channels of the future breakfasy
DESCRIPTION
Slides from the Channels of the Future Breakfast, including some research data from the COTF project.TRANSCRIPT
Channels of the Future
Discussing Web 2.0 impact to the value chain
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If you are not already active in the various spaces, you may find it interesting to follow:
MIke Dubrall on LinkedIn
@MikeDubrall on Twitter
Channels of the Future Group on LinkedIn
Michael DubrallManaging DirectorGilwell Group, LLC
Gilwell Group provides research, consulting, and
enablement services to help organizations measure,
manage, and improve partnership productivity through
the use and understanding of next generation products
and tools.
“Channels of the Future” Community
for Partner Managers www.Gilwellgroup.xeequa.com
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Channels of the Future Research Service
(Vendor and Reseller surveys)
Channels of the Future Consulting
(Community Development)
Social Media Education for Vendors and
Channel Partners
MIke Dubrall on LinkedIn
@MikeDubrall on Twitter
Channels of the Future Group
• Traditional Framework for Channel Growth (KPAs)
• Social Media Chaos – So Many Sites, So Little Time
• How Resellers Are Using Social Media
• Site By Site Discussion of Partnering Usage
• On-line Communities
Today’s Agenda
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• On-line Communities
• Changing Sales Process
• Next Generation Partnering Strategies
Partner Execution
Communications
Objectives
Traditional Channel
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Partner Execution
Infrastructure
Objectives
Channel Growth
Framework
Forces Battering the Framework
• Social Media (Web 2.0)
• SaaS (HaaS, Open Source)
• Economic Downturn
• Maturation of the Industry and the Channel
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Social Networking is as old as civilization. It involves the sharing of information
among friends/acquaintances to socialize, discuss topics of interest, reduce risks,
and make more informed decisions.
Social Media is how the internet has changed social networking. It includes the
use of Web 2.0 tools like blogs, wikis, video file sharing, and social networking
sites like Facebook to expand the reach of social networking and more effectively
capture and share relevant information. (Matt Goddard, R2i.ntegrated.com)
Earlier today I was once again asked to wrap a neat
definition around social media. It seems
increasingly hard to do this without sounding like a
bit of a tool. Chris Lake on eConsultancy
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capture and share relevant information. (Matt Goddard, R2i.ntegrated.com)
On-line Communities combine many social media capabilities in one secure place
to facilitate communications, collaboration, and networking for social,
educational, or business purposes
“Social Media is the collection of tools and
online spaces available to help individuals and
businesses to accelerate their information and
communication needs.” - Axel Schultze
Social Media Value Pyramid
Vendor (strategic benefits)- Continuing access to the installed base- A new leverage point with channels
- Partner empowerment- Brand distribution
Channel Partners (financial benefits)- Additional service to customers at no cost - Growth through customer advocacy
Social Media Impacts All Levels Of The Value ChainTechnology vendors must adapt their channel programs in
response to the availability of Web 2.0 tools/technologies.
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- Additional service to customers at no cost - Growth through customer advocacy- Members help reduces support cost- Creating a competitive advantage
Customers (direct benefits)- Expanding their network connections- More help in problem solving- Faster skill development- Increased visibility and recognition
On a 1-10 scale, how active are you personally
on the following social media sites?
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IT vendor employees are more active on-line. (Partners were asked this same question in a monthly survey.)
The speed of acceptance for
social media is staggering.
400 M social media users
75% of adults now use Social
Crossing Over Into Business
9Awareness Magazine, 9/08
75% of adults now use Social
Media to connect with each
other. Forrester
Some of the largest sites today• Bebo 40,000,000
• Classmates.com 50,000,000
• Facebook 175,000,000
• Friendster 90,000,000
• Hi5 80,000,000
• LinkedIn 35,000,000
Approximately 30% of the one Billion Internet users are now part of a social network. In five years - 400+ million users of social media.
