Are Your Partners Equipped for Your Ecosystem?

Amy Henderson of Channelnomics drives home the importance of tailoring your ecosystem to what your partners need to successfully help the end customer.

One of the most common misconceptions surrounding the term “ecosystem” is that it’s new and replacing traditional channels. That’s simply not true. Ecosystems have been around as part of the sales motion for much longer than channels, if not longer. By definition, any go-to-market (GTM) activity involving three or more parties constitutes an ecosystem. There are numerous types of ecosystems, including simple, collaborative, and bundled, but they all have one common denominator: the end customer.

How’s your ecosystem addressing the end customer’s needs?

Your answer to the question depends largely on how well you’re equipping your partners.

According to a recent Quick Take published by Channelnomics, the channel program aspects most important to partners are percentage of recurring revenue, technical training, and market development funds (MDF). And then there’s the technology that’s driving those areas of interest. As per our latest Channel Forecast survey, cloud computing, security (data, infrastructure, cloud), and application development ranked as the top three technology practices in the channel this year.

Does your program take these elements into account? Are you training your partners to contribute to your ecosystem?

In our latest “In the Margins” episode, Amy Henderson, VP of client relations at Channelnomics, discusses these issues, as well as best practices for preparing partners effectively.