Think about it: Daily (or more) email newsletter blasts, social media feeds, frequent partner portal updates with strategic information on product roadmaps, pricing, sales promotions and technical updates. That’s not to mention the collateral on discounts, rebates and MDF that changes regularly, along with the constant flow of information on mandated training or certifications. It’s lots to track, exacerbated by the fact that the information is coming from not one, but a stable of different vendors in the average channel company’s portfolio.
Is it information overload? It depends. While the fire hose nature of vendor communications is a perennial channel complaint, recent industry data finds that the majority of solution providers – groans to the contrary – say they will accept high volumes of information if it is relevant to and helps further their business. That said, a fifth of channel firms believe that vendor communications – relevant or not – is too much and would like to see less of it coming over the transom.
These are two of the key findings from CompTIA’s 2nd Annual State of IT Channel Programs study, to be released this week, which does a deep dive into the communications trends, patterns and obstacles between channel firms and IT vendors today.
Channel Attitudes about Communications Volume
20% - Excessive, prefer less of it
65% - Volume high, but as long as relevant to my business it's useful
12% - Too little. Would like to receive more
3% - No need for it at all
The volume game poses a difficult dance for vendors, in reality. As the industry becomes more complex, business models change, and products and services expand, the need for greater levels of communications with channel partners escalates. And because channel firms tend to be more reactive than proactive with respect to new information, vendors – despite complaints about volume – often need to blast large amounts of communications in order to hit their targets.
The question is, what information is considered relevant to the channel and what is more driven by the needs of the vendors? Material that helps partners sell, get up to speed on new products and services, promotions and other resources is most useful from the channel perspective. Asked which communications medium they believe was most crucial to successful partnership with their vendors in the last year, more than half (53 percent) singled out 24/7 technical phone support, which speaks directly to their ability to understand and effectively sell products.
And yet that’s not the majority of communications type the channel is receiving. Consider the following: Four in 10 respondents said that 75 percent and above of the vendor communications they received in last year pertained strictly to channel marketing and recruitment activities. A whopping 86 percent said that at least half of their communications this past year took that form. For some channel firms, so much pure marketing could be a turn off.
