ZINFI Technologies, Inc.

When you are starting up a high growth business or launching a product line, it is always tempting to try to boost sales by building a large channel partner network, on the premise that the bigger the channel, the more zillions of your products and services they can sell.  In our experience, however, many businesses attempting this model struggle to provide a sufficiently strong business proposition for multiple channel partners to carry their products and services. Furthermore, they very often end up creating channel conflict by building direct sales motions in their efforts to improve results.

Over many years, we have observed vendors’ successful and unsuccessful sales approaches for hundreds of product lines, business models and go-to-market strategies.  We’ve seen mistakes and great strategies, and excellent programs launched too soon or too late.  Based on our research, I believe that vendors need to answer five key questions before investing in building out a channel.

* Do you have a clear economic model? - Whether you are planning to build a new channel partner network or redesign your existing one, it is vital to be clear about the economic proposition for partners. If you have decided on a two tier channel, i.e., selling through a distribution network to a group of resellers, then you have to take into account 5 - 10% margin sharing with the distributor, and anywhere between 10 - 50% revenue sharing with your channel partners. If you have been in the channel for a while but are looking to change things up, then you may have to rethink your legacy margin structure. In the end it all comes down to money.

In addition to your margin structure, you need to be realistic about how complex your solution is and whether a new partner can sell it with relative ease or would have to make a lot of investments such as getting their employees trained and certified, or buying equipment. So you will also have to think about how you will enable your partners to get through the initial ramp up investment phase in order to sell your solutions. An all-too-common mistake is to focus too much on run rate business, but ignore the support needed to get a partner up and running financially.

* Are you selling ice creams or ice cream cones? - A typical Ice cream shop sells between three to five types of cones, but fifteen to twenty types of ice cream and a dozen or so toppings. Customers buy ice cream first, and put it on a cone and then put sprinkles on. They don’t go there to buy cones or sprinkles, but the add-ons add up. Middleware, switches, servers, and so on are perfect examples of add-on sales in the technology space. So, it’s important for you to know whether you are providing a partner with a primary product or secondary, or add-on product. The sales motions are very different for primary as opposed to secondary products. It’s often the case that partners have more choices for secondary product than for primary. In the face of stronger competition, you may have to fight harder (and pay more) to find takers to resell a secondary product through a channel partner network.

* Is there an installed base growth opportunity? - If your products and solutions require upgrades, add-ons and renewals then your partners have good reason to stay in touch with their customer base and drive land-and-expand sales. Many software products today are sold via the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, and may even require deeper, workflow-driven customization. In these scenarios, the partners have the opportunity to provide first of all a base set of modules, but then over a period of time add more application modules or other extras. In larger scale hardware deployments,

The primary challenge for any reasonably large technology company with global presence, marketing in a business-to-business (B2B) channel environment, is making sure that marketing assets that are created centrally for global use can actually be deployed locally. Most companies would also like to see substantial content development and deployment at a country level to boost the local sales efforts. So, how do you do that in today's resource-constrained environment? This is where a global channel marketing automation platform and concierge services come in.

In today's resource constrained environment the constant focus is on greater accountability and ROI tracking from marketing investments. Traditionally, an army of marketing resources is needed not only to develop campaigns, but also to execute them and track results. Surprisingly, very few organizations take a structured approach to marketing and few apply marketing automation or, indeed, sufficient resources to their campaigns. As a result, they resort to running impromptu campaigns that are insufficiently strategized and coordinated to drive predictable results or report ROI on a central or global level. As a result, far too much channel marketing investment ends up being questioned.

And to complicate this further, lack of insight at global level into country-by-country activities leaves the last mile in a cloak of invisibility, where it’s impossible to see whether content is touching prospects or customers via channel partners. This inability to monitor campaign results and ROI leads to further poor decisions regarding the future of campaigns: how can the marketing teams know which horizontal or broad-brush campaigns can be leveraged globally, and which are better suited to a vertical market approach (e.g. education or retail) that will need to be developed locally.

In fact, there is a relatively simple fix for this problem. The goal of loading global marketing assets and then allowing different countries to augment these with local content can be easily addressed with a well-structured and systematic channel marketing automation program. These are the core elements to look for:

Group and Role Management- Your channel marketing automation platform should allow you to set up different groups, e.g., global, country or territory teams, as well as assign specific roles in the process to channel partners, channel marketing managers, distribution managers, or channel account managers.

