COMMENT | Channel chiefs are, by their nature, stuck between a rock and a hard place. The rock is the vendor – sometimes partner-centric, sometimes selling direct, too often attention-deficient in its strategy. The hard place is the community of resellers and IT solutions providers who are quick to back the vendor’s sales ambitions, but even quicker to turn if they catch a whiff of inconsistency or perceive unfairness.
If it seems like a lonely, under-appreciated role, these channel chiefs should know CRN has got their back. Channel chiefs are the stars of the show. At their best, they are the channel’s ambassadors, fighting the good fight for resellers within often large and complex vendor organisations.
That’s why my team have spent the past month collating a list of 100 channel leaders working in Australia today (including a handful of country managers who also take an active role in partner enablement and strategy). Check out the full list here.
As part of the inaugural ‘CRN Channel Chiefs’ special, I hosted a breakfast of six such executives last month. It was enlightening to hear about their strategies to grow partner-led business, and to listen as they opened up about the challenges they face. Despite coming from categories as diverse as printing, security, storage and cloud, there were numerous parallels in their roles.
We’ve pulled out some of the key takeaways from the roundtable, which you can read here. If I had to single out one theme discussed by multiple channel chiefs, it was an increasing focus on streamlining their channel. They say they want more highly specialised partners.
To achieve this aim, I see a greater need for both parties to invest in the other: the vendor in enablement programs, marketing and demand generation; the partner in skills and specialisation. But this only works if the vendor sticks to its guns and truly backs those partners that invest and commit. I have little time for a vendor that breaks its own promises to its partners in a knee-jerk reaction to chase a big sale. As seasoned channel chief Neville James said at the roundtable, you’ve got to be prepared to die with the decision you are going to make.
Steven Kiernan is editor of CRN
-1.jpg&w=100&c=1&s=0)
.png&w=100&c=1&s=0)
