Bergamo Marketing Group

6 Channel Enablement Best Practices for Partner Programs to Use in 2023

admin@servicequik.com (ZING Admin) — Fri, 26 May 2023 21:02:06 GMT

6 Channel Enablement Best Practices for Partner Programs to Use in 2023

Channel enablement is a key part of any successful partner program . The Lexington Group’s Kristine Stewart puts it simply: “Channel enablement is inextricably tied to your overall program as it drives the success across your programs.”

With this in mind, partner programs must get enablement right. What are the top best practices for channel enablement in 2023? To answer this question, we spoke with six industry experts. Our panelists include:

Nicole Steele , Global Director of Channel Marketing and Enablement for cloud-first WAN and security company Aryaka Networks
Will Armstrong , Senior Director of Global Enablement for IT monitoring solutions provider ScienceLogic
Alison Bergamo , Principal for channel marketing consultancy Bergamo Marketing Group
Kristine Stewart , Founder and CEO of channel consultancy The Lexington Group
Kris Blackmon , Chief Channel Officer for channel go-to-market strategy company JS Group
Heather Tenuto , Chief Revenue Officer for partner relationship management (PRM) and channel management platform provider Zift Solutions

What is Channel Partner Enablement?

Channel partner enablement is the process of empowering indirect sales partners to sell your products and services. It typically includes training, tools, content, and sales and marketing resources to assist partners with bringing your solutions to market.

A significant portion of channel enablement is sales education and sales training, which includes articulating several points of differentiation to partners, such as:

Time to deployment and geographical availability
Solution applications, benefits, weaknesses, misconceptions and objections
Target customer deal size and verticals
Minimum and maximum deal term lengths, options and sales cycles
Support resources and promotions available to end customers
Sales engineering and sales support resources for partners

Your partners need to be familiar with and able to access this information instantaneously when the right deal for your solution arises.

An enabled channel partner should handle the following activities:

Understand and articulate your value proposition
Send marketing campaigns to customers matching your ideal customer profile
Engage your company in business and market development opportunities
Manage opportunities from beginning to close
In some cases, deploy or install solutions in the customer environment
Educate the customer’s team on the use of the solution
Promote solution adoption inside the client organization
In some cases, take and resolve first-level support and trouble-ticket requests from the end customer

What are the Essential Components of Channel Partner Enablement?

We asked our panelists to outline their view of the components of a channel partner enablement program.

Bergamo Marketing Group’s Bergamo says essential components of any channel partner enablement program include:

Go-to-market tools
Partner briefings and events
Digital marketing automation
Analytics
Comprehensive learning resources

“Wrapping these components around timely, relevant, digital-first content empowers partners to learn, sell, and accelerate their revenue growth,” says Bergamo.

ScienceLogic’s Armstrong adds that a channel partner enablement program needs to have four main qualities: scalability, simplicity, standardization and support.

“Whatever you build for a partner to accelerate and amplify their ability to sell your products, it must be highly impactful without requiring significant administration,” Armstrong explains. “The onboarding process should [have] concise and simple steps, clearly articulated and readily supported with thoughtful guidance. A vernacular should be created and maintained. Define the industry words you use and the product-specific terminology, so everyone is clear and on the same page. Identify the outcomes expected at each stage and support their success with your partner team.”

The Lexington Group’s Stewart adds a final and potentially most important component. “Being able to measure and identify if programs are working for the partner is critical,” she says.

Why Should Partner Programs Invest in Channel Enablement?

We surveyed our panelists on the benefits of partner programs investing in channel partner enablement . Here are their insights:

“We’re all in this business to make money, and proper enablement helps both the vendor and the partner reach that goal faster,” says JS Group’s Blackmon. “Good channel enablement helps partners fill the funnel, close sales, service customers and retain clients, and that’s good for both the program and the partner.”

Blackmon explains:

“As a vendor, providing great enablement means that in the sales and marketing phase, your partners are fantastic brand advocates and representatives; in the deployment phase, they’re able to adequately service and support your solution; and in the customer support phase, they’re able to consistently push for that renewal or upsell.
As a partner tasked with marketing, selling and supporting a dozen or more vendors at a time, anything they can do to help you get to cash quicker is a plus. It’s all about efficiency and effectiveness. When enablement hits both marks, you’ve struck gold.”