Setting Access Rules- The channel marketing automation platform should allow you to set access rules, i.e., define who can upload, edit, view and use content and campaigns for marketing activities.

Assignment of Campaigns by Access Rights- You should also be able to assign certain campaigns and assets to certain groups and roles. This graded access and rights management capability is critical for your channel marketing automation platform, because providing personalized campaign access significantly improves partner experience, creates greater control and better reporting.

Content Localization- Once you have uploaded global campaigns to the channel automation platform, your local country teams should be able to access this content to localize or customize it - without, of course, being able to change the master copies and assets. The ability to copy existing material from a global library, and create a local content library is a must-have capability for your channel marketing automation platform

Campaign Usage- Your channel marketing automation platform should be able to track detailed usage reports that show who is accessing your global content, who is creating local campaigns, and how they are working. This knowledge can be applied in many ways, for example in ‘reverse engineering’ local campaigns. You might be able to take a successful local campaign and go global or regional with that material, with or without modification. Visibility into campaign usage is critical to drive better ROI both at a local and global level.

Agency & Concierge Access - Many large organizations use multiple third party agencies and marketing concierge services, so the channel marketing automation platform should be capable of allowing those external groups to access campaigns and content in a secure fashion.

Dynamic Reporting- In addition to usage, the channel marketing automation platform should also be able to track all necessary input and output metrics tied to your social marketing, search marketing, event marketing, email marketing, or other marketing mechanisms.

Single-Sign-On (SSO)- In addition to these core edit capabilities you should be able to manage access (add, delete, modify users, rights, etc.) in a dynamic way, either from your partner portal or via your channel marketing automation Therefore your channel marketing automation platform must have a Single-Sign-On (SSO) connector.

CRM Integration- Last but not least, for you to allow your country teams to access your content management system from your channel marketing automation platform, you will need to make sure data can flow back and forth from your existing CRM platform, whether it is on Salesforce.com, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle or another CRM platform.

These nine core capabilities of your channel marketing automation platform are critical to enable your country teams to access global materials, customize them and use them locally - either using internal company resources or via external marketing concierge services or creative agencies. ZINFI’s Unified Partner Management platform, comprising Partner Relationship Management (PRM) and Partner Marketing Management (PMM), allows any organization to seamlessly deploy global content and assets and customize them locally.

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The primary challenge for any reasonably large technology company with global presence, marketing in a business-to-business (B2B) channel environment, is making sure that marketing assets that are created centrally for global use can actually be deployed locally. Most companies would also like to see substantial content development and deployment at a country level to boost the local sales efforts. So, how do you do that in today’s resource-constrained environment? This is where a global channel marketing automation platform and concierge services come in.In today’s resource constrained environment the constant focus is on greater accountability and ROI tracking from marketing investments. Traditionally, an army of marketing resources is needed not only to develop campaigns, but also to execute them and track results. Surprisingly, very few organizations take a structured approach to marketing and few apply marketing automation or, indeed, sufficient resources to their campaigns. As a result, they resort to running impromptu campaigns that are insufficiently strategized and coordinated to drive predictable results or report ROI on a central or global level. As a result, far too much channel marketing investment ends up being questioned.And to complicate this further, lack of insight at global level into country-by-country activities leaves the last mile in a cloak of invisibility, where it’s impossible to see whether content is touching prospects or customers via channel partners. This inability to monitor campaign results and ROI leads to further poor decisions regarding the future of campaigns: how can the marketing teams know which horizontal or broad-brush campaigns can be leveraged globally, and which are better suited to a vertical market approach (e.g. education or retail) that will need to be developed locally.In fact, there is a relatively simple fix for this problem. The goal of loading global marketing assets and then allowing different countries to augment these with local content can be easily addressed with a well-structured and systematic channel marketing automation program. These are the core elements to look for:* Group and Role Management– Your channel marketing automation platform should allow you to set up different groups, e.g., global, country or territory teams, as well as assign specific roles in the process to channel partners, channel marketing managers, distribution managers, or channel account managers.* Setting Access Rules– The channel marketing automation platform should allow you to set access rules, i.e., define who can upload, edit, view and use content and campaigns for marketing activities.* Assignment of Campaigns by Access Rights– You should also be able to assign certain campaigns and assets to certain groups and roles. This graded access and rights management capability is critical for your channel marketing automation platform, because providing personalized campaign access significantly improves partner experience, creates greater control and better reporting.* Content Localization– Once you have uploaded global campaigns to the channel automation platform, your local country teams should be able to access this content to localize or customize it – without, of course, being able to change the master copies and assets. The ability to copy existing material from a global library, and create a local content library is a must-have capability for your channel marketing automation platform* Campaign Usage– Your channel marketing automation platform should be able to track detailed usage reports that show who is accessing your global content, who is creating local campaigns, and how they are working. This knowledge can be applied in many ways, for example in ‘reverse engineering’ local campaigns. You might be able to take a successful local campaign and go global or regional with that material, with or without modification.

