When you’re in the product and service business the last thing you want to be perceived as is a vendor. Vendors are transactional and provide commoditized products and services. When it comes to channel marketing, the most successful brands should always seek firms that serve as strategic partners, not vendors. A partnership between a brand and provider includes strategic value that helps drive program innovation and ensures desired outcomes are being defined, measured and reported.
Strategy Before Execution
It’s easy to jump right into implementation, building out various program elements, from co-op/market development fund administration to ad building and brand compliance solutions. That said, confirming overall program strategies are defined before implementation helps ensure all parties are aligned around the objectives of a brand’s channel marketing program and how the various components of the offering help meet those strategies and objectives.
It Takes Two to Innovate
Incubating new and innovative channel marketing technologies and services works best when a brand views and utilizes their channel partner as an extension of their team, partnering to achieve their goals. This can be as simple as a client who is looking to solve a specific pain point in their channel program and turns to their partner to help develop a potential solution. A customer-centric channel partner has the ability to rapidly prototype and deploy a minimum viable product or solution and then scale that solution. Most importantly, the brand and the partner understand and acknowledge that both parties benefit from innovating new technologies or services.
Deliver Results Based on Desired Outcomes
Delivering channel marketing results starts with clearly defining what a brand is trying to accomplish in terms of their program. When a brand and their channel provider partner to define desired outcomes and how they will be achieved it ensures everyone is on the same page in terms of what success will look like and how it will be measured. For one channel program element, the focus may be on channel partner engagement. For another, it may be sales of a specific product or SKU. The goal doesn’t matter as long as it’s clear what both parties are working to achieve.
Every channel provider should strive to establish a true partnership with the brands they serve. Similarly, brands should seek out providers that can be an extension of their channel marketing team and deliver incremental value to the relationship. Ensuring strategic alignment, driving innovation and clearly defining what is being measured and how results will be reported are just some of the ways a partnership will help a brand realize desired outcomes.
About Channel Fusion
For nearly 20 years, Channel Fusion has provided brands and their channel partners with a wide variety of solutions and industry expertise. We continue to invest in the overall ecosystem of our channel marketing offering to ensure our clients provide their partners with an optimal customer experience. Our core technologies and configurable platforms are supported by a team of customer-centric “Fusers.” Let us know if you’d like to learn more about how we deliver desired outcomes for brands and their channel partners.