otient Digitizing Channel Enablement Technology Sector in the

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1 otient Digitizing Channel Enablement in the Technology Sector Copyright Qotient Group Limited 2016

2 otient Tech vendors often struggle to see or validate ROI on their channel enablement investments. Is this because they are still using outdated and ineffective practices that might have worked 10 years ago but in today s digital world they are less effective? Many Tech vendors like Cisco, Microsoft, HP, IBM and Dell established channels to scale and grow. Often these partners perform a service the vendor can t deliver on, they warehouse and store stock and/or assist with service delivery because they have the resources. They offer incremental value to the end customer in some way. In our last whitepaper we talked about the challenges Tech Vendors face in measuring ROI when considering their sales channel enablement investments. Following on from this, we analyze the impact of digitization on channel enablement strategy performance. THE PROBLEM WITH ANALOGUE CHANNEL ENABLEMENT Many Tech Vendors invest in the following to aid their channel enablement efforts: Product certification programs Computer based training Instructor led product, service and proposition training Sales collateral and sales training Channel management headcount Knowledge portals Measuring a return on investment associated with these methods has been achieved in different ways in the past. These measurement processes include analyzing end of month sales results, the number of certified channel partners, and the number of new opportunities created. However, becoming more focused on attributing investment to a specific return is difficult to achieve for tech vendors. It is not unusual to hear of channel enablement budgets going unspent because the tech vendor has struggled to build a business case with a demonstrable return on investment.

3 DIGITIZING CHANNEL ENABLEMENT PERFORMANCE The four most critical questions tech vendors with channels need to be able to answer in near real-time are: 1. Who are my channel engaging with about my stories and insights? 2. Which insights, propositions or questions did they discuss or ask? 3. Are we confident they delivered the key messages effectively? 4. What outcomes did they achieve and why? These questions are almost impossible to answer using analogue sales methodologies. Tech Vendors that digitize their sales enablement techniques are far better placed to scale and measure performance, and measure the resulting return on investment. A digital sales enablement process inherently produces big data. With innovative measurement and analysis of the new data, it s possible to infer deep insights and performance trends, as well as pin-point ROI. Copyright Qotient 2016

4 A NEW WAY WITH QOTIENT Qotient digitizes five critical components of the channel enablement process to enable maximum sales performance, which are: Digitizing sales content for maximum effectiveness Digitizing the creation and organization of supplier product and service offerings, insights and key sales questions in a consistent and memorable way Digitizing delivery of content for just-in-time consumption Enabling the digital delivery of supplier propositions into the hands of the channel partner ecosystem, through Qotient s cloud based platform. Digitizing scalability Enabling highly scalable channel enablement strategies to all channel partners, and delivering meaningful engagement metrics back to the supplier All Q Card content has been devised from publically available information. Digitizing the management process Enabling digital collaboration between a partner and vendor in relation to a particular proposition or customer engagement Digitizing mind-share Enabling increased mind-share awareness with notifications of product updates, special promotions or key successes in a way that they are easily consumed All Q Card content has been devised from publically available information.

5 CONCLUSION Vendors that have embraced the digitization of their Channel Sales Enablement activities are seeing results. It enables them to scale their efforts more effectively, measure the impact of new propositions delivered into the channel instantly, and access real-time insight into customer conversations on the go. Channel Managers using a digital enablement process can evolve from being reactive problem solvers into pro-active Channel Sales Enablers. FOR MORE ON QOTIENT AND TO BOOK A DEMO GO TO AND JOIN THE DISCUSSION ON LINKEDIN AND TWITTER. Copyright Qotient Group Limited 2016