Business leaders of today must be thinking that partners are the best thing ever. One year after the pandemic shut down businesses across the country, it’s safe to say that a lot has changed. Businesses have been scrambling to adjust and a lot of digital transformation projects have been fast-tracked as well. Others have tossed in their five-year plans or essentially recalibrated their work policies so that they can support initiatives that include working from home. Those that may double-down may go on to focus on third-party business partners as this will give them a leg-up in terms of sales. Either way, now more than ever before, it would seem that partners are the eyes, the ears and the feet on the street. Vendors are depending on them more than ever before and they are also essential to customer engagement.
How will Covid-19 Affect the Structure of Society?
Covid-19 really has laid bare the weaknesses that we face in this society. It has also revealed a lot of systematic policy failures too. A lot of sessions have highlighted some key risks, and amongst them was the social damage that comes with the virus as well as cratering economies. You have to factor this into account when creating your future plans, as things certainly won’t be normal.
How is Covid-19 Going to Change the International System?
The pandemic is going to bring about a lot of changes to the order of things. This is especially the case in the world of sales and marketing.
How is Covid-19 Going to Change the Way Markets Operate?
Covid-19 has shown that there are a lot of weaknesses in the safety nets we have and on top of this, there are systematic policy failures too. Sessions have highlighted key risks, as well as showing worsening inequality.
Leveraging Tech- Covid and Beyond
It’s safe to say that the results right now are speaking for themselves. Look at the IT industry for example. The tech industry shrunk as a whole in 2020 but at the end of the day, companies such as Microsoft or even Datto fared very well during the whole of the pandemic. Microsoft relies on partners when making well over 90% of their sales and they reported a record amount of earnings in 2020. Datto saw their sales jump by 10% when compared to the year before. Even though sales through distributors demonstrated some resiliency, it would seem that in Europe, distribution grew by 7.3%. US sales matched in terms of distribution even though there were a considerable amount of shortages and business interruptions. It hasn’t all been good for every business though, as air travel has plummeted by 96% and the country of Africa has also suffered. Africa has the lowest penetration for mobile in the world, yet they count for 40% of the population in the world. With 85% of the schools in the world being affected, it’s safe to say that there have been hindrances for industries.
Digital Transformation
In this day and age, over half of the channel partners are now undergoing a huge transformation as they try to gain some balance in the industry as a whole. They are overhauling the business models they have, and this has significant implications if you are a vendor company. A decade ago, channel partners in the tech industry looked to vendor commissions and rebates as this would help them to make the most profit. In this day and age, this is no longer the case. According to CompTIA, partners are now looking to embrace new business models that help them to prioritize things such as digital services and even consulting. That is not to say that partners do not want financial help. They do, but that being said, they want one that comes in a predictable and somewhat manageable fashion. This brings about professional automation.
Channel building in this day and age depends on automation as this will help vendors with the management or general disbursement of funds. It will also help with things such as onboarding or enablement.
Partner Management is Evolving
Finally, you have partner management. This is evolving as well. It’s going from an art into a science. This all comes down to automation. Partner management is now much more metric driven and it is also far more equitable when compared. So as a partner program manager, how can you keep abreast of all of the things that are going on right now? It starts with you asking yourself a few crucial questions. This can include your policy- what are you doing and why? You also have the process. How are you going to do it? Next up, program. What are you going to do?
Other questions include your platform. Where are you going to do it? And people, who will own it? Once you have been able to think through all issues like this, you will be well on your way to building your own channel.