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• LinkedIn 35,000,000
• Orkut 67,000,000
• Reunion.com 51,000,000
• Tagged.com 70,000,000
• Windows Live Spaces 120,000,000
• MySpace 253,145,404
This happened with- zero advertising
- zero sales- zero cold calls
Source: Alexa.com
YouTube has 500,000 sites linking to it
Entire Ecosystems have developed
around the most popular sites
pwytter
Twitterholic.com CNN has almost 1,000,000 followers
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50 Great Widgets For Your Blog
40+ Tools For Google Calendar
SKYPE TOOLBOX: 50+ Enhancements for Skype
GMAIL TOOLBOX: 60+ Tools For Gmail
Some Things to Consider• Virtually all large technology vendors have a formal
social media initiative (not with channels)
– Plus dozens of informal projects scattered across the company
– Partner Sales Managers are increasingly spending their time on
social media activities
– Partners increasingly concerned about how vendors
communicate with them and their customers
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communicate with them and their customers
• Already there are leaders and followers among vendors
and social media activities
– There are a lot of thought leaders on Twitter
– This impacts branding and positioning
– This impacts your ability to influence channel behavior
What Resellers Are Doing (Or Should be Doing) On-line
• Finding New Customers
• Improving Proposal Close Rates
• Shortening Sales Cycles
• Training Employees and Customers
• Recruiting Employees
• Improving Customer Satisfaction
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• Improving Customer Satisfaction
• Building Partnerships with other Resellers
• Advertising, Public Relations, building brands, disseminating
information, filling webinars, and more
Social Media Sites Where Resellers CongregateTactical Sites
SlideShare – Flickr
Issuu – Schribd
Podcast – Podcastalley
Meetups
Dual Presence SitesMySpace
Experimental SitesTwitter
Digg/Delicious
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Digg/Delicious
Training/Communication SitesYouTube – Yahoo Video
SlideShare
Blogs
Networking sitesMeetups
LinkedIn - Plaxo
Branded On-line Communities
Google / Yahoo Groups
Meetups964 in Santa Clara
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SlideShare
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SlideShare
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Flicker Posting photos for tech support and on-line use
EMC = 18,639 on Flickr Hewlett Packard = 43,507 Microsoft = 211,098
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Scribd - Posting documents for on-line use
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Podcast (Podcastalley)Posting podcasts for easier access
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Dual Presence Sites
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MySpace
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Personal Branding on Facebook
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MySpace
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Experimental Communication Sites
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Digg
Delicious
Digg/Delicious
• Explanation and example of Reseller
Use
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TwitterThe world’s biggest
communication chain
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Sites Used for Training/Knowledge Transfer
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Yahoo Video
YouTube
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YouTube
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Videos, Channels, Playlists
IBM – almost 10,000 videos
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Sites Used for Networking - Sales
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Yahoo Groups
Google Groups
Branded Communities
LinkedIn Prospecting153 results for Dow Chemical, Vice President Sales
115 results for John Deere, Vice President Sales
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LinkedIn Groups44,356 results for microsoft partner 48,488 results for channel partner
4414,667 results for Cisco partner 3,844 results for value added reseller
LinkedIn Research
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Google/Yahoo
Groups
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Branded On-line Communities
Bring it all Together
• Reduce Support Costs
– Direct/Indirect Support Call deflection
– Faster issue resolution and fewer escalations
– Elimination of alternative support channels
– Lower-cost support for multilingual customers, spike handling
• Drive Marketing & Sales
Source: Lithium Solutions
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• Drive Marketing & Sales
– Enhanced SEO and Word of Mouth Promotion
– Reduced cost of acquiring prospect/customer information
– Increased close rate and higher average order size
• Accelerate Innovation
– Decrease costs of gathering customer feedback
– More efficient product and service launches
– Better targeting of products and services
– Faster Issue identification and resolution
Branded On-line Community Systems
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Tying Branded Communities Together
Master Consol Distributing
smart, non advertisial
content such as blog posts,
events, white papers,
news, video clips to
hundreds or thousands of
partner community
systems.
Partner communities
Getting content directly to the existing installed base
Like AdWords for
“smart content”
With a distribution
system that is
transparent and
Channel aware
Reseller A Reseller B Reseller C Reseller D . . . . . . Reseller N
Partner communities
Allow selected vendors
to syndicate content with
their customer community.
Customer
Base
Customer
BaseCustomer
Base
Customer
Base
Customer
Base
Value of Programs to Resellers
Reseller Rating of Vendor Program Offerings
Partner Portal 3.01
On-line training 2.92
Webinars / web meetings 2.91
Resellers were asked to rate
the programs provided by their
vendors, in terms of how well
the program helped the
reseller sell to customers.
Growing resellers rated all
programs higher than non-
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Webinars / web meetings 2.91
Joint Business Planning 2.73
Mass emails with file
attachments
2.61
On-line forums 2.57
Electronic Newsletters 2.21
1=Negative impact on our ability to sell
2=No impact on our ability to sell
3= Modestly improves our ability to sell
4=Significantly improves our ability to sell
programs higher than non-
growing resellers. (Cum Jan-
March 09)
Channels of the Future Research
Personal Activities – Reseller Employees
LinkedIn 4.38
MySpace/Facebook 3.61
Industry Blogs 3.59
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YouTube 2.76
Twitter 2.40
Second Life 1.41
participation in the following kinds of Web 2.0 sites, where 1 is no participation
and 10 means you visit daily
Reseller Social Media Skills
Growing Resellers 4.18 5.36 4.07 2.96 1.25 2.93
How would you describe your MySpace Linkedin Blogs Video on Demand Second Life Twitter
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How would you describe your company’s revenue growth over the
past 24 months?
MySpace and
Linkedin and Plaxo
Blogs Demand (VOD) like YouTube
Second Life Twitter
Non Growing Resellers 3.20 3.63 2.98 2.39 1.10 1.90
Channels of the Future Research
Reseller Needs from Vendors
On-Line Product Demos 6.75
E-marketing/Storefronts 6.50
Internet Advertising 6.03
Help with SoMe 5.03
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Help with SoMe 5.03
On-Line Communities 5.00
Testimonials on YouTube 4.41
Rate your interest in having your vendors provide the following social media tools to make you and your company more successful, where 1 is no interest and 10 is extreme interest.