Aryaka’s Steele also cites the dual benefits of enablement:

“The benefit of channel enablement for vendors is that when partners are properly enabled, they will promote the vendor that spends time and money enabling them to help their customers and grow their business.
The benefit of channel enablement for partners is that when they identify a customer and their pain points, they have a better understanding of the vendors’ solution sets and will be able to offer the customer the best match. Enablement means more money in partners’ pockets.”

The Lexington Group’s Stewart points out that partner enablement is a crucial program differentiator. “[S]ome partners that may be evaluating similar solutions from vendors could use enablement as a selection factor,” says Stewart. “They want to have their teams trained to close on [an] opportunity (either alone or co-selling with the vendor) as quickly as easily as possible.”

ScienceLogic’s Armstrong agrees that enablement done right also can attract partners looking for vendors that are easy to work with. “Ease of doing business is probably the most significant differentiator for tech companies when selling through their channels, and enablement is the function that ensures that simplicity translates to scalable impact,” says Armstrong. “When partners can win more without doing more, everyone wins! Channel enablement ensures partners understand the simplified sales motion, the value prop of the solution and how to message it to customers, and the mechanics on how to register and get paid on the deal.”

Bergamo Marketing Group’s Bergamo Bergamo adds that enablement is not only about pushing sales through partners but enabling them to grow their businesses with you.

“An effective channel partner enablement program that anticipates and meets the needs of partners and their customers can enhance partner loyalty, revenue generation, brand reputation, and more,” says Bergamo. “Partners benefit from doing business with a vendor that provides them with a strategic view of the complex, ever-changing technology landscape, helps them identify new routes to market, and offers world-class resources and support throughout the sales, implementation and post-sale processes.”

6 Channel Enablement Best Practices for Partner Programs

to Use in 2023

What are the best channel enablement strategies? We asked our expert panel and got the six channel enablement best practices partner programs should adopt this year.

1. Ask Your Partners What Enablement They Need from Your Program

Your program should survey partners to see what they need from you. It seems pretty obvious, right? Well, apparently not, according to our panelists.

“This should go unsaid but is often overlooked,” explains JS Group’s Blackmon. “If you want to know what enablement to offer your partners, then ask them. Establishing an honest feedback loop with your partner community is crucial so that you know the challenges they’re facing you can help them solve and the opportunities you can help them take advantage of.”

Blackmon points out that providers tend to crank out materials not tailored to the right partner type. “Too many vendors make the mistake of producing enablement that’s designed to help them, not the partner,” says Blackmon. “You can’t give the same marketing kit to an SMB MSP that you do to an enterprise VAR. They’re very different beasts. You have to listen to your partners when they tell you what they need.”

After you understand what your different partner types need, your team can create enablement materials and activities that are meaningful to each partner. “ Everything flows from there,” Blackmon says. “Now you know the training you need to provide, the marketing materials that will be effective, the sales enablement artifacts that will move the needle. If you just listen to your partners, they’ll tell you what they need from you.”

Blackmon also reminds programs that this is an iterative process and not a simple one-and-done check-in. “Make sure you’re taking their pulse on a regular basis, so you get that constant feedback,” Blackmon says.

2. Invest in Enablement Programs for Top Performing Partners

Even large programs typically don’t have the resources to equally enable every partner in their portfolio. You’ll need to pick and choose partners in which to invest resources.

“You want to identify top performers and tier them and find the best programs to make them successful,” explains Aryaka’s Steele. “It also shows the growth options for the other partners in the program. I recommend launching a concierge program where vendors enable top partners with the training, go to market in a unified way and message the combined value proposition.”

Aryaka, for example, recently launched its elite seller program , which gives top performers access to resources like business development representatives who qualify leads and more.

But what about partners who aren’t top performers? “You can’t scale that [concierge-level] investment across all partners, but you can offer tiered enablement,” says Steele. “A-level partners can be part of the concierge program while B-level partners are enabled through digital programs that help partners with lead generation but require less investment from the vendor.”

JS Group’s Blackmon says a points program can enable partner tiering. “At JS Group, we’ve been advocates of the points program for partners for years, so that partner activity, not just sales, results in benefits,” says Blackmon. “Consider some version of this when deciding whether a partner is in or out of a program or what tier they’re in. Commitment and engagement are worth lots more in the long term than one large opportunistic sale that happens to get them to their revenue requirement.”

