new applications like CRM, and as a channel marketing automation company, of course also make extensive use of our own SaaS-based marketing automation software.

Now if you take our example and apply to all 100-500 employee organizations where a significant proportion of IT support is outsourced, it becomes evident that the need for support is decreasing rapidly for traditional applications, but is growing for business process automation solutions. The CRM/ERP market continues to accelerate, but most solutions are SaaS based. In most cases, horizontal applications are moving to the cloud at a fast pace. It follows that what you sell through the channel and the capabilities of those who resell your product will have a profound impact on your channel partner’s ongoing ability to succeed in business.

Loss of Key Personnel – Let’s continue with our example of Office365. When customers stop buying a fully managed services offering from a provider and get it directly from their IT vendor, the first thing that happens is the channel partner lets its specialist technical staff (e.g. Microsoft Exchange technician) go, because there is no longer enough work to support that position. This changes the profitability dynamics of the channel partner. They are forced to make choices, such as whether to continue to support Exchange or move on to other things. While low-level tech support work like forgotten passwords or laptop crashes may remain available, the amount of revenue and profitability for such service tasks continues to shrink. And most importantly, the channel partner who was completely focused on providing services not only experiences shrinking opportunities, but sees no incentive to sell hardware or applications to organizations that have their own IT resources. The pace of this shift is accelerating.

Excessive Optimism - When a channel partner is caught between a rock and a hard place and beginning on a downward spiral, the most important thing for a partner is to recognize the signs that a business is in difficulties and that something needs to change radically. Most partners who have ten employees or fewer have basically just two choices: shut down or sell/merge with a bigger solution provider. Yes, some can go through the transition of retraining existing staff, or hiring new ones; however, we repeatedly see that it is almost impossible for most partner organizations make this transition effectively due to current, day-to-day operational commitments that get in the way of their making the necessary step-by-step transformations into another business model.The partners who are more skeptical possibly tend to do a better job in making this transition than the ones who are eternally optimistic and pin their hopes on the market getting better, the economy improving, or replacing a bad sales rep with a better one. The only way a partner can survive this wave is to ride it out with the right strategy.

Lack of a Strategy - While hope is the essential ingredient for any entrepreneur to keep going, it is certainly not a strategy. And also, the larger question is what you keep going at.

The answer leads to more questions. Once a channel partner has recognized a shift such as our example here about the move towards business process automation in the mid-market, they have to ask themselves whether they’re going to engage in that business segment or not. If the market and technology shift is too big a risk, then the answer is to shut down or sell or merge with someone else. However, if the partner does have capital and some seed competence in place, the evolution from their current managed services model into a consultative model can become a positive step on the way to building a bridge towards a successful future.

Earlier in this article, I talked about how SaaS-based software like Microsoft Office 365 is changing mid-market businesses’ demand for IT services support from IT solution providers. The same adjusted requirement applies to other vertical or horizontal applications, including hardware-centric network components (e.g. routers, switches, servers, storage). IT channel partners must address these adjustments bearing in mind the next three risks (and opportunities):

As if the above four risks were not enough to contend with, our research has identified a further three hurdles created by the current industry changes.

Engaging Strategic Employee and Vendor Resources - Without a focused and strategic approach towards vendor selection and engagement, plus internal competency build-out, it is impossible to create a go-to-market strategy.If an IT solutions provider wants to build new areas of competence, their first challenge is to figure out what solutions to carry and what skill sets they need to build in order to support a new or extended product set. Don’t overlook existing internal resources. Not everyone can be converted into a process engineer; however, it’s relatively straightforward for technicians who are disciplined and sequential thinkers and have some sales or account management exposure to evolve into the role of business process consultant.

When it comes to vendor selection, the good news is, many technology vendors provide market data, and have structured partner recruitment and engagement processes in place to help guide the choice. Therefore, a channel partner wanting to add new categories of products and solutions to leverage its existing seed competencies may be able to reach out to technology vendor’s channel teams and develop a business plan for such a migration through their channel marketing automation platform. However, without a structured approach towards building a new competency the outcome remains fraught with significant risk of collapse.

