Champions Don’t Just Happen. They’re Made — One Strategic Step at a Time
We’ve been saying it for years: The pace of change in the technology channel is increasing every day, and those who don’t stay ahead of the curve are destined for obsolescence.
The problem is, we’ve heard that so many times, on so many subjects, we’ve become deaf to the warnings. And most of what we hear is at such a high level that it becomes irrelevant to most channel partners’ businesses. Do these sound familiar?
- Resale is dead, and if you haven’t made the switch to an MRR model, you’re doomed.
- Cybersecurity is the next hot thing. If you haven’t begun to incorporate advanced security into your offerings, you’re doomed.
- In days of yore, referrals and networking were enough to gain new clients. But the buyer’s journey is different now. If you’re not social selling, you’re doomed.
- You can’t just talk to the IT guy anymore. You have to learn how to talk to the C-suite, or you’re doomed.
Congratulations, partners. There’s an awful lot of doom in store for the channel. Best of luck to you on executing these pivots. You’ve heard the warnings. Go forth and conquer.
You hear this message at every conference, in every story from the media, from every corner of the analyst and consultant space. Usually, these messages are chock full of meaningless buzzwords like leading provider; change agent; future-proof; IoT and cloud and AI (all without specific definitions); business outcomes; trusted adviser.
Throughout the course of 2019, Channel Partners has made it a strategic imperative to move away from vague warnings and focus on partner education that actually means something. We feature regular case studies on successful partners. We deep dive into vendor partner programs. We provide structured education with assets such as worksheets, PowerPoint slides and infographics in our Educational Series. And at next year’s Channel Partners Conference & Expo, we’ve issued a challenge to every speaker: Include a specific action plan with your talk, or you’re doomed. (With us, anyway.)
We have a fall conference, Channel Partners Evolution, that focuses more on emerging technology, trends and business models. Channel Partners Conference & Expo, on the other hand, is dedicated to the issues partners are facing in their businesses today.
In 2020, we’re placing a bigger emphasis on education than ever before. You won’t hear a Digital Transformation and You-type talk. We’ll drill down into what these 30,000-foot view topics really mean in practice and provide you with specific action plans you can go home and implement immediately. We’ve got tracks on marketing, business best practices, technology and — for the first time — a dedicated security track.
In addition, for this year’s pre-con Business Success Workshop: Planning for the Future, we have a slew of experts who will walk attendees through business planning concepts such as how to calculate your valuation, what investors are looking for on your balance sheets and how to scale in…
- Page 1
- Page 2