The Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC) released its collaborative research report titled “The Distribution Onramp: A Quick-Start Guide for Established and Emerging Technology Vendors” during the GTIA ChannelCon event this week. The engaging new study provides valuable best practices for initiating and developing strong and mutually beneficial relationships between technology suppliers and distributors.
In todays fast-paced technology landscape, IT vendors are under immense pressure to scale their sales, technical support and other operations quickly and efficiently to meet market demands and stay ahead of the competition. GTDCs latest report illustrates how a well-designed channel program can create an accelerated path to achieving these goals, particularly if the organization leverages two-tier distribution to cost-effectively expand their reach, enhance customer engagement and drive net new sales. This valuable industry resource emphasizes the importance of initial engagements. The investments vendors make and the best practices they put into place prior to beginning the onboarding process with new distributors are both crucial to the success of these vital partnerships. Aligning sales, marketing and channel-related resources helps reduce the learning curve and creates a stronger and more optimized ecosystem for vendors, distributors, solution providers and the organizations and individual users they support.
“Successful navigation of the distribution onboarding process increases the value of these relationships across the channel, ensuring quicker and higher returns on investments for vendors and their partner communities,” says Frank Vitagliano, CEO of GTDC. “These mission-critical alliances benefit greatly from a solid foundation and continual nurturing, and early adoption of these industry best practices minimizes the chances of making costly mistakes or, worse, failing to capitalize on major business opportunities.“
The onboarding process is critical for technology vendors looking to establish new relationships with distributors and gain the most leverage from the IT channel. The report highlights several critical steps for ensuring suppliers success through this journey, including:
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Complete a market coverage evaluation to identify gaps and opportunities for expansion.
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Optimize products and services for channel partners/distribution.
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Align sales and technical competencies to ensure the respective teams can collaborate and help manage lead generation, pipelines and partner support.
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Establish clear rules of engagement to avoid misunderstandings and partner conflicts.
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Ensure offerings are “channel-ready” to speed adoption and simplify partner management.
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Invest in marketing resources and programs to better engage the channel community.
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Provide technical resources to train and support distributor teams and integration projects.
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Create clearly defined goals and metrics to track future progress.
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Fully commit to prospective distribution partners and provide needed/valued resources.
IT distribution offers technology vendors an accelerated path to the channel ecosystem and also provides the tools, expertise, and networks to expand their reach up and downstream, enhance partner engagement and generate incremental sales. Successful navigation of the onboarding process increases the value of these relationships across the ecosystem.
To access the complete report, visit the GTDC Knowledge Hub.
About the GTDC
The Global Technology Distribution Council is the industry consortium representing the worlds leading tech distributors. GTDC members drive an estimated $170 billion in annual worldwide sales of products, services and solutions through diverse business channels. GTDC conferences support the development and expansion of strategic supply-chain partnerships that continually address the fast-changing marketplace needs of vendors, end customers and distributors. GTDC members include AB S.A (WSE: ABPL), Arrow Electronics (NYSE: ARW), CMS Distribution, Computer Gross Italia (MI: SES), D&H Distributing, ELKO, Esprinet (PRT.MI), Exclusive Networks (EPA: EXN), Exertis, Infinigate, Ingram Micro (NYSE: INGM), Intcomex, Logicom (CSE: LOG), Mindware, ââRedington Limited (BSE/NSE: Redington), Siewert & Kau, SiS Technologies (HKSE:0529), Tarsus, TD SYNNEX (NYSE: SNX), TIM AG, VSTECS Holdings and Westcon-Comstor.
