How the West Was Won: A Look at Improving Channel Performance from the Vendor's Perspective - Look Beyond Best Partners (
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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.
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