3. Staff Your Partner Program with Channel & Solution Subject Matter Experts

Staff your program with channel account managers who get the channel. It’s well-known that the channel is a tight-knit relationship-driven industry. Your people need to know how the channel works and come to your program with meaningful partner relationships.

JS Group’s Blackmon acknowledges staffing appropriately can be challenging in today’s economic environment, but they can make or break successfully enabling partners. “…I’d say to make sure you’re staffed adequately,” says Blackmon. “I know layoffs are happening as this recession looms, and that’s a valid business decision. But when you bring people into your channel organization, make sure they’re well-versed in [the] channel. Make sure they understand partners. The channel is a different beast and requires a different way of thinking. If your staff doesn’t understand the partner, they won’t be well-equipped to drive success for your channel organization.”

Bergamo Marketing Group’s Bergamo extends the staffing requirement further to focus on solution expertise. “Vendors need to provide resources to help their partners understand the business value of their solutions and encourage them to ask questions,” says Bergamo. “You can have a Ph.D. in information technology and still not understand the nuances of SD-WAN, UCaaS, Cybersecurity Mesh Architecture (CSMA) or Microsoft Azure. Encourage your partners to ask the tough questions and provide them with access to solution experts to team up with them on deals, including offering provider recommendations, quote assessments and win-loss analysis.”

4. Test & Refine Partner Enablement Tactics & Activities

Assess, assess, assess. You’re unlikely to deliver a world-class enablement program right out of the gate. Plan on evaluating and revising individual campaigns, training courses, marketing pieces, value propositions and more.

“Test ideas,” says ScienceLogic’s Armstrong. “Create effective feedback mechanism[s] and adjust [the] approach as needed. Always drive outcomes with a growth mindset [and] a focus on continuous improvement. Great approaches and ideas can come from anyone in the channel ecosystem [and] the enablement team ensures those ideas get executed and communicated.”

JS Group’s Blackmon agrees, reminding you to test and refine enablement materials in conjunction with your partners, not in a vacuum. “…I’m going to sound like a broken record, but you have to really listen to your partner community,” says Blackmon. “There are a million vendors out there for every type of solution. Partners have unlimited choices, so you need to establish that true relationship of listening and learning so you can give partners what they want and need. It amazes me how many providers just assume they know what their partners need without ever actually hearing it from their lips.”

5. Create Easily Consumable Partner Enablement Resources

Channel partners are always hard-pressed for time and need to be able to engage with your enablement materials easily and quickly.

For example, Bergamo Marketing Group’s Bergamo details the success of short-form video content from her time at Pax8. “Most sales reps are trying to fit learning in between sales calls and closing deals,” says Bergamo. “As Director of Partner Education at Pax8, my colleagues and I launched Pax8 Academy to deliver on-demand, video-first content that partners could consume while waiting to board a flight or log into their next Zoom call. Our first course was ‘How to Succeed in Selling Microsoft.’ This on-demand course was delivered via a series of short videos with a total learning time of approximately two hours. The most valuable module was a five-minute video in which Pax8’s CRO provided tips and insights on how partners could successfully address key Microsoft customer pain points.”

The Lexington Group’s Stewart also notes this same need for easy enablement. “Ensuring that enablement content is provided in a ‘just in time’ fashion is critical,” says Stewart. “Also, the more use of video, mobile applications and keeping the messages in ‘bite-sized’ consumption will be critical – for the success of your program and the experience for your partners.”

Zift Solutions’ Tenuto points out that resources partners share with customers should be similarly easy to consume. “The enablement materials that make their way to clients also need to be simple,” says Tenuto. “You also have to design them to be understood by the business client, who is typically less educated on the solution than are your partners.”

Tenuto explains why this is especially important in a real-world scenario: “Since partners are so busy, they may simply forward a piece of collateral and a link to a video to a prospect. If that piece of information requires clarification from you or the partner, the deal can die right then and there. Unfortunately, people often don’t ask questions when they don’t understand; they just move on to another vendor who makes things easier.”

