Channel Sales

Out of the 14 different spheres of influence that we track at Forrester, the channel industry trade press ranks near the top. Smart vendors and distributors know that the magic of finding, influencing, recruiting, enabling, and nourishing a top-performing channel boils down to three simple questions about partners: What do they read? Where do they […]

The channel is very large, highly diverse, and incredibly decentralized. Channel partners know that to be successful, they need to carve out a niche — whether that be by line of business, by industry (and, increasingly, by subindustry), by size of customer, geographically, technologically, and by business model. These six vectors are not mutually exclusive, […]

With more than 2 million podcasts available how do you find the best channel podcasts? Forrester's Principal Analyst Jay McBain has you covered. Check out the list of the best 100 channel podcasts of 2021.

A Forrester channel TEI study highlights the economic metrics and the business advantages to choosing to work with that partner. These studies can explain and break down the economics and the outcomes of a partnership investment in real-dollar terms partners understand — not just gold, silver, and bronze.

I made a prediction in January of 2018 that IT distributor disruption would continue. It was obvious that industry consolidation was accelerating, major distributors were diversifying, and private equity was getting more interested in transforming the industry. In the second half of last year, the two largest global IT distributors were acquired by private equity, […]

As brands increasingly use different types of partners to reach, influence, transact, and retain customers, partner relationship management (PRM) solutions are being asked to serve both traditional and nontraditional channels at a new level of scale and personalization. Managing these growing ecosystems in a consistent, predictable, and productive way is critical to the success of […]

Even in the best of times, starting the new year off fast is important. With the continuing uncertainty and turmoil caused by COVID-19, channel sales leaders must act now to ensure their team can hit the ground running on day one of the new year.

Online marketplaces have been around in one form or another for decades. Accelerating the trend is a myriad of factors including changing buying behaviors and demographics, companies shifting to subscription and consumption models, and the rising importance of ecosystems. Put simply, the future business buyer will look more and more like a consumer.

In-person channel events are slowly returning, albeit in a modified form. Expect more of these physical/virtual hybrid events to pop up in the coming months.

Ecosystems don’t run on spreadsheets anymore. Principal Analyst Jay McBain provides a detailed look at the channel software market and its ability to help drive business and relationships.

With COVID-19 still spreading and broad quarantines, shutdowns, and other measures to contain it continuing, it is still impossible to make definitive predictions of its impact on the tech channel. Instead, we are using three scenarios that take into account different recovery start times and shapes of recovery graphs. More detail around these scenarios, tech […]

• Channel sales leaders must sharpen their business acumen and align their actions with the company’s strategy to gain internal support
• Today’s buyers and solutions are changing, making it imperative to increase the rigor around recruitment and determine whether current partners are the right ones
• Channel sales leaders must become trusted advisors to other company leaders — e.g. by providing peers with the data and insights they need to succeed

ALERT:  NEW 2021 VERSION NOW AVAILABLE HERE: https://www.forrester.com/blogs/the-100-best-channel-podcasts-of-2021/     If you haven’t listened to a podcast yet, you’re now in the minority.  According to Podcast Insights, 51% of the US population has listened to at least one podcast. Since the first podcast came on the scene in 2004, there are now over 750,000 podcast […]

• Channel partner success is a product of preparation, planning and execution
• Ongoing monitoring and adjustment of the plan is a strategic imperative
• Nothing is more satisfying than accomplishing a mutual goal together

Learn what B2B sellers must do to innovate and drive value in 2020. Read our predictions for B2B commerce.

Channel professionals want to talk about expanding their partner programs and building broad ecosystems, but the truth is that many of their basic program and channel management processes are still painfully manual and error-prone. Before accelerating their channel program, they need to apply basic automation technologies to get their front- and back-end systems to a […]

• The first step on the path to joint business planning success is recognizing that it is not a highly recommended or obligatory annual task, but an ongoing partnership imperative to driving revenue
• Joint business planning with channel partners is one of the most effective means of driving alignment and more profitable revenue growth
• Joint business planning is a learned skill that must be supported by a proven, standardized process, the right data and insights, easy-to-use tools, and ongoing training and coaching

• The first step on the path to successful joint business planning is recognizing that it’s not a highly recommended or obligatory annual task — it’s an ongoing partnership imperative to drive revenue
• Joint business planning with channel partners is one of the most effective means of driving alignment and more profitable revenue growth
• Joint business planning is a learned skill that must be supported by a proven standardized process, the right data and insights, easy-to-use tools, and ongoing training and coaching

Channel incentives are used to improve indirect sales performance, orchestrate partners’ behavior, and engender channel loyalty. For decades, channel professionals have used channel incentives to drive behavior, whether establishing new behaviors, suppressing old ones, or repositioning partners for a new opportunity. Incentives are also effective in masking deficiencies in business value propositions. Channel incentives and […]