Learn more about how our AI solutions power the world’s largest sporting event. Not as a replacement for product, but as the layer that connects technology to business outcomes. That includes deployment, support, optimization, refresh, and sustainability. But enablement alone isn’t the end goal – it’s what partners do with it that drives growth. That is the thinking behind Lenovo 360 for Services, coming available to partners on April 13.
The relationship equity is focused on user reach, instead of relationship depth or power with each user. Whereas if a channel is focused on buyers, your offering will need to fit in the business value chain or process that the buyer expects from your solution. Once signed, each channel partner needs to be activated, nurtured and managed over time by a person or a partner team to access customers and achieve shared goals. The primary reason for building channels is to reach more customers through indirect but cost effective means.
The goal is not just broader market reach but a more connected and consistent customer experience across the partner network. Customers now do much of their research before speaking with a sales representative and purchasing decisions often involve larger groups and multiple interactions along the way. The ability to deliver integrated offerings across the full stack is becoming a critical advantage. With the breadth of Lenovo’s portfolio, partners can meet customers wherever they are and expand from there. This shift is also reflected in how organizations are deploying technology. Through Lenovo 360, we bring these elements together, combining enablement, portfolio access, and incentives into a unified framework that supports growth across devices, infrastructure, and services.
Pathways: Sell Thru, Sell To or Sell With Partner Ecosystem
When you create a partner offering, built around your tech product, a lot depends on whether the channel’s focus is on the user or buyer. One of the reasons building channels is hard is because the company’s product is never enough to create an attractive offering for the channel partner. Adjacent products may become competitors, or the buyer’s value chain may need new services. Though some of these patterns are owned by marketing, others may be run by sales or product teams.
Partner Performance
Instead of relying only on past performance, organizations can use data to spot emerging opportunities, anticipate partner needs and make smarter marketing investments before issues affect results. This allows teams to work more efficiently while giving partners better support and more useful resources. AI-powered platforms can help organizations understand partner behavior, recommend relevant content, identify new opportunities and automate routine tasks. “Channel marketing focuses on the strategies, tools and programs that help companies sell and market through indirect channels.”
- The primary reason for building channels is to reach more customers through indirect but cost effective means.
- Customers often prefer partners that possess industry expertise, technical knowledge and advisory capabilities.
- Despite growing investment, channel marketing continues to face several obstacles.
- In the past three posts account-led, product-led and channel-led growth, I have identified the different and unique patterns of customer relationship equity for each pathway.
Services-led models unlock recurring revenue, increase customer lifetime value, and create deeper relationships. Recent insights from Lenovo’s CIO Playbook reinforce this shift, with organizations increasingly viewing AI and IT investments as drivers of business reinvention. In the past three posts account-led, product-led and channel-led growth, I have identified the different and unique patterns of customer relationship equity for each pathway. Usually, system integration SI partners implement and maintain the technology. While this pathway offers buyer reach, it is best suited for products in a well defined category with an established buyer value proposition. These range from account partners who deliver basic add-on services to those who help customers realize more complex value through business transformation.
- That is why many organizations use analytics to better understand the impact on partners and guide future investments.
- Whereas for account focused channels, your sales and customer success teams shall need to define and support how your product value prop fits into the partner offering.
- Second, the company can sell to distributors who build up their own offerings, provide branding and sales and generally sell directly or through intermediaries to the end buyer.
- “Channel marketing focuses on the strategies, tools and programs that help companies sell and market through indirect channels.”
Recent research from Gartner points to growing complexity in indirect sales channels and highlights the need for closer collaboration between marketing teams, sales organizations and partner networks. A consultant may recommend a solution, an integrator may design the implementation plan and a service provider may manage ongoing support. These may include distributors, resellers, managed service providers, consultants, systems integrators and strategic partners.
Minimally, the channel should provide access to buyers, but ideally, also build value for the buyer through its activities like bundling, service and support. https://officialjoycasino.net/the-economics-of-running-an-online-casino/ This requires product level integration into the partner network with ongoing investment of relationships and resources from product managers, community and tech support. Partner-led growth requires strategic partnership development, ecosystem management, and co-marketing execution.
Building inclusive, ethical AI: lessons from Lenovo for technology leaders
Organizations want clear evidence that channel initiatives contribute to pipeline development, revenue growth, customer retention and market expansion. Enterprise decision-makers evaluating channel marketing capabilities are placing greater emphasis on measurable business outcomes. Marketing teams could track campaign activity but https://ulstergrandprix.net/fuel-become-official-it-partner-of-the-metzeler-ulster-grand-prix/ struggled to understand which initiatives influenced pipeline creation, customer acquisition or revenue performance. Traditional partner programs often suffered from limited visibility. Data has become one of the most valuable assets in channel marketing.