Have We Forgotten How To Present In Person?

As we go back to in-person meetings and events, it’s becoming apparent that one of the casualties of working from home has been face-to-face presentation skills. For the last few years, our presentations have consisted almost entirely of looking at someone’s face over Zoom or Teams. But as we start to present in person, we can no longer … Continued

5 Tips to Change Your Partner’s Perception

One of the interesting dynamics of our industry is how quickly new technologies (whether they are developed internally or through acquisition) can alter a company’s direction. For example, it can happen when a vendor transitions from perpetual to XaaS, or when a software vendor acquires a hardware company (or vice versa), or when a new … Continued

10 Tips for Vendor Account Execs to Leverage Partners

Over the last 6 months, our single most requested workshop has been training Enterprise Account Executives to better leverage partners to win business and grow revenue. From our experience, vendor account executives (ie. salespeople who engage directly with end users) can be one of the best, or worst, resources a vendor can provide for their … Continued

6 Tips for Managing Small-Medium Partners

We were asked recently by a client to create a channel management training program specifically focused on how to engage with and manage a territory of partners that were selling to Small Medium Businesses (SMB). Most of these partners were SMBs themselves so we use the term Small Medium Partner (SMP) as they have different … Continued

The Lost Art of the Elevator Pitch

As channel consultants, we get to work with an incredible array of different companies and technologies. And with the breakneck speed of new product releases, it’s a real challenge trying to stay on top of it all. What continues to amaze us however, is how few companies can explain what they do in a concise … Continued

Sales Rep Effectiveness in a Virtual Environment

The last 12 months have brought about many changes, primarily the change from selling in-person to virtual, and this had significant implications for sellers and sales enablement. Sales Mastery, in conjunction with Korn Ferry, has completed their second Buyer Preference Study and have published their results about how effective buyers feel reps are in a … Continued

Do We Really Need To Meet Customers?

In Australia and New Zealand, restrictions have eased over the ability to meet with customers and partners in person. And as the vaccines are rolled out, it’s only a matter of time before we return to some semblance of the way meetings used to be. But just because we can meet in person, does that … Continued

Channel Management Course Scheduled for 3-4 March

Our best-selling channel workshop – Dynamic Channel Excellence – is now scheduled for 3-4 March. This is a virtual workshop is delivered remotely by a live instructor, and is perfect for any channel professional from the technology industry, who wants to dramatically improve their channel knowledge and skills.  We cover everything from building the best … Continued

Channel Compensation Systems – You Get What You Reward

Recently we worked with two vendors to update their channel strategy to be more MSP focused. One of the biggest hurdles was to re-align the internal and external compensation systems to support the channel partners. The old adage “you get what you pay for” was certainly true, and without change, the new channel strategy was … Continued

Implications of the Ansoff Matrix on Channel Strategy

In last month’s article – Not Everybody Wants to Grow – we made a brief reference to the Ansoff Growth Matrix. In this month’s article, we explore this model further, and its implications for your channel strategy. Igor Ansoff was born in Russia in 1918, but is largely considered to be the father of strategic … Continued