Welcome to part 3 of our Microsoft ISV Workshop Series, where we outline the findings of our group discussion with Microsoft ISVs in Western Europe at various stages of development. I suggest reading Part 1 and Part 2 of the series if you haven’t read them yet.
During the breakout sessions, we asked companies to group themselves according to their stage of sales channel maturity. The challenges are naturally different at each stage, as the session exposed, but there was a common theme. It was interesting to see that of the 20 companies, only 2 fell into the Early stage category, the rest were Growing and Established in Channels.
The three groups got to work discussing their shared challenges and captured their top ten as follows:
Take a look at the easy reference guide in the table below. We took stock and noted the challenges in each group of participants. In reviewing the challenges and categorising each one, we found the following to be key considerations for each stage of channel maturity:
Do you have challenges to add to the list above?
The top considerations of the Early in Channels are:
Is your product suitable to be sold through sales partners? What is the best way to get started?
On all stages some questions should always be asked:
- How do you strengthen Your Partner Proposition and associated marketing messaging to communicate your proposition to the market?
- How to effectively manage direct sales teams working with or alongside partner sales in the marketplace?
- To accelerate your success, take a few minutes right now to list out your top 10 Sales Channel Challenges, and then select the top 3 challenges.
- What capabilities do you need in the coming months to address your top 3 challenges?
- Keep in mind the Sale Channel Evolution/Maturity Model, and where you are on the path.
Are your top 3 challenges addressing the next stage in the process, or are you trying to move too quickly?
Keep an eye out for the next article in the series, where we will make some observations on the workshop outcomes and further considerations for each stage of development.
Click here for part 4 in the series Identify Your Top Sales Channel Challenges