The channel partnering experts at Amazon Consulting recently released a new study that revealed how channel partners, vendors and distributors are doing in the IT ecosystem. The survey found that the 80/20 rule is in play both for vendors and channel partners, as the most active solution providers are spending most of their time on just a few vendors solutions and that vendors receive the most value from a small group of high performance partners. Meanwhile, though vendors are increasing the breadth and depth of many of their programs, there are gaps where they fail to meet some of their partners' most acute needs. Similarly, there seems to be a disconnect between what type of support vendors expect their distributors to offer resellers and IT solution providers and what is actually delivered by these distributors. Take a look at the state of channel partner-vendor relations.
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52 percent of solution providers reported that one or two vendors made up 75 percent or more of their annual revenues.
Among these, they reported that they have been supporting those key vendors for seven or more years.
Approximately 62 percent of channel partners say they're selling six or more lines opportunistically.
56 percent of vendors say that they generate more than 80 percent of their channel revenue from fewer than 20 percent of their solution providers.
This ratio increases to 68 percent for vendors with revenue of $1 billion or more.
36 percent of solution providers say they'll invest up to six months in a vendor's program before realizing revenue.
Another 34 percent say they'll go up to a year before seeing ROI.
Slightly more than 40 percent of channel partners would like to see a two times return on investment from their vendor costs within the first year of spending that money.
Approximately 27 percent believe that it is OK to just break even within the first year.
Solution providers are most likely to make investments in sales training (88 percent), technical training (80 percent) and outbound customer prospecting (43 percent) in order to get to their first sale.
Vendors reported that it takes partners 30 days to enroll and activate within their channel programs and an average of one to four months to complete initial sales and technical training.
The study showed that solution providers believe they are getting the best support during the initial training stage, but the worst support during active selling and marketing.
Vendors reported that they expect distributors to pick up the slack and invest heavily around this active selling and marketing support--expecting distributors to apply 51 percent of total resources on this stage.
But only 27 percent of solution providers report they go to their distributor for this support.
Intel Technology Provider Program
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