Opportunity No. 1: Look Beyond Best Partners

We only have so much time in the day, so it’s easy to focus on the best channel partners. But just as there were a lot of tumbleweed towns along the old rail lines that grew overnight, vendors should watch for emerging partners that can provide significant growth. Emerging partners include SMBs (small and midsize businesses) as well as your competitors’ best partners. Even a small shift within this segment can result in tremendous gains for you. We call this combined approach to partners “Retaining the best and engaging the rest.”

Take, for instance, a major electronic equipment manufacturer that wanted to expand its market share by improving the performance of its midsize dealers. We learned that in the past, this vendor had rewarded only the highest-volume dealers.

The vendor started offering all dealers an opportunity to earn rewards for incremental performance. Dealers were placed in volume levels and assigned growth objectives. Bonuses were offered to dealers who agreed to move up to the next highest volume level. The result: Overall dealer purchases increased 15 percent in a flat market, and the midsize dealers grew at 30 percent. Best of all, the vendor identified the dealers with greatest potential to sell more.