Now Hear This: How a "Voice of the Partner" Program Boosts Channel Partner Performance

As a high-tech company, is your finger on the pulse of your channel partners? More to the point, can you hear what they're saying? And most importantly, are you positioned to do anything about it … before it's too late?

An alarming and telling fact that should command our attention: one-third of U.S. reseller partners have dismissed a technology vendor in the past year alone, according to a recent industry report.

Partners can become disenchanted for a number of reasons, including a lack of vendor-provided leads, channel conflict, poor service and support or misaligned business goals.

These crises can be averted, however. It's essential to listen closely to partners, react quickly to their needs and measure the impact on satisfaction. But to be truly valuable, this information must be turned into insight and action. We call this a "Voice of the Partner" program.

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Now that the lines have blurred between direct and indirect channels, bridging the vendor-partner divide is more important than ever. And social media, shifts to the cloud and managed services have skewed traditional sales relationships and channels. Many vendors still use partner support models that tie to more traditional reseller business models.

ZS Associates is in the midst of a series of articles on Voice of the Partner (VoP) programs. The first explores the important questions that technology vendors must ask their partners and how a VoP program can lead to more productive partner—and in turn, customer—relationships. We invite you to read the first article, share your experiences and insights, and give us your feedback. Maybe even share the article with your colleagues, other tech vendors and channel partners, as we'd love to hear from them too.

Sponsored by ZS Associates