The primary challenge for any reasonably large technology company with global presence, marketing in a business-to-business (B2B) channel environment, is making sure that marketing assets that are created centrally for global use can actually be deployed locally. Most companies would also like to see substantial content development and deployment at a country level to boost the local sales efforts. So, how do you do that in today's resource-constrained environment? This is where a global channel marketing automation platform and concierge services come in.

In today's resource constrained environment the constant focus is on greater accountability and ROI tracking from marketing investments. Traditionally, an army of marketing resources is needed not only to develop campaigns, but also to execute them and track results. Surprisingly, very few organizations take a structured approach to marketing and few apply marketing automation or, indeed, sufficient resources to their campaigns. As a result, they resort to running impromptu campaigns that are insufficiently strategized and coordinated to drive predictable results or report ROI on a central or global level. As a result, far too much channel marketing investment ends up being questioned.

And to complicate this further, lack of insight at global level into country-by-country activities leaves the last mile in a cloak of invisibility, where it’s impossible to see whether content is touching prospects or customers via channel partners. This inability to monitor campaign results and ROI leads to further poor decisions regarding the future of campaigns: how can the marketing teams know which horizontal or broad-brush campaigns can be leveraged globally, and which are better suited to a vertical market approach (e.g. education or retail) that will need to be developed locally.

In fact, there is a relatively simple fix for this problem. The goal of loading global marketing assets and then allowing different countries to augment these with local content can be easily addressed with a well-structured and systematic channel marketing automation program. These are the core elements to look for:

* Group and Role Management- Your channel marketing automation platform should allow you to set up different groups, e.g., global, country or territory teams, as well as assign specific roles in the process to channel partners, channel marketing managers, distribution managers, or channel account managers.

* Setting Access Rules- The channel marketing automation platform should allow you to set access rules, i.e., define who can upload, edit, view and use content and campaigns for marketing activities.

* Assignment of Campaigns by Access Rights- You should also be able to assign certain campaigns and assets to certain groups and roles. This graded access and rights management capability is critical for your channel marketing automation platform, because providing personalized campaign access significantly improves partner experience, creates greater control and better reporting.

* Content Localization- Once you have uploaded global campaigns to the channel automation platform, your local country teams should be able to access this content to localize or customize it - without, of course, being able to change the master copies and assets. The ability to copy existing material from a global library, and create a local content library is a must-have capability for your channel marketing automation platform

* Campaign Usage- Your channel marketing automation platform should be able to track detailed usage reports that show who is accessing your global content, who is creating local campaigns, and how they are working. This knowledge can be applied in many ways, for example in ‘reverse engineering’ local campaigns. You might be able to take a successful local campaign and go global or regional with that materia...

Customer relationship management (CRM) has evolved into a multi-billion dollar segment, with good reason. However, the Partner Relationship Management (PRM) category is relatively new, even though channel programs have been around for many decades. Why is that?

Well, phone systems for tracking and taking better care of customers were essentially started by the airline industry back in the late Sixties and early Seventies as the volume of ticketing requests and changes began to grow. Next, in the Eighties and Nineties, as computers took over the business environment, contact management software evolved as the better version of a Rolodex.

Starting in the mid-Nineties, contact management software started to evolve into the precursor to what we now know as a customer relationship management. This development was driven by companies like SAP and the like, who were focused also on processes like inventory management and financial controls as features of their enterprise resource management software.

Salesforce.com took a visionary role in taking on-premise sales management software to the cloud and deservingly became market share leader in this category. This category further evolved to provide a combination of three core functionalities - marketing automation integration, sales process automation and support.

