Channel Readiness Blog

Seven Key Trends Driving the Increased Focus on Partner Performance

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1. 70 percent of the world’s products are sold through independently owned partners.  There are two types of partners, so there are two types of channels out there.  Direct channels are channels where you, the people that sell and service your product in the market place are employees of the manufacturer that makes the product.  Thirty percent of the world’s product, believe it or not, are sold through direct channels.  Most of the products are sold through indirect channels, which consist of independently owned partners, value add re-sellers, franchisees, people like that that are licensed and certified by a manufacturer to sell and service a product in their part of the world.  Seventy percent of the products, believe it or not, are sold through indirect channels. 
2. Products are becoming more complex.  Many products of the manufacturer’s we work with are becoming heavily computerized.  they’re very complicated and the value propositions associated with more complicated products are becoming more complex.  And these products are becoming harder to service as well, so as the products themselves become more complex the challenge of supporting your partners in selling and servicing those products are getting more complex as well. 
3. Globalization.  You don’t need to be a very large company to think about a global strategy.  A lot of small startups today are going global right out of the gate.  So the ability to do that is really being driven by the ubiquitous nature of the internet.  But global strategy is not out of the picture anymore for businesses of all sizes and that’s another trend that we’re seeing. 
4. The web is becoming utility.  It’s like the telephone.  We use it every day, we don’t even think about it most of the time.  It’s used in our personal life for sure, but more increasingly it’s more the norm that is the key tool that’s used in our professional lives as well.  And the ability to integrate that reality into the infrastructure you use to support your partners is a key part of what we’ll talk about today. 
5. There are shorter product life cycles and less time to exploit. 
6. The first mover advantage.  Five and Six go hand in hand.  When you launch a new product these days your advantage in the market place is typically getting shorter and shorter.  So the ability to support partners to allow you to launch a new product and then exploit first move advantage is extremely important.  Your ability to do that well is more important than ever today because of the shorter product life cycles that we’re seeing across the board. 
7. And finally buyers are smarter than ever.  Many of us when we go out to buy any kind of product today whether it’s on the job or in our personally lives we’re doing a lot of research on the internet.  We’re able to find out a lot of – get a lot of information about a product before we even walk into a point of sale to buy that product.  The reality is that most of the time the buyers are actually smarter than the people that are selling them the product and that’s unfortunate.  So the challenge for our customer’s is that we want to have  the people at the point of sale be as smart or smarter than the buyers that are coming to buy our products so that they can effectively sell and service that product at each moment of truth once somebody walks in to buy that product.

About LogicBay

LogicBay provides technology-enabled Partner Relationship Management (PRM) solutions enabling organizations to engage, manage and develop their dealer networks, leveraging shared knowledge and best practices.  With a focus on the key elements of engagement including collaboration, marketing/communications effectiveness, training and certification and performance management LogicBay deploys powerful on-line communities that empower and connect the extended networks of a dispersed sales function to be able to sell and service products more effectively.  Learn more about LogicBay at www.logicbay.com .

LogicBay’s Partner Relationship Management (PRM) Technology is rich with best practice workflows making it easier for organizations to do business with channel partner re-sellers. The result: More engagement and Mindshare. Greater Efficiency and Cost Savings. Alignment with Channel Partners. And, Performance Improvement for the Entire Sales Enterprise.

	Download this premium white paper to learn Channel Management Best Practices – Make it easy for dealers to do business with you, Heighten dealer engagement, Gain mindshare and maximize financial returns. Learn about LogicBay’s 4Core Best Practice Framework including methods for more effectively training and monitoring dealer employee certifications.
	Link to LogicBay’s Library of Partner Relationship Management White Papers. These white papers provide best practice ideas on a Channel Readiness and Performance Improvement strategies. Topics include subjects such as: Effectively launching a LMS for the Channel, Applying Lean Principles to Channel Management, Channel Life-cycle Management, Partner Portal Technology Unification, and much more.
	Link to LogicBay’s Library of Client Case Studies. Learn how LogicBay’s PRM Solutions and Technology have created significant performance gains for clients such as Caterpillar, HP, Daimler Trucks and Outdoor Living Brands.