Channel Services
B2B Channel consultancy
Most tech products stall on the route to market, not because of the customers need or desire for a product. We build the route: the partner programme, the proposition and the plan that makes the channel want to sell and the customers buy.
What this looks like
Product makers, software developers and engineers know their products and services inside and out. And in our experience, the products are usually amazing. However, we have seen time and again that having a great product doesn't mean that it sells. Getting your customers' hands on your solutions is not always simple. Why should a distributor carry it, why should a reseller sell it? How do you get it in front of the customers who need your products or services?
We start by understanding your proposition. Where the product sits, who sells something like it today, what margin the channel makes, and what are the alternatives, and what your competitors' partner motions look like. Out of that comes a go-to-market plan with the route, the programmes, the commercial case for the partner and a set of success outcomes agreed before anything else.
The plan is developed in partnership with the people who have to execute it: your channel team, your distributor's vendor business managers, and the partner salespeople who have a quota and no patience for theory.
Who we help
- Manufacturers entering new markets. A product that works, a team that understands it, and no route to market that lands with distributors or resellers.
- Distributors of all sizes. Two or three vendors produce the number, and the rest of the line card must earn its place. We partner with you to develop the right mix and support for the products that will grow.
- Resellers and MSPs. Vendor relationships that generate funding and programme requirements the business has never had the time to work properly. Developing ideal customer profiles and optimising sales success.
What we do
- Route to market assessments. Direct, single tier, two tier or a mix, with the margin structure and the cost of sale each one carries.
- Partner programme design. Tiers, entry requirements, margin and rebate structure, deal registration, and the rules that keep partners out of each other's deals.
- Channel proposition and messaging. Written for the partner's commercial case, not lifted from end customer material with the logo swapped.
- Partner recruitment. The profile worth targeting, the named list, the approach that gets a meeting, and the onboarding that follows it.
- Enablement. What a partner's sales and technical people have to know to sell it without you in the room, and what has to exist for them to learn it.
- Marketing, MDF and co-op planning. What the funds are meant to produce, what evidence releases them, and what goes back to the vendor to justify the next allocation.
- Measurement. Success outcomes agreed at the start, then reported against, with pipeline first and activity metrics second.
The value
A team that has held the vendor side, the distribution side and the partner conversation, rather than an account team learning your economics on your budget. Nearly a decade at Microsoft across OEM distribution, channel marketing and partner account management. Channel go-to-market at Zoom, Dropbox and Jabra. Five years on the distribution side running vendor campaigns.
The practical effect is that a recommendation arrives having already accounted for the margin the partner needs, the incentive that moves their sales people, and the internal case your channel manager has to make to get it funded.
What it costs to ignore it
The saying is that time is money, and in the channel that is true. Every quarter without a working route to market is a quarter of product sitting with people who cannot sell it. Distribution shelf space and partner attention both get taken by the vendor who made the commercial case easier, and winning them back is more expensive than winning them first.
Marketing funds carry their own deadline. Money allocated and not claimed inside the period is gone, and the activity it was meant to pay for does not carry forward. Partner recruitment done late runs into the budget cycle the partner has already committed.
The failure we see most often is treating launch as the finish line: the announcement lands, nothing is built in the plan for enablement or follow through, and the pipeline is never materialised.
How it runs
Engagements are scoped by project, priced as a fee rather than an open ended retainer, and quoted after a conversation about the commercial objective. Discovery first, then the plan, then execution support where you want it.
Where the plan needs delivery behind it, that runs through marketing services and is scoped separately from the consultancy.
