6 Steps To Conquering The "Channel Evolution Challenge"

By Ken Mercer, Vice President, TBI

There doesn’t need to be fear in the channel.

But VARs, agents, and systems integrators who hand off prospects to services providers stand to lose revenue — and the customer — forever. This nightmare scenario is commonplace for companies that fail to expand their solution menus, stay educated on new options, and team with master agents with a broad services portfolio.

I call it the biggest threat to the channel.

The Threat

This is how it goes: A VAR pitches a hardware purchase, but your customer needs something more flexible and less costly. The channel firm passes the company to a services provider who pitches a hosted solution or something as-a-Service. The client goes with it, but not you.

Congratulations. You’ve just let the fox into the hen house and he’s eating well. You, on the other hand, lost the business, the relationship with the customers, and any hope of leads from the quota-driven provider that you brought in to help.

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