However, comparatively little time or resources have been devoted by the CRM market leaders to building a purpose-built application that addresses the workflow of channel management. Focused on solving the horizontal problem of Salesforce automation, the bigger players have overlooked the need to address channel marketing automation by development purpose-built applications like partner relationship management (PRM).

Typical CRM software includes core management and tracking functionality such as leads, contacts, opportunities, tasks and projects, that allow a sales person to develop prospects and track them through to close a sale. Most CRM systems do a good job of sales tracking and post sales account management activities by linking modules like tasks, calendars, quotations and invoicing. There is a plethora of other applications that can be added to extend some of the core CRM functionalities for channel management purposes. However, the main challenge with this approach is to take a horizontal product that works for B2B sales, and make it functional in a very different environment. Channel sales, for a start is a two to three tier process, and it gets even more complex than that.

Channel marketing entails a whole different set of requirements for functions including partner recruitment, partner engagement, partner enablement and partner management, that are not addressed by current CRM systems. Almost all CRMs provide excellent functionality for contact management, tracking sales activities, reducing labor needed to send out a quote, close a sale, or grow a current account, but almost none are able to adapt to the dynamic, multi-tenant environment that is a prerequisite for any channel management structure.

Almost all channel management activities require constant recruitment of existing and/or new resellers into a specific set of programs, plus integrated outbound marketing tools that none of the CRM tools offer today. Once a partner has been recruited, they must be properly classified, or profiled and to be clustered into a specific group of vertical or other classifications, but most CRMs today are not flexible enough to complete this profiling activity.

As a further example, it is essential to track training progress and development of that partner’s competence. While there are standalone learning management systems that could potentially be patched into an existing CRM program, the majority are not flexible enough for this. As a result, CRM software doesn’t allow channel account managers to determine their partners’ evolving technical skill level, which is a critical requirement for B2B IT solutions sales. These and other needs call for purpose-designed applications like partner relationship management software.

If partner recruitment, engagement and training are the core gaps in an existing CRM system, the challenges of generating demand via a set of channel partners and enabling them with market development funds (MDF), sales rewards and rebates are only exaggerated by using a typical CRM. As a result, many organizations take the DIY approach of building their own in-house campaigns, assets, MDF, rewards and rebates forms. But these are rarely well-integrated and quickly become too complex ever to be productive. This leads to poor ROI from the effort and investment of recruiting and training partners.

With CRM systems so evidently unfitted for channel marketing purposes, what automation tools can an IT vendor use to improve partner productivity? The answer is to use Partner Relationship Management (PRM) software. There are several newer vendors, small yet powerful, who provide a wide set of options for technology vendors selling through the channel. PRM solutions like ZINFI’s, are purpose-built for channel management and marketing. ZINFI’s platform allows vendors not only to pick the right set of partner recruitment, training and enablement tools to drive demand, but also create a channel marketing management infrastructure by deploying market development funds (MDF), rewards and rebates. These are all capabilities that none of the CRM applications today can match.

Customer relationship management (CRM) has evolved into a multi-billion dollar segment, with good reason. However, the Partner Relationship Management (PRM) category is relatively new, even though channel programs have been around for many decades. Why is that?Well, phone systems for tracking and taking better care of customers were essentially started by the airline industry back in the late Sixties and early Seventies as the volume of ticketing requests and changes began to grow. Next, in the Eighties and Nineties, as computers took over the business environment, contact management software evolved as the better version of a Rolodex.Starting in the mid-Nineties, contact management software started to evolve into the precursor to what we now know as a customer relationship management. This development was driven by companies like SAP and the like, who were focused also on processes like inventory management and financial controls as features of their enterprise resource management software.Salesforce.com took a visionary role in taking on-premise sales management software to the cloud and deservingly became market share leader in this category. This category further evolved to provide a combination of three core functionalities – marketing automation integration, sales process automation and support.However, comparatively little time or resources have been devoted by the CRM market leaders to building a purpose-built application that addresses the workflow of channel management. Focused on solving the horizontal problem of Salesforce automation, the bigger players have overlooked the need to address channel marketing automation by development purpose-built applications like partner relationship management (PRM).Typical CRM software includes core management and tracking functionality such as leads, contacts, opportunities, tasks and projects, that allow a sales person to develop prospects and track them through to close a sale. Most CRM systems do a good job of sales tracking and post sales account management activities by linking modules like tasks, calendars, quotations and invoicing. There is a plethora of other applications that can be added to extend some of the core CRM functionalities for channel management purposes. However, the main challenge with this approach is to take a horizontal product that works for B2B sales, and make it functional in a very different environment. Channel sales, for a start is a two to three tier process, and it gets even more complex than that.Channel marketing entails a whole different set of requirements for functions including partner recruitment, partner engagement, partner enablement and partner management, that are not addressed by current CRM systems. Almost all CRMs provide excellent functionality for contact management, tracking sales activities, reducing labor needed to send out a quote, close a sale, or grow a current account, but almost none are able to adapt to the dynamic, multi-tenant environment that is a prerequisite for any channel management structure.Almost all channel management activities require constant recruitment of existing and/or new resellers into a specific set of programs, plus integrated outbound marketing tools that none of the CRM tools offer today. Once a partner has been recruited, they must be properly classified, or profiled and to be clustered into a specific group of vertical or other classifications, but most CRMs today are not flexible enough to complete this profiling activity.As a further example, it is essential to track training progress and development of that partner’s competence. While there are standalone learning management systems t...

