Business technology consumers and the channels that serve them are changing. Three macro forces are driving this change: data explosion, everything cloud and transformative applications. Charting your channel strategy and building the right channel program will be crucial in staying ahead of the rapidly changing world of IT and will make a large impact on your business. This Quick Start blog series will lead you through nine different stages and steps to ensure you have the right strategy, channel and program to get you on the road to sustainable revenue with partners.
The next step in your strategy is to validate the market to ensure the indirect model will be a well-received strategy. There are four key areas to investigate when validating your market opportunity.
1. Market Research – Investigate the entire market opportunity and determine if there is enough market demand to support a direct and indirect strategy. Document relevant and reputable third-party, established research and studies as they are a beneficial tool for market and channel credibility when crafting your partner business propositions. CompTIA offers research at no cost with timely information tailored for the channel.
2. Solution and Product Offers – Define the solution you offer, and your unique end customer value proposition. Customer proposition elements include the benefits, the reasons customers by you over other competitors, and market credibility. Compelling and quality value propositions allow partners to easily understand how to win a customer with your solution. Unclear or uncompelling customer value proposition messaging will delay success in the channel.
3. Client Profiles – Clear customer profiles are important for a channel model. Clearly articulate the customer profile to assist partners with their marketing and selling efforts. Elements of a customer profile include geography, customer size, vertical, department buyer, and numbers of employees.
4. Competitor Strategies – Understand the markets, product messages, go to market business model, and target clients of your top three competitors. Then ask if there are new ways to offer your solution and be on the lookout for new emerging competitors. This will assist you with the validity of a channel strategy; and ultimately help you select the right partner type.
Did you miss stage one – Reasons to Build a Channel – in this Quick Start series? Click here to read it now. Stay tuned for stage 3!