6. Your PRM Should Have Deep Business Intelligence & Analytic Tools to Enable You to Instrument Your Program’s Success

Technology is your friend in tracking the success of your partner enablement program, our panelists note.

“Tools are important,” says Aryaka’s Steele. “A PRM can enable you [to] determine:

Who closes
Who has pipeline
Who is going into the portal
Who is using the campaigns

You can pull a report, see who’s taking actions that you want and identify which partners to invest resources in, like telesales follow-up so the partner can close more deals. The only other [tool] to do this is through the CRM. And then marketing would need to do a manual marketing audit to see if they are doing anything online.”

Bergamo Marketing Group’s Bergamo echoes the advice on automating processes, adding that this extends beyond reporting to creating the enablement resources and materials. “Vendors should pilot and implement AI-powered sales and marketing tools to help with content creation, lead generation, social media, analytics and more,” says Bergamo. “AI-powered sales and marketing tools can help vendors improve efficiency and ROI through intelligent automation of processes and tasks, empowering their teams to focus on more strategic priorities.”

Partner programs looking to get the most value from their channel partners should consider implementing these enablement practices in 2023.

Chat GPT and The Channel: ‘We Haven’t Seen Innovation Like This in a Very Long Time’

admin@servicequik.com (ZING Admin) — Fri, 26 May 2023 20:49:12 GMT

In three to five years, customers will be able to have complete conversations with

AI-backed chatbots.

In a matter of months, the vanguard chatbot created by OpenAI has influenced – and promises to influence – so many segments of society that counting how and where is pointless. Whether it’s writing a short story or laying out the fundamentals of deep philosophical concepts, the generative AI tool scrapes the internet and seemingly answers almost anything a user asks of it. [There’s a great summary at Makeuseof.com about how ChatGPT works in case you’re just catching up to the technology.]

For example, I queried ChatGPT about what role it could play in unified communications, or UC. It produced a five-point answer. Take point No. 5:

“ChatGPT can provide insights and analytics related to UC usage patterns. This includes the most frequently used features or the average length of video calls. This information can help businesses to optimize their UC strategies and improve their overall communication effectiveness.”

What’s the use of writing a news article about how ChatGPT will influence the channel ? Any user can ask ChatGPT itself and likely get what they are looking for.

The short answer is that generative artificial intelligence tools can’t replace the lifetime of experience and knowledge the experts interviewed for this article have. At least not yet.

These experts suggest that generative AI’s path in the IT channel is more than just a technological story. It could reshape how business is done in this arena.

Understanding that is more than a five-point summary.

Unified Communications

From providing automated customer support to assisting with language translation, generative AI will change the playing field within the channel, according to Marc Hebner. He’s the senior vice president and head of enterprise business in the Americas at NEC . Hebner said when it comes to unified communications, the incorporation of generative AI will make meetings much more efficient and effective. Convening online will become the preferred method of work communication, he said.

For example, Hebner said the technology could recognize conference call participants verbally making plans for future meetings. The AI-backed tool could then “automatically kick [you] out a meeting invite.” Or the tool could digest massive amounts of information and even make value judgements about the key points of a call. These are just some of the ways Hebner said he sees Microsoft applying ChatGPT to the UC space. [ Read more about Microsoft’s relationship with ChatGPT.]

Some experts argue UC hasn’t evolved dramatically in recent years. However, AI is already leveraged in unified communications and collaboration platforms. Generative AI promises to improve areas such as meeting summaries and surfacing information in real time. That said, analysts at research firm Omdia , which shares parent company Informa with Channel Futures, said it’s important to understand where ChatGPT won’t be useful. It cannot examine video, provide video sentiment analysis, or even read body language, at least not just yet.

All-Star Marketers Debate Traditional vs. Next-Gen Buyers

admin@servicequik.com (ZING Admin) — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 21:14:22 GMT

Next-gen buyers were born into a digital world. How do they differ from traditional IT buyers? And how are they alike?

Channel partners are dealing with a steadily increasing number of next-gen buyers, those individuals born into a digital world. Digital transformation has changed the way business is done — and that includes marketing . The majority of today’s buyers come to the table having used the internet for research, reviews and recommendations. They’re not looking for a product; they’re looking for a solution to a problem. And they want that solution wrapped up in an outstanding customer experience.

