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Overview
The key to selling IT products, services and solutions to US and Canadian SMBs (10 – 500 seats) is leveraging the VAR channel. This is
most successfully accomplished by considering all stages of the Channel Sales Cycle and how it fits your specific situation. Continuous
open dialog between the Vendor and its VAR partners is imperative.
| STAGE |
TYPICAL ACTIVITIES |
DIALOG MARKETING |
| Engage |
Profile, identify, reach, recruit, evaluate distributor
programs, analyze POS reports and sales results,
comfort marketing, develop custom programs, etc. |
Inform VARs as to who you are, what you do, the benefits
your products provide to their clients, as well as how you will
support and reward them. |
| Enable |
Motivate, educate (product, solution selling),
facilitate (provide access to information, vehicles,
tools, etc.), reward. |
Inform VARs on how to obtain education, demo products,
information, vehicles, sales tools, etc. that they require in
order to understand the product offering and to communicate
the benefits to their customers and prospects. |
| Partner |
Leverage relationships (tools: store fronts, CRM,
customizable communications, portals, etc.),
demand generation, lead management. |
Educate VARs on how you can work together to grow
your business and theirs: customized tools (VAR Locator,
eNewsletter, web stores, HTML mailer, etc.; lead referral and
lead generation programs; etc. |
| Maintain |
Measure, monitor, track, modify, renew, winback. |
Share macro and micro level results, best practices. |
Objective
To assist IT vendors in developing and implementing efficient, cost effective channel partner strategies that show consistent growth
with measurable, positive ROI.
Rationale
With the growing focus on the hard to reach small and mid-size businesses, the need for leveraging the skills, relationships and reach
of VARs to provide service and support for these businesses is greater than ever. However, VARs typically are not business oriented
and require assistance in selling and managing their relationships.
Attendees
Senior marketing and channel sales people from IT Vendor community.
Attendee’s Target Audience
Engaging the 50 – 7,500 largest VARs in the US/Canada marketplace that reach the 6,000,000 SMBs with 10 – 500 seats.
Program Benefits
Attendees will benefit by learning about:
- How the channel is structured including its primary strengths and weaknesses.
- The importance of working with the channel.
- How to successfully work with the channel.
- The importance of developing complete end-to-end channel sales procedures.
- How to grow net new sales as opposed to focusing on nebulous measurements like increased ad click-throughs, number of channel
program initiatives they run or the number of new partners recruited.
- How to avoid the “share shift” circle: merely shifting sales between direct and channel or between distributors or between channel
partners.
- How to create strong relationships with channel partners.
- Accountability and measuring ROI on marketing expenditures.
- How to develop strong brand awareness/preference in a rapidly changing product focused industry.
Tentative Agenda
| Start |
Length |
End Time |
Activity |
| 12:30 | 30 minutes | 1:00 | Registration |
| 1:15 | 15 minutes | 1:30 | Introduction |
| 1:30 | 30 minutes | 2:00 | Channel Sales Cycle |
| 2:00 | 30 minutes | 2:30 | Workshop #1 |
| 2:30 | 30 minutes | 3:00 | Coffee break |
| 3:00 | 30 minutes | 3:30 | Workshop #2 |
| 3:30 | 15 minutes | 3:45 | Break |
| 3:45 | 30 minutes | 4:15 | Workshop #3 |
| 4:15 | 30 minutes | 4:45 | Group discussion |
| 4:45 | 15 minutes | 5:00 | Wrap-up |
Tentative Schedule
| Workshops |
eNewsletters |
Webcasts |
| October 21 |
October 10 |
November 15 |
| November 14 |
October 17 |
December 6 |
| December 4 |
October 24 |
January 17 |
| December 5 |
November 14 |
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November 28 |
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December 4 |
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January 16 |
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January 23 |
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January 30 |
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Workshops
- Tentative Dates/Locations:
- October 21: Gartner IT ChannelVision, La Quinta Resort and Club, La Quinta, California
- November 14: Toronto, Ontario
- December 4: Los Angeles, California
- December 5: San Jose, California
eNewsletters
- Special Edition of Channel Advisor
- Tentative Dates:
- Series I: October 10, 17, 24
- Series II: November 14, 28, Dec. 4
- Series III: January 16, 23, 30
Webcasts
- Time: 11:00 am PST; 1:00 pm CST; 2:00 pm EST
- Tentative Dates:
- November 15, December 6, January 17
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