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By
Dave
Taylor
Channel Management
Sigmund Freud, for one, theorized that
the unconscious mind motivates behavior
to a far greater degree than the con-
scious. During WWII, General Dwight D.
Eisenhower had the ultimate motivational
task of asking his forces to perform tasks
up to – and including – the ultimate sacri-
fice. He observed that motivation is “the
art of getting people to do what you want
them to do because they want to do it.”
Less learned theories and approach-
es abound as well. In the 1992 presi-
dential campaign, political strategist
James Carville coined, “The economy,
stupid” as a message that could moti-
vate voters to act.
And then there’s Abraham Maslow and
his Hierarchy of Needs, “a theory of human
motivation predicated on fulfilling innate
human needs by priority, culminating in self-
actualization.” Motivation is driven by needs.
Maslow noted that the human hierarchy of
needs spans from the tangible, such as
food and water, to the intangible, such as
self-esteem and creativity.
Not to place too fine a point on it,
but an organization also has needs and
subsequent motivations to satisfy them.
While Maslow’s theory was expressed in
terms of how an individual’s needs drive
motivation, they can be applied equally to
what motivates aspects of your business
activities, including channel management.
This is something I call “Taylor’s Hierar-
chy of Channel Needs.”
If you step back for a moment and con-
sider the implications, this humorous take
on Maslow is really no laughing matter.
You have sales targets, budgets, quotas,
etc. Are those needs being satisfied using
the right motivational carrots and sticks?
Still relying solely on sales incentives and
overrides to satisfy the needs of your sales
team? How about the needs of channel
partners? What happens when those are
no longer sufficient to slake their thirst?
In Maslow’s foundation, the physi-
ological need for food, water and shelter
are the very requirements for human
existence. In today’s hyper-competitive
environment – regardless of your indus-
try – your sales foundation is likely built
upon indirect sales channels.
Indeed, indirect channel sales are the
foundation of a modern and infinitely scal-
able sales organization representing more
than 80 percent of all technology sales and
more than 70 percent of non-technology
sales. That’s the foundation your sales
success (or failure) is based on. Build it
on a spreadsheet or some other infernal
in-house contraption (sand) and the entire
structure – scalability, deal registration, etc.
– collapses like a bad soufflé.
The Concrete of
the Pyramid
Too many organizations today still try
to cut corners on this most mission-critical
component, deploying either re-purposed
Portals and Your
Pyramid
Meeting the needs of your
partner base
S
ince The Age of Enlightenment, philosophers,
psychologists and economists have studied and
debated the motivations behind human behavior.
Theories abound.
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Channel
Vision
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January - February, 2017