Channel Marketing

• Many suppliers have invested in foundational systems such as channel marketing and management (CMM) solutions to deliver demand programs
• CMM platforms allow suppliers to increase the effectiveness and quantity of partners’ marketing efforts but fall short on driving incentive usage
• As programs evolve, suppliers look to integrate incentive management systems so partners can see what funding is available when considering programs

• As suppliers continue to transition from an on-premise model to the cloud, other technology trends are also emerging
• With any technology, integration is essential in order to allow partners to maintain an efficient workflow
• Important channel technologies include PRM, CMM and CDM, but others should also be considered

• Your channel goals are likely different than before, so there is no guarantee the incentives you used in the past will deliver the results you seek today
• A SiriusDecisions Summit poll showed that only 25 percent of channel incentive programs met their intended goals
• The SiriusDecisions Channel Incentive Selection Model delivers a four-step approach to identify the most effective selection of incentives

• Machine translation can be effective when used properly
• Human oversight is required in order to make machine translation useful
• A cost-effective and high-quality translation strategy uses both machine and human translation

• Best-in-class channel marketing organizations are investing in technology to automate and scale the delivery of partner-led demand programs
• There are many options and vendors for channel marketers to evaluate when selecting a channel marketing and management (CMM) platform
• By asking the right questions, suppliers can identify major differences and determine which CMM platform aligns best to their requirements

• Mark McKinzie explains how he built his tech stack at Oracle
• Oracle didn’t always use Eloqua for marketing automation – discover the organization’s story
• Deploying the right technologies can help channel partners succeed

• Transparency into event spend is increasing and being demanded by executives
• Event management solutions help B2B business leaders measure event ROI
• Learn how to support your investment in an event management solution

• SiriusDecisions research shows that companies that align sales and marketing efforts focused on the pipeline outperform their peers
• A systematic, collaborative pipeline accelerations is necessary to drive consistent channel sales and marketing activities
• Acceleration tactics can impact the following acceleration zones: rapid entry, intra-pipeline and last mile

• Collecting customer feedback is imperative for B2B organizations
• Many organizations struggle with how to integrate this customer intelligence into processes
• Customer intelligence management solutions can help companies with this, so long as process are altered as well

• It’s the age-old question: What’s on the minds of your customers? Are they satisfied with your products and solutions?
• These questions and others have led to the rise of customer intelligence management software solutions
• The following excerpts provide a high-level view that explains when to consider each customer intelligence vendor

• In a SiriusDecisions survey, 72 percent of respondents reported using an event management solution (EMS) to achieve event goals
• Marketers are using these automated solutions to plan pre-event, during-event and post-event activities to achieve the most ROI
• Here are some excerpts from our SiriusView: Event Management Solutions 2015, a report that evaluates four EMS vendors

• Channel marketing management (CMM) solutions enable partners to select, create and track multi-touch marketing programs
• SiriusDecisions’ first SiriusView for CMMs covers four leading CMM vendors
• This report helps leaders determine which platform is the right fit for their organization

In my previous post, I discussed the importance of including departments other than corporate marketing and direct sales in marketing automation stakeholder interviews and described some key interview questions for the services and support departments. Channel marketing and channel sales are also important stakeholders for marketing automation platform selection. Although many of their needs and […]

The word “computer” once meant “a person who makes calculations, especially with a calculating machine.” That definition is now out of date; today, dictionaries define a computer as “an electronic device for storing and processing data, typically in binary form, according to instructions in a variable program.” Similarly, the term “marketing automation” once referred to […]

• Organizations face increasing pressure to justify every dollar spent and describe how expenditures contribute to the bottom line
• Consider measuring the value of your sales asset management (SAM) solution without trying to calculate an ROI
• A SAM solution can provide benefits for many groups within the organization

Selecting a new event management software vendor? We have compiled a list of specific features to evaluate when going through the software evaluation process.

Channel marketers are being squeezed between the proverbial rock and a hard place. On the one hand, they’re doing anything they can to assist in the recruitment of new partners, contributing to sales and marketing enablement efforts, and ultimately attempting to attract partners to participate in demand generation programs. On the other, they’re being held […]

Have you ever cooked a meal only to taste it and discover that a key ingredient was left out, so the meal did not taste quite right or have the intended flavor? All of the preparations and resources used to make that meal were not enough, because that one critical ingredient was missing from the […]

“Before you put yourself in someone else’s shoes, you first have to take off your own.” In other words, before trying to examine a situation from someone else’s perspective, an observer must try to abandon all biases and preconceptions. A case in point in the B2B world is the concept of total partner experience (TPE), used by leading organizations to review their channel programs from a partner’s perspective.