Channel Top Ten1. On-Line Communities (Branded and Open)
2. LinkedIn
3. Blogs
4. Facebook
5. MySpace
6. YouTube
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6. YouTube
7. Yahoo Video
8. Twitter
9. Flickr
10.Tactical Sites (SlideShare, Issuu, etc.)
Regarding Social Media, What’s
Holding You (Vendors) Back?
5555© 2009 Gilwell Group, LLC
Web 2.0 Channels 2.0
• Web 2.0 concepts and tools are transforming the entire
value chain
– Open and Instant Communications
• Isolated silos of information are replaced by content sources and
platforms for end users to build on collaboratively
– Freedom & Necessity to Share and Re-use Information
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– Freedom & Necessity to Share and Re-use Information
– Decentralization of Authority/Decision Making
– Many services are low cost or even free
• Changing rules and business models in the channel
• Changing the sales process
Non-linear, unstructured, conversational, constantly changing, multi-media, collaborative, low cost
How end-user customers buy today
They rely on the Internet for information – not their sales rep
• They do Google searches
• They ask friends in their social network
• They check forums or online groups or blogs
• They get feedback in Twitter or other micro blogs
• When they are “ready to buy” the brand and product decision is “far along”
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• They hate cold calls
• They increasingly ignore advertising
• They have spam filters and popup blockers
• They throw junk mail into the waste basket
• They have no patience for the traditional sales process
They may not describe it that way – but their purcha se decision is increasingly made in the social web.
Consumers are becoming Prosumers
Partner Execution
Communications
Objectives
Channel Growth
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Partner Execution
Infrastructure
Objectives
Growth Framework
Channels 1.0 Channels 2.0What’s Going Out What’s Coming In
Go-to-marketStrategy
Structured Channels
Brand Control
Top down communication
Customer Communities
Buzz Days
Conversation Clouds
Complex Solutions SaaS, HaaS, Open Source
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Partner Marketing
Partner CommunitiesSocial Networking, Suspect
Identification, Interactive
web sites/wikis, RSS feeds,
VOD Training
SMS, Twitter
Email Blasts/Webinars
Web 1.0 Partner Portals
Classroom Training
Lead Generation
Responsiveness is critical
Whole Product
Complex Solutions
Packaged Software
Product Brand Power
Product “Ownership”
SaaS, HaaS, Open Source
Managed Services
Globalization
Try-and-Buy
Channels 1.0 Channels 2.0What’s Going Out What’s Coming In
Territory Management
Local Partner Territories
Named Accounts
Telephone Prospecting
Boundless Territories
Mega Communities
Community Prospecting
On-line Recruiting
Partner Knowledge Transfer Knowledge Sharing
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Sales Management
Dealing with Prosumers
Collaboration
Relentless Networking
Online Selling
Deal Registration
Cold Calling
Funnel Management
Face-to-face selling
Responsiveness is critical
Partner Management
Knowledge Transfer
CRM and SFA
Sales Incentives
Quarterly Meetings
Knowledge Sharing
Community Building
Community Incentives
24/7 Interaction
When Vendors Don’t Embrace The Future
• Excessive channel marketing programs costs
– Slower time to market for new programs
– Static vs. dynamic knowledge transfer
• Inadequate response time to market changes
– Collaboration shackled by bureaucracy
– Inability to engage with new partner types
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– Inability to engage with new partner types
– Slower revenue ramp in SMB markets due to limited sales
coverage
• Partners and customers cannot take leadership role
– Loss of channel influence / leadership
– Exclusion from emerging Partner and End-user Communities
• Not present at the purchase decision
What Resellers Need to be Doing
• Planning for Change
– Upgrading their web sites
– Finding out where their customers congregate on-line
– Creating on-line communities for their customers
– Encouraging their employees to develop and use their on-
line presence for business
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line presence for business
“The nicest thing about not planning is
that failure comes as a complete
surprise and is not preceded by a period
of worry and depression”
John Preston - Boston College
Successful Strategies for Vendors • Vendors need to lead their partners
– End-user customer mapping to social media usage
– Partner mapping to social media usage
– Branded community setup - Linking Communities
– Fund web 2.0 web sites linked with communities
• Individuals/Organizations should embrace Web 2.0
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– LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, SlideShare, or ??
– Pick your top five and be disciplined
– Comment, post, forward, repeat
– Its not additive – it’s a replacement
– You won’t get a second chance
Social Media Map for Partner Managers
For each of these social media focal points, understand how many users (partners), how active they are, who are the thought leaders, and how can you
connect the activity back to your own community.
Partner Portal & Community
Facebook MySpace
Channel Blogs Twitter
400,000,000 Users100,000 Resellers
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Partner Communities
Partnerpedia
Industry Blogs
MySpace
SlideShare Flickr
Vendor Partner
Communities
Google Groups Yahoo Groups
YouTubeMeetups
Gilwell Group
3,000 Vendors
Thanks
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For more information
Mike Dubrall
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikedubrall
or
Channels of the Future Community
www.gilwellgroup.xeequa.com