Customer relationship management (CRM) has evolved into a multi-billion dollar segment, with good reason. However, the Partner Relationship Management (PRM) category is relatively new, even though channel programs have been around for many decades. Why is that?

Well, phone systems for tracking and taking better care of customers were essentially started by the airline industry back in the late Sixties and early Seventies as the volume of ticketing requests and changes began to grow. Next, in the Eighties and Nineties, as computers took over the business environment, contact management software evolved as the better version of a Rolodex.

Starting in the mid-Nineties, contact management software started to evolve into the precursor to what we now know as a customer relationship management. This development was driven by companies like SAP and the like, who were focused also on processes like inventory management and financial controls as features of their enterprise resource management software.

Salesforce.com took a visionary role in taking on-premise sales management software to the cloud and deservingly became market share leader in this category. This category further evolved to provide a combination of three core functionalities - marketing automation integration, sales process automation and support.

However, comparatively little time or resources have been devoted by the CRM market leaders to building a purpose-built application that addresses the workflow of channel management. Focused on solving the horizontal problem of Salesforce automation, the bigger players have overlooked the need to address channel marketing automation by development purpose-built applications like partner relationship management (PRM).

Typical CRM software includes core management and tracking functionality such as leads, contacts, opportunities, tasks and projects, that allow a sales person to develop prospects and track them through to close a sale. Most CRM systems do a good job of sales tracking and post sales account management activities by linking modules like tasks, calendars, quotations and invoicing. There is a plethora of other applications that can be added to extend some of the core CRM functionalities for channel management purposes. However, the main challenge with this approach is to take a horizontal product that works for B2B sales, and make it functional in a very different environment. Channel sales, for a start is a two to three tier process, and it gets even more complex than that.

Channel marketing entails a whole different set of requirements for functions including partner recruitment, partner engagement, partner enablement and partner management, that are not addressed by current CRM systems. Almost all CRMs provide excellent functionality for contact management, tracking sales activities, reducing labor needed to send out a quote, close a sale, or grow a current account, but almost none are able to adapt to the dynamic, multi-tenant environment that is a prerequisite for any channel management structure.

Almost all channel management activities require constant recruitment of existing and/or new resellers into a specific set of programs, plus integrated outbound marketing tools that none of the CRM tools offer today. Once a partner has been recruited, they must be properly classified, or profiled and to be clustered into a specific group of vertical or other classifications, but most CRMs today are not flexible enough to complete this profiling activity.

As a further example, it is essential to track training progress and development of that partner’s com...

One of the realities of channel marketing, of which vendor organizations are all too painfully aware, is that the majority of channel partners do not have dedicated marketing resources. So, when a vendor wants their channel partners to run marketing campaigns, it is not only essential to provide a channel marketing automation platform, but also to give the partners the means to make it happen by providing partner marketing concierge services. Now the key question is, once this preliminary phase of deployment has happened, how can a vendor optimize ROI from their programs by learning locally and then scaling globally? This article looks at the key steps to be taken.