So how do more traditional buyers differ from next-gen buyers? And for that matter, how are they alike?

The session, All-Star Marketing Panel: Drive Growth and Customer Engagement with Next-Gen Marketing , will provide insights on adapting traditional marketing techniques and developing strategies that will engage next-gen buyers. The session, presented Tuesday, April 12, during the Channel Partners Conference & Expo , features a quartet of – as the session name indicates – marketing all-stars: Allison Bergamo, principal of Bergamo Marketing Group ; Nick Bandy, CMO of LiveVox ; Jamie Domenici, CMO of GoTo (formerly LogMeIn); and Brian Gilman, CMO of IntelePeer .

In the following Q&A, some of our panelists offer up thoughts on next-gen marketing and what attendees can expect from their session.

Channel Futures: There’s a lot of debate on what constitutes “next-gen.” How would you define it?

Allison Bergamo: Next-gen marketing is the ability to maximize and leverage your resources across the organization to drive growth and deliver outstanding customer experiences at every touch point. Successful next-gen marketing initiatives deliver personalized customer experiences that leverage a cohesive set of customer data across all interactions — both digital and human-led, provide always-on content backed by customer insights and augmented with AI tools and are executed with an ROI mindset.

Nick Bandy: To me, next-gen marketing is defined by using well-integrated technology, data, and automation tools across a broad spectrum of channels to create relevant, timely and meaningful conversations with prospects and customers.

Jamie Domenici: I think it’s just quite literally next generation. Meaning the technology that will be embraced as “business as usual” for our next generation. A smartphone is basically part of the furniture for kids today — which was not the case a generation ago.

CF: What makes next-gen marketing unique?

NB: Beyond the technology itself, it’s the evolution from personalization to contextualization. The ability to move beyond simply dropping first names into pre-defined email templates and landing pages or identifying site visitors and following them around the web. Instead, leveraging a range of available signals to contextualize content and an overall experience.

JD: It’s getting ahead of the trend and getting out of saying the same thing everyone else is. How do you position your product to capture the interest and mindshare of that next group of technology leaders?

CF: What do you think is the one most important thing to keep in mind when developing a next-gen marketing strategy?

AB: B2B customers are “self-learners” who value their own research as much as the information a supplier provides. Sales and marketing teams need to serve as “sense makers,” helping customers understand all the information they’ve gathered and guiding them in their buying decisions.

NB: The most important thing to remember is that while technology, data, automation and new channels can be effective tools for creating streamlined, contextual communications with prospects/customers, the fundamentals of brand marketing are still the foundation of any good plan.

JD: It has to be your audience – specifically your target audience. Are you speaking to them where and when and how it makes sense in terms of how they are consuming information? Is your information something they will want to interact with, or will they just tune you out? Creativity is key.

CF: Do you think channel partners should adapt a next-gen marketing strategy across the board? Do you think all buyers would be open to it?

AB: Channel partners should evaluate their current marketing initiatives through both ROI and CX lenses. While the pandemic accelerated a digital-first, B2B buying trend, companies need to balance digital customer engagement with human interactions at key moments in the buying journey.

JD: It is definitely something channel partners should be thinking about and starting to plan for but there is a balance between the traditional IT and next-gen audiences that we need to be mindful of.

CF: Allison, what changes have you seen in buyer behavior over the last five years?

AB: B2B buyers are spending less time with sales reps. Only 17% of B2B buying journeys are spent with sales reps. In fact, 44% of millennial B2B buyers favor digital channels and prefer to have no interaction with sales reps. As baby boomers retire and millennials (the first digital natives) assume decision-making roles, a digital-first buying experience will become the norm.

And as I mentioned earlier, B2B customers are self-learners. However, they’re overwhelmed with the amount of quality information they consume. Sellers must pivot from serving as information sources to helping customers make sense out of everything they’re learning, irrespective of the source. Per Gartner, nearly half of B2B customers found supplier information trustworthy and simultaneously contradictory which reduces their decision confidence. Contradictory information results in lower customer confidence, which can reduce the likelihood of a customer making a significant purchase.

CF: Nick, LiveVox describes itself as a “next-generation contact center platform.” What makes it next-gen?

