Channel Management Service to Combat Management Challenges

In channel marketing strategies, the key responsibility lies with channel manager who facilitates sales activities and relationship between channel partners and vendors. Modern marketing methods are fraught with challenges that both parties must overcome. Channel management service such as a partner portal is an invaluable solution but ultimately, the channel manager's leadership skills will save the day. For channel managers, the hurdles they would face may include all or some of the following.

Efficient customer transactions
How does channel marketing strategy affect the consumers? On of the main goals of why vendors need channel partners is the efficiency of distribution of their products. Customers are usually not expected to buy directly from vendors that would create more cost with transportation and overhead. Channel partners provide a convenient place where customers can easily buy products and have a place to return it when proven unsatisfactory.

In cases where the product is of high-value and vertical in nature, the customer will more than likely belong to a vertical market. Vendors of such a small niche market should choose wisely the partners who will represent the vendor. For example, you can't expect to find AutoCAD software to be sold in the same stores that sell video games. The AutoCAD software is a vertical product that is meant to be marketed to architecture firms, construction firm, industrial design firms, educational institutions like universities, etc. Vendors are responsible for recruiting and training their employees who'd be pitching the products to companies who deal with design.

Profit and commission
Every business needs to profit to survive and the same is true for channel partners. While both the vendor and channels ultimate goal is profit, sometimes the vendor can be quite frugal with the commissions the partner gets for every successful transaction. Vendors have to keep in mind that they need their partners motivated in order to increase their over all revenue majority of which comes from sales from the different channels.

Companies often have comprehensive and lucrative channel partner programs that give incentives to their partners to keep them enthusiastic about selling their products. Cisco, for instance, introduced SIP or Solution Incentive Program at their Partner's Summit in 2005. Cisco wanted to motivate channel partners as well as end users of their products to convert to newer technologies. To provide additional income to channel partners under the program, CISCO will reimburse additional rebates based on the 15 percent of any trade-in product.

Channel conflict
The bane of every channel manager is channel conflict that can arise when the competition between partners or even the vendor itself gets too heated. Vendors have to develop their strategies that would enable channel partners to sell without the fear of too much competition from another partner. Channel management service like a partner portal is a great solution for this problem because the system usually has the deal registration module that can alert channel managers of any duplicate deals.

A certain amount of trust is also involved in avoiding channel conflict. There are nefarious vendors who would swoop down and grab a deal from a channel partner when their back is turned which would mean they would gain all the profits. Just like in any other business, ethics and respect should supersede greed. Channel managers have the responsibility not only towards the vendor but also towards the partners.