Carrying The Channel Standard

That's the message solution providers are sending to vendors as CRN unveils its first annual list of influential channel chiefs. Executives included in this year's special report were chosen based on criteria including policy and program innovations they made during the past year, the amount of revenue their company generates through partners, their willingness to speak out publicly on behalf of the channel and the number of years they have dedicated to channel activities.

Effective leaders can mobilize an army of solution providers to augment their direct-sales organization or extend their reach into the crucial SMB market, solution providers say. IBM, for one, has seen its channel-generated sales grow tenfold over the past decade, contributing 33 percent of the company's annual revenue in fiscal 2001. Conversely, executives who don't champion the value of the channel and build programs to ensure channel loyalty can send legions of solution providers scurrying to represent the competition, they say.

"They have to be viewed inside their own companies with respect, and they have to have the authority to make things happen," said Laurie Benson, president of Inacom Information Systems, Madison, Wis.

But those qualities alone don't ensure that a channel executive will secure a spot among the elite. Benson said a successful channel executive must spend time out in the field talking to solution providers' customers in order to understand how the channel satisfies their needs. "The best channel executives have to be able to execute," she said. "There are quite a few channel executives that have creative ideas, but following through and executing on the ideas over a sustainable period of time is really what makes a significant difference."

Channel executives also have to do battle within their own organizations to make sure that the channel's voice is heard when strategic decisions are made. "They have to really care about partners and go to bat for the channel internally," said Geoffrey Lilien, president of Lilien Systems, a Mill Valley, Calif.-based solution provider. "If there are conflicts between the channel and direct sales, which there always are, you need to have someone who's really on your side and cares about the channel."

Vendor channel executives who don't speak up for the channel risk losing market share to rivals, Lilien said. Several years ago, when he took issue with the way EMC was running its channel, Lilien wrote a letter to EMC channel executives outlining his concerns. "They chose to part ways with me rather than address the issues," he said. "That's a cop-out from a channel executive who's supposed to make things work."

John DeRocker, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Nexus Information Systems, a Plymouth, Minn.-based solution provider, said EMC has since fixed its channel leadership and strategy, and he now counts the vendor as one of his best partners. DeRocker said he believes the best channel executives are the ones who nurture a mutually profitable relationship. "I have brought EMC business, and they have brought me equal or greater business back," he said.