We recently led an alliance team through an alliance business planning session. Through that process we captured a number of best practices that lead to better business planning and ultimately better performing alliances. Here is what we learned: Develop the business plan with your partner. Successful alliances are win/win/win . Your partners’ strategic objectives, resources, [...]
CRN recently released their annual partner program review which grades partner programs based upon a number of criteria including vendor investments in program offerings, partner profitability, partner training, education and support, marketing programs and resources, sales support and communication. We would like to extend our congratulations to all those vendors who achieved the acclaimed 5-star rating! [...]
We often focus on how to measure the performance of individual partners, but it is equally important to understand how your partner community is performing. Insight into what drives performance across your community informs you on how to better manage your partner program to enable more success. There are a number of ways to look [...]
Following our last Deal Registration blog post, many readers have been wanting to know more about how to incent partners to register a deal and examples of how "best in class" incentive programs work. Simply put, the purpose of incentives is to influence the behavior you want from your partners through rewards. The issue lies [...]
Deal registration is a common element of most channel programs. However, without a solid PRM system behind it, the process can be cumbersome and ultimately fail. The purpose of deal registration is to reduce channel conflict by protecting partner deals. It prevents partners from stealing deals and competing with the direct sales force. It enables [...]
We are pleased to announce our partnership with Requisite Software, an industry-leading Channel Management, B2B eCommerce and Master Data Management solutions. Together we plan to provide a series of postings highlighting issues and soutions for the partner management community. This is the first in the series. If there is one consistent trend in MDF, it's that [...]
Great meeting last night: Changing the Game: The Age of the Platform Meets the 24-hour Customer produced by the California Chapter of the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals. The event, hosted by Cisco Systems, featured two new authors of two game changing books. Phil Simon spoke about how the Gang of Four - Amazon, Apple, [...]
Do you have champions in your alliance? or do you have snipers and hostages? When I teach alliance skills mastery workshops, I often ask how much time managers spend on internal alignment. That is winning the hearts and minds of the internal alliance stakeholders to gain their buy-in and cooperation. I hear answers from 30% [...]
Non-traditional partners to pursue innovative opportunties I was asked to moderate this year's Alliance Executive Roundtable for the California Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals around the topic Cross-Sector Innovation and the Role of Alliances. Twenty-four senior alliance executives attended representing the who's who in technology: Capgemini, Cisco, Emerson, eMeter, Google, HP, IBM, IDC, Intel, Marketo, [...]
Alliance Management Practices: Performers and Underperformers All business managers, not just those managing alliances, have been challenged with navigating a stormy economy. We had to make decisions on where to cut back, how to to make the best of diminished resources, and still achieve targeted business outcomes. 2010 may show some glimmers of recovery but [...]