I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For: Why Channel Reporting Is Failing Channel Teams

I still covet my vinyl copy of U2’s The Joshua Tree. It’s a soundtrack to my teenage years. It also turns out it contains a song title, or two, that come in handy when I’m talking to channel folks about challenges they face in our world of ever expanding data. I’m certain I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For was never meant to apply to IT channels in any way, yet it has become extremely fitting.

I’ve written before about the need for a ‘cable harness’ for channel performance to bring together the loose wires of data that exist from multiple channel reporting systems. In this post I outline the four areas that matter most to channel teams: Focus, Sales, Marketing, and Commitment.

Bringing this down one level; you have partner data, and you have reports on the partners in that data. Once you get to the channel reporting, the U2 soundbite kicks in. I’ve seen first-hand, system reports that generate pages of data on partners at a very granular level. It’s all useful stuff, don’t get me wrong. However, by not focusing on outcomes, it can fail channel partners. It won’t get you any closer to be able to take action on the things you actually need to solve. It’s a deluge of report after report, charts, graphs, and recitations that don’t provide any real insight, identification or focused action.

Let’s take a real problem from the world of channel marketing. Channel marketers pump Marketing Development Funds (MDF) into channel partners. They expect activity to come back out. Yet, we know MDF gets left on the table. The outcome we want to drive is to put the right money with the right partners, who can put those funds to good use.

If we break this apart, then we start to see this issue. MDFs are one system. They manage the allocation of money, the approval process for planned activity, and the proof of delivery and payment. They are separate from training and certification systems where partners can take training on business and marketing skills offered by some vendors. They are separate again from asset libraries and campaign creators offered by vendors to enable partners to generate campaign activity.

If I want to understand who gets the money, who spends the money, and who doesn’t, we can do that in one system. If I want to understand why, I need to access channel reporting from three or four systems. I have to piece together the story from those reports, hunting down the data points I need. Only then can I start to understand why a partner isn’t spending funds.

That’s a lot of effort for one partner; yet alone 1,000 or more partners who might be receiving funds. Even if I did this, and I wouldn’t, I’m looking at each partner in isolation. I’m not taking learning from one partner to another, or grouping them in a way to see patterns.

To get this right, I need to take each data point and put them together in one report. I also need to apply the result to a standard model which allows me to understand how to treat that partner.

Back to our marketing example. For channel marketers, we think there are four metrics that matter. We need to take the data points we need and combine them within these metrics to give our lens. Then do this at scale across all partners.

MDF allocation sits in marketing maturity. It’s an indicator that if the partner is being allocated funds they are generating growth in sales. That says they are doing something to build marketing capability.

MDF activity sits in engagement, where we record what the partner actually executes on. Any training and development sits in maturity. Accessing assets is part of alignment. Campaign execution using vendor platforms is in engagement.

There are now just five data points that I can map for my 1000 partners. I can see who is doing similar things, and where they have a positive result that I can repeat with others. I can see gaps and I can again take action across groups. All of which delivers my outcome – reduce the gap between money allocated and money spent.

I can take this one step further. Improving MDF spend usage is one use case. There is more that matters to channel marketers that, in our view, can be mapped to the same four metrics. Now that I have a complete picture or dashboard, I can do two things.

First, I can put all my partners on a map. A simple segmentation map like the one opposite, allows me to address partners in groups. I can create marketing programs and campaigns designed specifically for these groups, allowing me to drive behaviors that deliver the outcomes I need.

Then, I can track progress over time against the data points that matter for the metrics that matter across groups of partners. I’m using the same granular channel reporting. The difference is now I have it in one view against things I understand. I now know I can invest my time in changing approach and marketing enablement to those partners, even dialling up or down funds based on ability to consume those funds and deliver the right activity in the right way.

And now U2’s I Still Haven’t Found What I Looking For fades into the distance…

bChannels exists to inspire, guide and grow our customers’ partner networks. We believe in keeping channel performance simple. It’s about metrics that matter to outcomes. Read more here.

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