With limited channel marketing funds, its obvious that you should be betting on the activities that will yield the most strategic ROI. Things that prove effective in the past should be earmarked for the next year, but you should also add some new things into the mix. Think a bit outside of the box!
Some vendors will simply hand-over their marketing budget to their distribution partners to do the marketing for them. It may save them some effort but it may also not generate the results that they need. When you become a “me-too” vendor in a sea of vendors that some distributors typically represent, you need to really consider if your funds are being effectively spent to benefit your brand.
Channel marketing is not a factory production business!
Don’t get me wrong. Any channel marketing is better than no channel marketing and some distributors do a good job of helping vendors market to the channel. Unfortunately it is simply a matter of the high volume of vendors that they are doing marketing for – many at the same time. Simple common sense will tell you that it’s logically and physically impossible for any company to do a great marketing job for any vendor when they are doing the same job for too many vendors.
That said, we do understand the need for some vendors to spend money with their distributors for “marketing”. Savvy vendors refer to this as the “distributor tax”. They tell us that it is just something that they have to do to stay listed or to be on their good side. Others tell us that they lump their funding with one distributor because they do not have the resources to develop or execute channel marketing programs directly. While these may sound like good reasons, relinquishing full marketing control of your business to any third-party is very high risk. You may be putting your company and career in the hands of someone else.
Fortunately, you do not have to choose! You could do both! When you take better control of your channel marketing, it will yield greater sales. This is also what drives interest from distributors. They ultimately want to take more orders to pick, pack and ship! They are fantastic in fulfilling demand! It is also what you want and need! You simply need to find the right balance to share your marketing funds. Smart distributors understand that everything that we do to help vendors to market their products will ultimately generate more sales demand for them!
As a channel manager, your primary mission is to grow channel sales year over year. Smart channel managers find ways to grow beyond the expected organic growth. They are always exploring new ways to energize their partners. Big success comes from when they go outside of their comfort zone to truly understand how or if a specific program or tactic will best serve their needs. The saying “doing the same things over and over while expecting a different result is a sign of insanity” can also apply to your channel marketing.
Marketing budgets are limited and they are many forces looking to take a bite of the pie. What should you do? Start with a free-of-any-obligation conversation about your goals for 2016 and your plans for achieving them. We can explore if/how we could help you with some of your pain points or possibly help you to find a better path towards achieving some of your goals. We really do understand the DNA of the channel and at the very least, you may get some sound advice that could help you, regardless if you work with us in the new year.