To build a state-of-the-art channel marketing platform, a vendor needs multiple core components - a channel program, partner profiling, channel marketing automation, partner marketing concierge services, proven and tested end user marketing campaigns, and marketing and sales rewards. The great news is that many of these elements can be replicated across multiple countries using a single, unified approach. While it’s important to localize the language and content for each country, the program won’t scale or provide sufficient return unless a significant portion of the program dollars can be reused in multiple countries. Engaging a global partner marketing concierge organization is critical to make this scalability and localization a reality.

Any successful channel development program requires the creation of a sequential approach to delivering various program elements, and should build upon the basic partner program framework elements, which should include partner recruitment, engagement, enablement and management strategies. Here, we will focus principally on one critical aspect of a channel initiative: how to enable partners to generate more demand by using partner marketing concierge services. The following seven core elements will help any vendor to use the same dollar to receive multiple returns.

Deploy Channel Marketing Automation - Ensure that you deploy a platform that can be localized, and allow country teams to access, upload content and programs without being reliant on centralized, global teams. While global content can be easily uploaded and shared via a channel platform, an effective automation platform will enable the reverse to happen – when country teams can upload local promotions or campaigns to the platform. These can be tested in one market, and if successful can then be deployed in other markets.

Leverage Horizontal campaigns - The best way to get return out of campaign dollars is to figure out which campaigns have horizontal potential, i.e. which campaigns will be effective in multiple countries, enabling the use of the same graphical and creative assets in multiple languages. Many vertical campaigns - finance, real estate, healthcare, etc. - tend to be highly country-specific and tied to local market dynamics. So, to build momentum faster, look for horizontal campaigns that can be used in multiple countries.

Globalize core campaigns, localize in-country offers – Any channel marketing automation platform should allow you to customize global content at a local level, for example, to include country-specific offers, before the country team pushes the global content out to the channel. A global partner marketing concierge agency can help with the localization process.

Develop menu-based campaign options - Channel partners not only lack marketing resources, but also don’t have the expertise to set up effective integrated or transaction campaigns without expending considerable time and effort. This is where menu-based offers can significantly help channel partners, providing a means to enable them to quickly select and deploy campaigns. Once you have analyzed what is working in one country, and that has the capability of being deployed in other countries, leverage your partner marketing concierge agency to roll out menu-based campaigns in other countries. For this, however you will need an outsourced partner marketing concierge to provide localized services in multiple countries.

Pick a partner marketing concierge vendor with truly global capabilities - Having the right partner marketing concierge agency is critical for your ability to learn locally and execute globally. You need a vendor that can leverage the learnings from one market and, through its own program management and account management structure, rapidly share these learnings in other countries. The IT industry moves on a ninety-day quarterly cycle, and time is of the essence. Therefore, the speed with which your partner marketing concierge vendor can deploy its learnings to different countries can make or break a global channel marketing program.

Track ROI for global and local campaigns - Assuming you have deployed a unified partner management platform that gives you comprehensive visibility of your programs, you will have ROI tracking capabilities that will help you quickly analyze the effectiveness of different programs in different countries. ROI data will help you understand which programs can be horizontally scaled so that you can rapidly deploy them in other countries via your partner marketing concierge.

Learn, Edit, and Do it Again - It may take you a year or eighteen months to accomplish steps one through six, but after that you will have a significantly enhanced capability to learn in one country, improve in another, and repeat in further geographies in a very short period of time. This is the true value of ‘learn locally and scale globally’.

Every company needs to focus on their core value proposition, and partner up with experts who can help them with their other contextual requirements. In some cases vendors have insourced their marketing concierge capabilities by hiring field marketing resources, but this is an expensive option. Significant cost savings and global scalability can be achieved by partnering with a reputable global partner marketing concierge agency. Further information can be found in our article - How to Provide Partner Marketing Concierge Help in Bite Sizes.

ZINFI not only provides a state-of-the-art unified partner management platform, but also brings in local presence in multiple countries around the world, enabling vendors to deploy partner marketing concierge capabilities affordably and rapidly. Over the past ten years ZINFI’s experience in multiple IT domains such as networking, security, virtualization, storage, application delivery and more has enabled us to provide a highly trained channel marketing team that can significantly augment an vendor’s channel capabilities and increase ROI.

