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CHANNEL MANAGEMENT

Written by: Andy Marken

Article Overview: ...ACHIEVING EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATIONS

CHANNEL MANAGEMENT

The rising cost of doing business, the increased segmentation of the business and industrial community, and the need to carry out solutions-selling as opposed to software- or box-selling has raised the value-added reseller to the position of being a vital and indispensable member of the selling cycle.

One of the most important attributes the VAR brings to the table for the seller and buyer is that he or she knows his or her customer and/or prospect as a category and as an individual. Because of the experience gained in the specific market, the VAR knows, or should know, the real and perceived needs of the individual(s).

Through experience, trial and error and the school of hard knocks, the successful VAR has developed a strong selling position and proposition that moves the prospect toward the right buying decision.

Unfortunately, most VARs fail or don't succeed as well as they should because they don't proceed beyond this point.

Their selling position and proposition must be developed and refined. These are known and understood almost intuitively by the VARs' best people. However, they are seldom crisply, concisely, and precisely written down for everyone in the organization. In addition, these optimum selling positions and propositions are not projected in all of the firm's activities.

Equally important is the fact that management thinks in terms of "selling something" rather than in terms of marketing the organization, its products, its services, and its expertise. There is seldom a complete, coordinated program that spells out how the field sales efforts will be supported and how that program will be measured against sales and profit objectives.

When--or if--there is a marketing program it is generally an advertising program. In other words, an incomplete program.

Management's Responsibility

The key to the success of a VAR is its senior management. This statement also implies that senior management has -- or can obtain -- the necessary information for the marketing program and will make the pivotal decisions. This also means that it is management who must open--and keep open--the lines of communication within departments while ensuring good teamwork within the organization.

Stepping back from the firing line slightly, management should be in the best position to determine which promotional materials and activities the sales force needs as well as how the effectiveness of these materials and activities is best measured.

This does not imply that senior management has to be involved in every detail of the program. In fact, they shouldn't. Instead, they should establish the guidelines, scope, overall direction and measurement criteria. Product managers and your agency should be responsible for the other aspects of the program.

Management shapes and steers the program. Others provide inputs, recommendations, and execution.

What you can't allow to happen, however, is what frequently occurs. People think of marketing and communications planning in terms of advertising planning. Thinking solely in terms of
advertising severely limits your opportunities. The focus should include advertising. But it should also include product, sales, and marketing management inputs as well as their project/program
inputs.

The most common excuse for not undertaking this type of activity is that it is too time-consuming or that you need to spend more time with customers than in developing such "useless" marketing plan. But without this type of road map, it is impossible for the company to either go in the right direction or to determine when they have arrived at their destination.

You may be talking with a lot of "prospects," but they may be all of the wrong prospects. If a piece of business is not in your mainline area, it may cost you more in terms of resources than the business is worth to the company.

It is impossible to lose a little on this or that sale and make it up in volume. Profit has to be made on every piece of business or the business isn't worth having.

Move in Steps

For people who haven't done it before, changing your thinking from the development of advertising programs to communications programs isn't as easy as it first appears.

Rather than jump in with both feet for a year's marketing plan, start with a new product, new service, or new market area project. For proper execution, you'll do all of your research, develop your strategic plan, define your market, and establish communications strategies and tactics. It is here at the tactics level that advertising will come into play because advertising is one of the communications tools and activities.

All of this is the textbook approach to marketing.

You and I both know it seldom, if ever, occurs.

If a marketing plan exists, it probably won't have the specifics which good communications activities require. For example, what specific selling message is to be targeted at which specific buying influences?

The information is known, or presumably known, by one or more individuals in the organization. But having them put that information down, or even articulate it, is difficult at best.

As a result, you end up with target markets, job titles, and product features/benefits. In addition, you have a mass of opinions. You get opinions from the sales force, hardware/software designers, others in the organization, and yourself.

But as time goes on and you put into practice the discipline of total communications, you find that it is important to determine the wants and needs of your customers and prospects at the beginning. These get plugged into the plan at the outset and then you relate communications tactics and activities to these needs and objectives. You're now also in a better position to spell out how these communications activities will contribute to your sales and profits goals.

Return on Investment

Rather than continuing the advertising planning/program scenario and converting to true marketing communications activities, management can achieve both tangible and intangible benefits.

First of all, you dramatically reduce the number of false starts you initiate. You are in a better position to focus time, money, and effort on doing those activities which will directly contribute to short- and long-term success. Everyone in the organization knows who the major customers are and who the key prospects are, so there is no need to re-evaluate each effort as it is begun.

If you develop a complete and integrated program along with objectives and benchmarks, it should be easier to prove to your staff and yourself that the expenditures for advertising and promotion are effective.

This is because the positioning, selling propositions, and target markets are known at the outset. Whichever communications vehicle you use--ad, brochure, news release, article, mailer, online activity, etc.--the approach is built on solid facts and information, not on opinions regarding user benefits. The net result is that the prospect should more immediately notice, recall, and act upon the information.

Since no organization has unlimited funds, you quickly find that when you develop a total program, you are forced to prioritize activities. While it is natural to think of developing and placing ads when you think in terms of communication, you may find that it is fiscally impossible to broadly advertise during the first six months of the program. For example, you need a comprehensive sales kit, pre-qualifying mailers, follow-up mailers, leave-behind literature, redesigned web site, enhanced online presence and articles/news in the press.

When you add up all of the costs of these “must have” items; you find that your normal "advertising" budget has been sadly depleted for the first six months of the communications effort. On the other hand, your sales team will have materials they can use in their selling situations and you have received some degree of national, regional, or local product/service exposure.

Then, in the second half of the year, when sales are on the upswing, you can roll out more aggressive online and print advertising to stimulate increased inquiries and sales. But to put advertising before the other materials would cause you to have inquiries without the sales tools.

Best of all, the total communications approach permits you to pinpoint needs and targets of opportunity before they pass into history. The approach also has the benefit of improving communications within your organization so that everyone is working toward a common and definable goal.

With each successive project or program, total marketing communications becomes not only easier, but also more measurable because you can see direct and tangible results from your efforts. Having this positive feedback makes it not only easier to develop on-going programs but it gets others committed to the effort. They can see a return on the investment not only for the organization, but also for themselves.

Within the small, overworked, understaffed, and thinly financed VAR organization, the responsibility of an effective marketing and marketing communications program belongs to management; the success of the program ultimately sits on your shoulders.

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