Channel Manager's Playbook [Volume 2: The Master Agent Edition]

is not. Deploying a poor solution cobbled together

with duct tape and hope is irresponsible.) If you are

clear and concise on your precise target and benefit,

the results will be startling.

In the hosted PBX/UC space, there are providers

chasing the one to 1,000 employees market. That

is actually about eight separate market segments,

each with its own buying patterns and sales triggers.

A single message will not resonate the same way

at the sub-20 employee company as it will at the

more-than-500 employee enterprise. Partners may

be chasing both market segments, but the product

portfolio varies. The messaging needs to be different

and targeted for each segment.

Think about the different types of collateral needed

for the two different sales. At the enterprise, there will

have to be answers for a CEO, CFO and CIO – three

different buying personas. Small businesses likely will

just need feature fit and budget and approval from one

or two people. That means the messaging is different.

Recently, while going through a strategy session

with a CLEC on a product launch via the channel,

the definition of the target customer helped to de-

fine the partner as well as the messaging. We start-

ed by defining who the target customer was and

why they would buy this service from this provider.

Next, we delineated the product to not only be

unique for the service provider but also for the cus-

tomer in the marketplace, in the segment that was

desired. All of this permitted us to design messag-

ing that was consistent and clear for the provider

(internally and externally) to the partner and to the

prospective customer.

What would cause you to drop a vendor?

Source: Cloud Technology Alliance

The solution

failed to

deliver

The vendor

failed to

deliver on

promises

The vendor

changed our

margins

Too much

conflict with

the direct

sales team

Vendor failed

to provide

us with leads

Source: Spiceworks

Perceived risk of network-connected endpoints in 2016

Laptops (Company-owned/BYOD)

Desktops

Smartphones (Company-owned/BYOD)

Servers/server rooms

loT devices

Wireless access points

Tablets (Company-owned/BYOD

Routers/switches

81%

73%

70%

49%

47%

42%

38%

(Percentage of IT pros who selected “moderate” or “high” risk)

100

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

54%

51%

41%

33%

15%

Innovation technology

Strong market demand for their solution

The vendor only sells through the channel

The vendor makes its partners responsible for renewals and upsells

The vendor provides leads

The vendor offers good margins

The vendor has dedicated partner management resources

The vendor offers incentives for deal registration

The vendor’s sales team is paid on channel business

Availability of a “reseller console” to manage customers’ deployments

Lucrative add-on professional services

Rank how important the follwing aspects of a vendors’s channel progra are when you evaluate a

pote tial partn rship

Extremely

Very

Neutral

Not really

Not at all

25%

50%

75%

100%

nCloud Survive

• Automatic Voice

& Data Failover

• Up To Three

Redundant Connections

• 24.7 Monitoring

nCloud PBX & SIP

• Proprietary

• Managed Deployment

• Desktop/video Collaboration

• Packet Loss Concealment

• 3X MRC Spiff

WAN Aggregation

• Consolidated Billing

• Vendor Relationship

Management

• Flexible Last Mile Options

• Hybrid MPLS/VPN

855-NCLOUD4

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