2. How the channel works
VENDORS
MARKETING
FOCUS & ££
DISTRIBUTOR
DISTRIBUTOR
CHANNEL
RESELLERS
End Users/Consumers
Source: GfK
MACRO & MICRO ECONOMIC FACTORS
3. Key vendor challenges
The Enterprise market is sown up, the mid-market is diverse and the
SMB market is fragmented.
Key vendor challenges:
•Scale: volume of target organisations (Mid-market-SMB)
•Cost of sale to high for direct model
•Speed to market
•Closed loop multi geographic regions
•Repeatability
many different product lines
high volume of channel
partners
4. Key distributor challenges
DISTRIBUTORS have huge customer bases and can’t manage each
customer personally, so have to rely on marketing to reach out to their
customers and disseminate special offers and promotions.
Key Distributor challenges:
• Very tight margins
• Competitive marketplace – mass-market
• Treated as a commodity service by resellers
multi geographic regions
many different product lines
high volume of channel
partners
5. Key resellers challenges
Many RESELLERS are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of channel-
driven marketing programmes, which are often not relevant to the
reseller or the clients. They are busy running their own businesses, and
need to focus on what brings sales through the doors.
Key reseller challenges:
• Reseller market is shrinking as market dynamics change
• Competitive marketplace – need to differentiate & be more sticky
• Deliver profitable business growth
single geographic regions
min different product lines
low volume of channel
partners
6. Our buyer journey has changed
Changes
Changes Recognition
Recognition Problem
Problem Evaluate
Evaluate Select best Negotiate and Implement
over time
over time of needs
of needs defined
defined options
options option purchase
Compelling Recognition of Scoping of Evaluation of suppliers against Final Customer on-
event need to problem – and specific criteria validation boarding and
change to how best to Select best in-life
Competitive Pressure
deliver against address it option Negotiate – management
New business plan: business Best and final
Strategic intent objectives offer
Develop specification
Change in customer or brief
behaviour
May issue RFI to
Leadership change potential suppliers
Contract renewal Followed up by
formal RFP process
Marketing led, in-bound/out-bound Sales led, direct / face-to-face
7. What does this mean?
Because our audience does its research, thinking, problem definition
and needs recognition largely online, we need to ensure we get in
earlier in the buying cycle.
At any given point, only 10-20% of the market would be in the stage 4
(evaluate options) point – so we need a constant way of being infront of
people…
8. Why marketing needs change?
Customers want more for less……..more customers, more sales,
more return on their investment and take less risk!
If you have ever spent a single £ on lead generation, you know
how expensive it is and often how risky that investment is.
Many companies do a good job at generating leads – attracting
prospects to a website, an exhibition stand or respond to an email,
but the reality is that most prospects whom respond to your email,
attend your stand or pick up your telephone call are just not ready
to buy and certainly do not qualify as a lead………..yet.
Fact – on average only 20% of well qualified leads generated by
marketing and passed to sales are successfully closed. The
question is, what happened to the rest?
9. The case for lead nurturing
For complex sales, up to 95% of qualified prospects on your website are there
to research and not yet ready to talk with a sales rep, but 70% of them will
eventually buy a product/service from you or one of your competitors. Brian
Carroll, CEO InTouch
An typical qualified sales prospect, ready to engage with sales has
followed a lead nurturing process, which has delivered up to nine (9) pieces
of content and generated five (5)+ telephone calls, just to reach the point
where the prospect is ready to engage sales. Marketo 2011
On average, nurtured leads produce a 20% increase in sales opportunities
vs. non-nurtured leads. DemandGen
Companies that excel in lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready
leads and reduce % of leads ignored by sales from 80% to 25%. B2B
Marketing
10. The 360 Channel Marketing
community represents all
stakeholder groups within the IT
channel including.
The objective of the community is to
share knowledge and best practice
on how to deliver improved value
from effective channel marketing.
Member Think Tank sessions identify
how to overcome the challenges
around delivering better ROI from
channel marketing
www.360channelmarketing.com
11. Typical challenges faced in channel
marketing
• Too many ad-hoc campaigns with limited measurement or follow through by
channel partners utilising marketing development funds (MDF)
• Channel partners fail to pick up opportunities and nurture them – looking for
the quick wins
• Valuable information is lost through start stop tactics, lack of process or
experienced people
• Limited internal bandwidth to manage both marketing and sales / channel
engagement tactics
• Lack of dedicated and knowledgeable market & channel intelligence
• Lack of lead generation resources, with ability to nurture the long term value
14. Content Map – Lead Nurturing
• Map content for every stage of
the customer buying process.
• Create content for every job
function involved in the buying
process (CEO, CFO & CTO etc)
• Use content to help drive
prospects through the lead
nurturing pipeline
• Localise content for each “geo”
