Over the last few months I have had the opportunity to meet with several companies across high tech and manufacturing verticals. There is one consistent theme when speaking with each company, “We need better, more reliable, and on time data from our channel.”
As an example, one company I recently spoke to experienced an interruption in channel data reporting over numerous weeks and consistently had large amounts of errors in their data. This impacted their capability to understand where products were being sold globally, and what inventory was available. To compound things, sales and senior management had zero insights into revenue affecting overall reporting for the organization.
Let’s explore the impact of this data and how you can better prepare your organization for 2019 and beyond. Each of us has thought at one time in our lives, “I wish I would have had the foresight to be better prepared for (“you fill in the blank”). As a former Boy Scout, being prepared was ingrained as a mantra for me very early in life. Going into 2019, Channel Chiefs across the globe are tasked with preparing their indirect channel business for the year ahead. The only way you can prepare is with consistent data from their channel partners and understanding the trends within their channel ecosystem.
The response that is needed to be better prepared starts and ends with accurate channel data. No matter the size of the channel, the data being provided by channel partners lacks the consistency needed for true analysis. Relying on spreadsheets and analysis with large data sets lacking a true understanding of how the channel business is performing. This enables your team in the field to focus on and to drive better adoption of your solutions across new and existing customers.
If you think about each part of an organization that relies on point-of-sale and inventory data from your channel to drive their portion of the business, it’s vast. From sales compensation, opportunity management, supply chain, finance, operations and inventory stock levels, each key business indicator needs this data to be consistent to prepare for the road ahead.
Additionally, in recent research published in the 2112 Group’s Channel Chief Outlook: 2018, “Slightly more than one-half (51 percent) of channel chiefs wished their partners would acquire new customers and help expand market share for their brands. The second-most popular wish: increase sales volumes, which 27 percent of channel chiefs selected.”
Ask yourself, “How easy is it for me to identify new customers purchasing from my indirect channel?” Having a desire to help improve your channel partner’s reach can only be successful by identifying new customer opportunities quickly and enabling your sales people to be more effective.
If your organization has similar goals for your channel partners, having the ability to efficiently track new customers in the channel and rewarding your sales team and your partners for continuing to increase your customer base is paramount to drive top line growth and understanding your organization’s true top line. To learn more about how Model N is helping its customers reinvent their channel strategy go here.
