Adapt or die: Report calls for channel marketing overhaul
Channel consultancy OneGTM urges changes to vendor sales training and more content-driven marketing in new report
Channel consultancy OneGTM has dived into the debate about the evolving IT buying and selling landscape, releasing a new guide called Winning Business Through the Channel.
The guide outlines how B2B customers have changed the way they buy IT products and offers advice on the key marketing and sales techniques vendors and resellers need to adopt if they are to survive.
Speaking to CRN, Phil Brown (pictured below), OneGTM director, said the report was inspired by the way buying cycles have changed in the channel.
"The report is reflective of what we see happening in the marketplace, which is the way, generally, the landscape of how businesses buy technology has changed significantly over the last five to 10 years.
"A range of factors are behind this. Firstly, buyers have access to far more information directly without needing to speak to suppliers - they have access to information via the internet, via IT analysts and via IT consultants," he said.
"Customers are not typically interested in speaking to suppliers just about what a product does, because they can find out a lot of that information for themselves, so as a consequence, they are tending to involve suppliers much later in their buying process."
OneGTM's comments echo those made earlier this year by Gartner, which called for a "reimagination" of how vendors engage with partners, arguing that many remain "stuck in the '90s".
Brown said the other key change in the buying landscape is the dwindling success of classic marketing strategies.
"The other thing that has changed, and it's partly as a result of buyers having more information, is that traditional marketing techniques just don't work as well anymore. The classic model of, 'we'll get a telemarketing person on the phone, we'll bang out a bunch of emails saying how great our product is and set up a phone call to try to set up an appointment', is just experiencing diminishing returns."
This "diminishing" value of email marketing is something that Microsoft has also recently noted, with the vendor's partner marketing manager Rob Evans saying that "80 per cent of marketing emails [are] now going unopened".
Frog in a pan
The OneGTM report outlines the severe consequences for those channel players who do not adapt to the way the "world of technology sales and marketing has moved on".
"Unfortunately, many organisations will fail to understand why they are finding it increasingly difficult to drive sales until it is too late. One step removed from the end customer, they're not recognising that the rules of the game have changed," the report said.
"They resemble the proverbial frog in the pan of gradually heated water; dimly aware that things are getting a bit uncomfortable but unable to quite put their finger on what has changed."
Brown also said those who do not change their practices are at risk of dying out.
"Ultimately, it puts their survival at risk," he said. "If you do not have an effective way of generating demand, the bottom line is you probably won't be around for too long; as with anything, it's the survival of the fittest."
Brown said part of the problem for many partners is they have to deal with change in multiple aspects of their business, not just the nuances of successful marketing.
"Resellers have to cope with change in multiple directions at the same time," he said. "Buying landscapes have changed but they are also trying to adapt to moving to more of a cloud-based model, moving to managed services and having to reskill. This [change to sales and marketing] is just one of multiple changes they are trying to cope with and when you are pretty small it's tough to reinvent your business."
OneGTM said it is the vendors' responsibility to make sure their partners adjust to deal with these shifts in marketing and selling techniques.
"Vendors - for their partners and also for their own futures - need to do a better job of helping resellers adapt to this change," Brown said.
The road ahead
Looking forward, OneGTM highlighted a number of changes that vendors and partners need to implement in order to survive.
The report advocated a focus on using content to reach out to customers, such as research reports, infographics and videos, being able to "offer some thought-provoking opinions, backed up by relevant insights" and generally creating conversations with customers.
Brown also noted that vendors should change the way they train their resellers and make sure this training is focused on business issues, rather than just the merits of technologies.
"If all sales training is focused on equipping people to tell them why their product is great, that is not reflecting the way people need to sell now. To open the door now, people need to go in and offer some insights, talk about business issues, and if the vendors are not equipping salespeople as part of their enablement programmes, they are not doing their jobs effectively," he said.
When asked what the key to sales and marketing is today, Brown said it was moving to a more collaborative channel, with more interaction between vendors and resellers.
"It's about having a more collaborative approach to going to market," he said. "The old model is, 'we are a vendor, we make a product, we ship it out to the reseller, the reseller goes out and sells it', and it's a very linear relationship, where the reseller works out how to sell," Brown said.
"Actually, the vendors now need to be sharing insights with their partners, creating tools that their partners can use to create information, helping their partners plan and build go-to-market plans. It's successful when there is a far more collaborative relationship."