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One of the realities of channel marketing, of which vendor organizations are all too painfully aware, is that the majority of channel partners do not have dedicated marketing resources. So, when a vendor wants their channel partners to run marketing campaigns, it is not only essential to provide a channel marketing automation platform, but also to give the partners the means to make it happen by providing partner marketing concierge services. Now the key question is, once this preliminary phase of deployment has happened, how can a vendor optimize ROI from their programs by learning locally and then scaling globally? This article looks at the key steps to be taken.To build a state-of-the-art channel marketing platform, a vendor needs multiple core components – a channel program, partner profiling, channel marketing automation, partner marketing concierge services, proven and tested end user marketing campaigns, and marketing and sales rewards. The great news is that many of these elements can be replicated across multiple countries using a single, unified approach. While it’s important to localize the language and content for each country, the program won’t scale or provide sufficient return unless a significant portion of the program dollars can be reused in multiple countries. Engaging a global partner marketing concierge organization is critical to make this scalability and localization a reality.Any successful channel development program requires the creation of a sequential approach to delivering various program elements, and should build upon the basic partner program framework elements, which should include partner recruitment, engagement, enablement and management strategies. Here, we will focus principally on one critical aspect of a channel initiative: how to enable partners to generate more demand by using partner marketing concierge services. The following seven core elements will help any vendor to use the same dollar to receive multiple returns.* Deploy Channel Marketing Automation – Ensure that you deploy a platform that can be localized, and allow country teams to access, upload content and programs without being reliant on centralized, global teams. While global content can be easily uploaded and shared via a channel platform, an effective automation platform will enable the reverse to happen – when country teams can upload local promotions or campaigns to the platform. These can be tested in one market, and if successful can then be deployed in other markets.* Leverage Horizontal campaigns – The best way to get return out of campaign dollars is to figure out which campaigns have horizontal potential, i.e. which campaigns will be effective in multiple countries, enabling the use of the same graphical and creative assets in multiple languages. Many vertical campaigns – finance, real estate, healthcare, etc. – tend to be highly country-specific and tied to local market dynamics. So, to build momentum faster, look for horizontal campaigns that can be used in multiple countries.* Globalize core campaigns, localize in-country offers – Any channel marketing automation platform should allow you to customize global content at a local level, for example,

One of the realities of channel marketing, of which vendor organizations are all too painfully aware, is that the majority of channel partners do not have dedicated marketing resources. So, when a vendor wants their channel partners to run marketing campaigns, it is not only essential to provide a channel marketing automation platform, but also to give the partners the means to make it happen by providing partner marketing concierge services. Now the key question is, once this preliminary phase of deployment has happened, how can a vendor optimize ROI from their programs by learning locally and then scaling globally? This article looks at the key steps to be taken.

To build a state-of-the-art channel marketing platform, a vendor needs multiple core components - a channel program, partner profiling, channel marketing automation, partner marketing concierge services, proven and tested end user marketing campaigns, and marketing and sales rewards. The great news is that many of these elements can be replicated across multiple countries using a single, unified approach. While it’s important to localize the language and content for each country, the program won’t scale or provide sufficient return unless a significant portion of the program dollars can be reused in multiple countries. Engaging a global partner marketing concierge organization is critical to make this scalability and localization a reality.

Any successful channel development program requires the creation of a sequential approach to delivering various program elements, and should build upon the basic partner program framework elements, which should include partner recruitment, engagement, enablement and management strategies. Here, we will focus principally on one critical aspect of a channel initiative: how to enable partners to generate more demand by using partner marketing concierge services. The following seven core elements will help any vendor to use the same dollar to receive multiple returns.

* Deploy Channel Marketing Automation - Ensure that you deploy a platform that can be localized, and allow country teams to access, upload content and programs without being reliant on centralized, global teams. While global content can be easily uploaded and shared via a channel platform, an effective automation platform will enable the reverse to happen – when country teams can upload local promotions or campaigns to the platform. These can be tested in one market, and if successful can then be deployed in other markets.

* Leverage Horizontal campaigns - The best way to get return out of campaign dollars is to figure out which campaigns have horizontal potential, i.e. which campaigns will be effective in multiple countries, enabling the use of the same graphical and creative assets in multiple languages. Many vertical campaigns - finance, real estate, healthcare, etc. - tend to be highly country-specific and tied to local market dynamics. So, to build momentum faster, look for horizontal campaigns that can be used in multiple countries.

* Globalize core campaigns, localize in-country offers – Any channel marketing automation platform sho...