Considering the news reports about investments companies are making in their indirect sales programs, the timing of ChannelWeek, a week-long webinar series providing insights on proven best practices in channel marketing and the tools and technologies that enable them, couldn’t be better.
Demand Gen Report (DGR) and our sister publication, Channel Marketer Report (CMR), created ChannelWeek — The Indirect Imperative: An Inside Look At Why & How B2B Brands Are Mastering Channel Partner Marketing, in response to a number of indicators that a broader audience of demand gen professionals wanted to sharpen their channel marketing skills.
For example, at the B2B Marketing Exchange in Scottsdale last February, our inaugural offering of channel-focused sessions attracted standing-room-only audiences and requests for an expanded program in 2019.
It doesn’t take a lot of digging to discover how companies with high-performing indirect sales programs can indeed distance themselves from the competition. For example, a quick Google search revealed that SnapLogic, a self-service application and data integration solution provider, projected that its fast-growing channel organization will represent 40% of company revenue by the end of 2018. CrowdStrike, which offers cloud-delivered endpoint protection, reported a 375% growth in partner-sourced business early this month.
And in what reads like an open letter to partners from Red Hat, the open source solutions provider, Mark Enzweiler, SVP of Global Channel Sales and Alliances, noted that for FY18, the company attributed 72% of its bookings through the channel.
“It’s important to talk about partners when we talk about Red Hat,” wrote Enzweiler, “because they’ve helped us become the world’s leading provider of open source solutions.”
Achieving that level of success with an indirect program doesn’t come without having a highly skilled channel team in place. With ChannelWeek, DGR and CMR are striving to help demand gen professionals become the channel marketing experts companies say are hard to find.
What You Need To Know
ChannelWeek features an all-star lineup of channel experts covering a wide range of channel topics. Maria Chien, Service Director for Channel Marketing Strategies at SiriusDecisions, kicks off the week. Her presentation, Fast-Tracking Demand Creation Via The Channel: Driving Better Engagement and Marketing Performance With Partners will, among other things, review best practices for making channel marketing investments that drive contribution to pipeline and revenue results. Chien will also describe how following a prescribed process ensures partners have all the support they need to market suppliers’ products and offerings.
Cameron Avery, VP of Business Development at Zift Solutions, will share insight into How a Partner-First Approach Drives Revenue & ROI. In particular, he will describe how to engage and enable partners with modern digital marketing tactics that put their business in the spotlight.
Diane Krakora, Principal at PartnerPath, will examine the 5 Stages Of The Partner Journey. Just like consumer buying decisions, data shows that about 60% of a channel partner’s decision on what products to market, sell and support is completed before vendors are engaged in an enrollment process.
Claudio Ayub, Chief Strategy Officer at Perks WW, will share how you can Accelerate Your Partners’ Digital Transformation with Point-Based Rewards. Engaging partners with behavior-changing point-based incentives is critical to enticing them to take full advantage of modern digital channel marketing solutions. Ayub will explain the benefits of point-based incentives versus other reward programs. Plus, he’ll review best practices for point-based incentive programs that accelerate digital marketing proficiency among partners.
Dana Harder, VP of Strategy, at Content4Demand, will discuss Tailoring New Content Models Specifically For The Channel. During this webinar, Harder will share research data, best practices models and use case data on how the latest trends in content marketing can be applied to channel marketing programs.
Harbinder Khera, CEO and Founder of Mindmatrix, will present a session titled Corporate Marketing Can Align Activities With Channel Programs. Despite the significant revenue that channel teams drive for many companies, misalignment of corporate marketing programs with partner-supporting initiatives is wasting resources. Khera will review how companies are using modern partner relationship management solutions to maximize the ROI of their corporate and channel marketing programs.
Partner enablement is going to be a “competitive differentiator for organizations,” Chien told me in an interview last month. Companies that prioritize best-practice partner enablement will “not only drive preference for their offering, but also more mindshare and wallet share with those partners effectively outperforming their peer set. I really believe it’s going to be a game changer,” she said.
If you’re interested in learning new ways to win the game, register today for ChannelWeek.
