The AMI-Partners Blog

Channel programs, more often than not, reward channel partners based on the volume of business they bring in. Period.  There’s nothing wrong with that. 

However, if you’re not #1 or #2 in market share then the question  is how good is your set of “platinum” channel partners?  Sure they are great within the channel partner pool that you have, but what about relative to the broader universe of channel partners?  Do you have a whole bunch of “B” and “C” players floating in your channel partner pool?  Is that by design or just what happened over the last few years?  Would you like to know where your channel partners stack-up against the rest of those across the country or region? 

We have segmented channel partners that serve SMBs into 4 groups.  At the very low-end, there are those that serve basic needs (mostly commodity hardware) and may score a big win every now and then.  At the high-end there are those that hunt aggressively and deliver high value add, complete solutions and halo-enhance whichever brand they deliver.  The other two groups fall in between the continuum. 

Each channel partner segment serves its purpose.  Our data analytics allow us to map our clients’ channel partners into each of these 4 segments, so clients can get a better understanding of what portion of their partners are A, B, C or D players.  They can then triangulate this segment tagging against all internal channel partner data to make better decisions, specifically about those high-potential channel partners that need extra attention to deliver our sized returns.  If some of your channel partners are A players, but you’ve got them in your “Bronze” bucket, chances are they’re just not interested in performing to their full potential when it comes to your products.  And you need to figure out why that is. 

Tell us how you’re examining issues such as these or other issues we should discuss…

Over the next few weeks we will look at the same issue, but this time from the SMB end-user perspective. 

Deepinder Sahni is the Senior Vice President of Global Sizing and Segmentation and can be reached at DSahni@ami-partners.com