Current Issues Facing Channel and Alliance Managers
These relationships are commonly in the form of channels and strategic alliances (i.e. marketing referrals, agents, resellers, original equipment manufacturers and others). To make these relationships work there must be an investment in time, as well as in people. Expectations must be set correctly at all levels of the company, and all executives must remember this is not a short-term fix, but rather a strategic investment in the future of their firm. Several recurring themes throughout any relationship relating to problems or successes are: communication or lack there of; trust or mistrust between partners; and compensation arrangements. In May 2006 ChannAlli Consulting conducted a targeted email survey of channels and alliances executives* to determine attitudes concerning partnerships. The executives were asked to provide answers to four questions concerning: the importance of partnerships to their business strategy; whether partner goals had been achieved; reasons for partner success or failure; and obstacles of partnerships.
This survey provides some insight into how companies are increasing revenues with their partners. It is overwhelmingly clear all 26 of the respondents indicated that channels and strategic alliances were important to their companys overall strategy and business goals. In fact, a majority of the respondents, 15, indicated that their goals are to attain 50% of their revenue from channels this year. While impressive, this is not always possible, according to statistics and experience learned by companies such as ChannAlli. Some products are too technical for partners to grasp or integrate, or do not lend themselves to a channel model for sales implementation.