NB: It’s a cloud-based platform that’s easy to implement and easy to optimize. The platform seamlessly combines omnichannel communications, a native CRM, AI and WEM. Our native CRM uniquely facilitates seamless customer journeys, agent workflows and data flows. It offers an availability of robust, out-of-the-box analytics, including speech analytics, And it features an architecture that enables us to easily continue incorporating new functionality, technologies and partners so that our platform continues to evolve into what customers want now and will want “next.”

CF: Jamie, you just moved from Salesforce to GoTo. Salesforce brought SaaS into the market in 1999. GoTo is only four years younger. What makes it next gen?

JD: With the re-brand to GoTo we are actively transitioning ourselves into a streamlined global brand presence that will resonate with current IT execs as well as the next generation, the next-gen audience. Our products are solving customer challenges that are very top of mind and important to next-gen IT consumers. Working from anywhere/hybrid work is here to stay — and we’re ready!

Marketing All-Stars Share Their Focus for 2022 and Beyond

admin@servicequik.com (ZING Admin) — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 21:10:48 GMT

Where do our CMO roundtable members expect to be concentrating their efforts in the months ahead?

What will our marketing all-stars be focusing on in 2022? That was the “lightning round” question with which Allison Bergamo topped off the CMO Roundtable at Channel Partners Conference & Expo.

The roundtable participants included Amy Bailey, senior vice president of marketing for Telarus ; Nick Bandy, CMO at LiveVox ; Theresa Caragol, CEO of AchieveUnite ; Jamie Domenici, CMO of GoTo ; Brian Gilman, CMO at IntelePeer ; Khali Henderson, senior partner at BuzzTheory ; Amanda Lee, senior vice president of global communications at Pax8 ; Michelle Ragusa-McBain, leader for the global partner organization at Cisco ; Brittany Watts, marketing director for Informa Tech ; and Dalyn Wertz, executive director, indirect channel program and marketing for Comcast Business .

In part one , the group shared what they were doing to maintain a consistent presence with clients, partners and peers in the ever-changing ICT channel.

In part two , they provided insights on how they were keeping their teams up and running despite the talent shortage precipitated by “The Great Resignation.”

In this third and final installment of the series, they look ahead to the next six to 12 months and predict what will be their primary area of focus.

MSP Summit/CP Leadership Summit: Experts Speak to the Power of AI, Other Tools for Effective Marketing

admin@servicequik.com (ZING Admin) — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 21:06:10 GMT

In three to five years, 80% of what marketers do will be dependent on artificial intelligence.

MSP SUMMIT/CHANNEL PARTNERS LEADERSHIP SUMMIT — Allison Bergamo knows the power of artificial intelligence (AI) for marketing. Bergamo, principal at Bergamo Marketing Group , uses that kind of AI at her firm because, she said, she wants to be ahead of the curve. Bergamo wouldn’t be wrong. As statistics go, in three to five years, 80% of what marketers do will be dependent on this type of technology.

However, “it’s not plug and play,” said Bergamo, who added that marketers will have to use clean, unstructured data with some of the technology.

Bergamo was part of a panel of marketing experts who spoke at the MSP Summit/Channel Partners Leadership Summit in Orlando on Thursday. Their advice to the audience spanned from using artificial intelligence technology, to how to master relationships, to learning ways to market on a budget. The latter couldn’t be more relevant for MSPs, they said.

Even though many MSPs are small and have finite resources, that doesn’t mean they should neglect marketing.

“You can find money in your budget to allocate toward this. It’s important,” said Marcial Velez (pictured right, above), CEO at Xperteks Computer Consultancy . “Historically MSPs grow about 10% [annually]. If you want to outperform that rate, you’ve got to invest in this.”

And the investment doesn’t have to be expensive, the panelists said. One can be technologically savvy about marketing without spending a lot of money. Velez said digital business cards are a great example because they can share information beyond someone’s name and company affiliation. Social media and blog posts can also be exchanged with this tool.

“You can now start connecting to the content that you want your customers to see right away. You can now show your story,” he said.

Charlene Ignacio, CEO (pictured middle, above) at The CMO Guru, HireXPro , also agreed that simplicity goes a long way. She likened it to the difference between buying an expensive Mercedes (a euphemism for a pricey marketing program) and buying a Honda. Everyone thinks they need the Mercedes, she said, even though a Honda can get you where you need to go.

