I came across these round table notes from the USA whilst looking for something else this week...
Since becoming a Channel Development Consultant in 2008, I've lost count of the number of vendors who can't even present the most basic sales figures to their key partners. It's great, therefore to see them starting to recognise that accurate data is a vital part of improving their existing partnerships AND that it's critical in establishing new ones.
The channel landscape has altered significantly in the past 2 years with all sorts of new players and influencers emerging. I think that most vendors now recognise that it's time to build a new vision of what their channel should look like, and more importantly, who they want in it.
Spotting and profiling the new kids on the block ensures their sustainability as a channel focused vendor.
"The industry has been hiding behind bad data for a long time, so it's been a convenient excuse [to say] 'we don't have information you can use to make empirically based decisions, therefore we can hire people that don't have that skillset'. That's been taken away," John DeSarbo, principal and head of the sales and channel strategy and management practice at global sales and marketing firm ZS, said. "The CAM role is becoming much more sophisticated, and there's a higher bar they now need to clear in terms of their skillset. You've got to be the general manager versus the relationship manager now, and that wasn't always the case."
http://www.channelnomics.com/channelnomics-us/analysis/3