Lack of a Marketing Engine - Once a partner has figured out new segments and solutions for growth that promise unique and clear value propositions, and offer some proof of success from existing resellers or client base, the challenge is how to build a marketing engine.This is complicated. In the old days, a channel partner would generate leads via referral mechanisms and sales teams conducting cold calls and follow-ups. In today’s world to build a true marketing engine you have to have digital marketing expertise and access to integrated marketing platforms that can undertake search, social, email, event and other tactics seamlessly.

B2B selling has changed completely during the past five years and today an organization that doesn’t have content marketing capabilities in place is not capable of generating leads in a consistent fashion. It follows that a channel partner needs to invest not only in the ability to develop technical competencies and close, but also in content-based lead generation activities.

Ability to Close New Deals - The last and most important step for a partner to make the transition to a new business model is to close a new sale in an area where they have never previously done so. The easiest way to make this migration is with existing customers. We have seen partners who added security to their networking portfolios, or virtualization to their server management capabilities, makes a successful transition from one model to another. It’s not a given, however: without deliberate execution and sales competence development, most partners will not make it through this stage to build a repeatable sales process.

So, perhaps you are now wondering what will actually happen to your partner base over the next five years. While none of us have a crystal ball, we have observed similar trends in all other industries, from agriculture and automotive to pharmaceutical and finance. I recommend taking a look at a great article from Harvard Business Review that talks about “Reinventing Your Business Model”.

Reflecting on what’s ahead of us, we could argue that over the next decade or so we will see three major new business models: consolidation of horizontal services, specialization by functions (e.g. security or storage) and specialization by verticals (healthcare, finance, retail, etc.). Time will tell whether all three rises to the top or one predominates over the others. All we know is that change creates opportunities - especially for those who have the fortitude, passion and persistence to pursue it in a structured way.

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If an Information Technology (IT) solution provider doesn’t manage a few key technology trends effectively (please read our previous article “3 Macro Trends That Could Put Your IT Channel Partners Out of Business“), the significant opportunities they create may be dwarfed by the seven major risks associated with these changes, and could result in the partner’s going out of business. These seven risks barriers remain pretty much the same as they were during previous business cycle changes in the channel in reference to Channel Marketing Automation. This time round, the big difference, is that it’s getting much harder for a solution provider to fight this current wave of changes because complexity and specialization in the channel is driving a more permanent and far-reaching alteration in business models.* Loss of Existing Clients – Let’s start with a simple example of Office365. If you are a 150-person organization – like ZINFI – you’ll be familiar with the scenario. We needed IT support to make sure our Microsoft enterprise license could be deployed and supported globally with our IT staff. From time to time, our IT team reached out to our Microsoft reseller for support. However, as we made the migration to an Office365 infrastructure, the need for external support for this core productivity tool dropped to zero.

Today, this has happened across most business applications like voice, video, or collaboration software. However, we have also added new applications like CRM, and as a channel marketing automation company, of course also make extensive use of our own SaaS-based marketing automation software.

Now if you take our example and apply to all 100-500 employee organizations where a significant proportion of IT support is outsourced, it becomes evident that the need for support is decreasing rapidly for traditional applications, but is growing for business process automation solutions. The CRM/ERP market continues to accelerate, but most solutions are SaaS based. In most cases, horizontal applications are moving to the cloud at a fast pace. It follows that what you sell through the channel and the capabilities of those who resell your product will have a profound impact on your channel partner’s ongoing ability to succeed in business.* Loss of Key Personnel – Let’s continue with our example of Office365. When customers stop buying a fully managed services offering from a provider and get it directly from their IT vendor, the first thing that happens is the channel partner lets its specialist technical staff (e.g. Microsoft Exchange technician) go, because there is no longer enough work to support that position. This changes the profitability dynamics of the channel partner. They are forced to make choices, such as whether to continue to support Exchange or move on to other things. While low-level tech support work like forgotten passwords or laptop crashes may remain available, the amount of revenue and profitability for such service tasks continues to shrink. And most importantly, the channel partner who was completely focused on providing services not only experiences shrinking opportunities, but sees no incentive to sell hardware or applications to organizations that have their own IT resources. The pace of this shift is accelerating.* Excessive Optimism – When a channel partner is caught between a rock and a hard place and beginning on a downward spiral, the most important thing for a partner is to recognize the signs that a business is in difficulties and that something needs to change radically. Most partners who have ten employees or fewer have basically just two choices: shut down or sell/merge with a bigger solution pr...