“A Honda works perfectly. It will last you 20 years longer, and the maintenance is lower,” Ignacio said. “When it comes to marketing, I like to do simple things because marketing can become like a black hole (of costs).”

However, knowing whether to use cost-effective AI and digital business card tools presumes a certain baseline knowledge by a company’s team. If a firm doesn’t have that knowledge and needs a marketing program to attain those kind of resources, where do they begin?

Making Mistakes

Finding a company to outsource one’s marketing may be a good first step. And a firm might have luck initially finding marketers who understand its business model. However, the panelists said the likely scenario is that one’s first choice of marketers will not work out. Be prepared to fail, they said. But fail fast.

Take Reggie Stevens (pictured left, above), CEO at Iris Solutions , for example. In 2018, Stevens acquired Iris Solutions and set out to find a marketing team.

“I didn’t know what I was doing,” he said.

It turns out neither did the marketers. Yet Stevens didn’t spend his time begrudging the fact that he didn’t get the professionals he needed to promote his company.

The pandemic made life even more complicated. Stevens knew he needed to keep his community of customers engaged differently because many people were working remotely.

He was steadfast and found another marketing firm.

“You know, we had this freak-out moment and we just went back to the basics and started experimenting,” he said about his work with the new marketing team. “We began differently.”

And he started to see results, but it took a year. This is not unusual for marketing initiatives.

Establishing reasonable expectations around how much time it takes to generate a marketing pipeline is critical, he said. It takes a commitment.

However, it’s even more granular than that. It’s a 24/7 process, Velez said.

“I think the modern marketer today is someone who looks at marketing more than just an activity,” he said. “You should automate these systems so that you’re continually outreaching and doing things for your existing customers and prospecting for any of your clients.”

He added: “It takes someone with a really holistic view.”

Channel Marketing Leaders Align on Vision, Goals for Industry Success

admin@servicequik.com (ZING Admin) — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 21:03:51 GMT

Channel Marketing Leaders Align on Vision, Goals for Industry Success

The marketing landscape is rapidly changing. Michelle Accardi, CEO at Logically , said her organization was in the search process for some time for a CMO, looking for someone with enough of a diverse background to meet the needs of a transitioning marketing environment.

“I need someone who understands the channel and the needs of the channel and has delivered to that channel,” she said. “They need demand generation, and they need content. And then they need to understand the private equity world and KPIs and analytics and all the pieces that go along with that as well. The environment is changing and it’s requiring more from CMOs.”

Bergamo Marketing Group

6 Channel Enablement Best Practices for Partner Programs to Use in 2023

6 Channel Enablement Best Practices for Partner Programs to Use in 2023

What is Channel Partner Enablement?

What are the Essential Components of Channel Partner Enablement?

Why Should Partner Programs Invest in Channel Enablement?

6 Channel Enablement Best Practices for Partner Programs

to Use in 2023

1. Ask Your Partners What Enablement They Need from Your Program

2. Invest in Enablement Programs for Top Performing Partners

3. Staff Your Partner Program with Channel & Solution Subject Matter Experts

4. Test & Refine Partner Enablement Tactics & Activities

5. Create Easily Consumable Partner Enablement Resources

6. Your PRM Should Have Deep Business Intelligence & Analytic Tools to Enable You to Instrument Your Program’s Success

Chat GPT and The Channel: ‘We Haven’t Seen Innovation Like This in a Very Long Time’

In three to five years, customers will be able to have complete conversations with

﻿ AI-backed chatbots.

Unified Communications

All-Star Marketers Debate Traditional vs. Next-Gen Buyers

Next-gen buyers were born into a digital world. How do they differ from traditional IT buyers? And how are they alike?

Marketing All-Stars Share Their Focus for 2022 and Beyond

Where do our CMO roundtable members expect to be concentrating their efforts in the months ahead?

MSP Summit/CP Leadership Summit: Experts Speak to the Power of AI, Other Tools for Effective Marketing

In three to five years, 80% of what marketers do will be dependent on artificial intelligence.

Making Mistakes

Channel Marketing Leaders Align on Vision, Goals for Industry Success

Channel Marketing Leaders Align on Vision, Goals for Industry Success

AI-backed chatbots.