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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Channel Pulse™ survey captures and shares valuable insights
from channel sales and marketing leaders from a variety of
industries. It is designed to examine their goals, challenges, and
strategies for driving program success. The Channel Pulse™ offers
participants an insider’s look at current channel trends and
contains:
1. Channel Thought Leadership & Best Practices
2. Valuable Benchmarking Information
3. Updates on Key Programs and Trends
In the latest Channel Pulse survey, 360insights reports how
channel leaders are leveraging customer experience as a
differentiator and applying the knowledge to product and digital
experiences, as well as their attitude towards channel sales teams
during the global pandemic. Additionally, the report compares how
industry leaders invested in incentives in 2019 and their success
to changes in incentive strategy as 2020 evolves.
CHANNEL PULSE / Q1-20 1
Q1
20
2020 Q1 REPORT
https://go.360insights.com
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CHANNEL PULSE / Q1-20 2
BACKGROUND360insights conducted the Q1 2020 Channel Pulse™
survey to gain a holistic, cross-sector look at key channel trends
and investments – targeting North American senior executives from a
range of industries who directly oversee channel management.
To be eligible, respondents must work for a company with more
than $50 million in annual revenue, they must be at a management
level or higher within the organization, and respondents must have
direct channel management oversight.
The survey included 12 short multiple-choice and stack-ranked
questions and one (1) short answer question. 360insights screened
participants carefully to ensure all respondents represented
companies with large/mature channels (see demographics).
SURVEY DETAILS • The Channel Pulse information gathering process
is led by 360insights
Corporate Marketing.
• Survey was conducted between 12/15/19 and 1/2/20.
• Over the last eight years, 360insights has compiled a database
of channel management professionals. A large segment of this
database was utilized to solicit the initial Channel Pulse™
participants. The targeted population included management level and
up roles with channel management responsibility, employed within
large/enterprise organizations.
• The Channel Pulse™ survey consisted of 12 multiple choice and
stack-ranked questions and one (1) short answer question.
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CHANNEL PULSE DEMOGRAPHICS
The Channel Pulse targets senior channel management
professionals in North America. To qualify for participation
respondents needed to be at a management level with a company
greater than $50 million in revenue, they needed to be at a
management level or higher within the organization and the
participant’s role was required to be directly responsible for
managing channel activities.
To ensure that respondents supervise well-established channel
programs, the survey sought out representatives from companies with
a minimum of $50 million in annual revenue. Almost half of our
respondents (48 percent) came from organizations with revenues
above $1 billion, 20 percent from organizations earning $251
million to $1 billion a year, and only 15 percent between $51 and
250 million.
MEDIUM($50m to $250m)
LARGE($250m to $1bn)
ENTERPRISE(+$1bn)
COMPANY SIZECompany Size
Channel Pulse™ featured channel leaders at a management level or
above in their organizations, helping to ensure they could offer
deep insight into the strategy behind company channel initiatives.
46 percent of respondents held a management position, over 28
percent were at the director level, and nearly 18 percent held Vice
President or C-suite titles.
C-SUITEMANAGEMENT ROLE
VICE PRESIDENT
DIRECTOR
SENIORITY LEVEL Seniority Level
Respondents represented a broad cross-section of industries,
with most respondents coming from traditionally
distribution-focused verticals, including Technology, Electronics,
Manufacturing, Telecommunications and others.
COMPUTER SOFTWARE & SaaSSERVICES
AUTOMOTIVE &AUTO ACCESSORIES
ELECTRONICSTECH & TELECOM
FOOD & BEVERAGE
OTHERMANUFACTURING
INDUSTRIES Industries
CHANNEL PULSE / Q1-20 3
CONSUMER DURABLES
HEALTHCARE & PHARMAINSURANCE & FINANCIAL
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OVERALL CHANNEL PULSE SURVEY RESULTS
The data gathered in this Channel Pulse report was largely
collected pre-pandemic. It provides a view of channel planning
prior to the crisis. Business leaders are now needing to revisit
these plans to adapt to a new world.
Prior to the pandemic customer experience (CX) initiatives were
the norm, with industry leaders optimizing their digital and
product experiences (DX/PX) to stand out in the marketplace. Post
pandemic CX has taken on the new objective of needing to adapt to
consumers who now live with significant fear and uncertainty.
Customer engage-ment has never been more at the forefront, which
puts the sales channel in the spotlight.
Incentive tactics and spending are also being revisited by most
companies post pandemic. Channel leaders will need to rethink their
use of MDF & CO-OP and Volume Incentive Rebates (VIR) and may
need to re-emphasize consumer incentives to regain market
traction.
With this Q1 Channel Pulse™ we report what was planned for 2020
and share our thoughts on how the Covid-19 pandemic may have
changed these plans going forward. We’ve divided pre and post
pandemic data and thoughts to contrast what has changed.
Experience as a Differentiator Tool:
At a time when digital transformation is a necessity, leaders
across all industries have realized the value of custom-er
experience (CX) as a differentiator tool. As a result, we found
that all respondents have made steps to boost their CX strategy. In
fact, over two-thirds of our respondents (68 percent) said they are
currently in the Develop-ment, Implementation, or Realization
stages of CX evolution. Just 32 percent are still in the Early/Idea
Phase.
Part of this transformation includes leveraging customers
themselves as ambassadors of CX differentiation. We learned that
most respondents are using a variety of platforms and content to
accomplish this, including Testimo-nials (62 percent), Case Studies
(60 percent), Customer Profiles (50 percent), and Online Ratings
(44 percent).
With 78 percent of channel leaders saying their products or
services are unique compared to the competition, market saturation
could still be a concern. But many have also begun to apply CX
strategies to differentiate their offerings through product and
digital experiences (PX/DX).
36 percent of respondents named Product Differentiation as the
top reason they win new customers over their nearest competitors
compared to Customer Experience at 24 percent. When asked to name
the number one thing that separated their brand from the
competition, most industry leaders responded with variations of
Tech-nology or Product Innovation, and Quality or Value alongside
Customer Experience and Engagement.
The current pandemic has had a dramatic impact on any customer
engagement occurring in person. This has upped the anti on how to
best engage the customer in a time of fear and social distancing.
Early leaders were those prepared for online/low-touch
transactions, however we’ve seen significant innovations in the
retail space including various forms of drive-through and 3rd party
delivery. The customer experience is top of mind for all companies
as we begin to return to a post Covid new normal.
CHANNEL PULSE / Q1-20 4
COMMENTARY:COVID-19
THING THAT SEPARATED
FROM THEIR COMPETITIONLEADER’S BRANDS
TECHNOLOGY OR PRODUCT INOVATION
QUALITY OR VALUE
CX & ENGAGEMENT
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Leveraging Channel Sales to Deliver Superior CX:
An overwhelming majority of respondents (89 percent) said their
channel plays a pivotal role in differentiating them with
custom-ers. When asked how important it was for channel salespeople
to be recognized as value advisers, 85 percent of respondents
answered Very or Extremely Important.
Now more than ever, industry leaders are recognizing that their
resellers must be prepared to adapt to changing market dynam-ics.
Our report found that a majority of respondents pre-pandem-ic were
focusing on Sales and Marketing Enablement (69 percent), Technical
Training and Certification (45 percent), MDF, Rebates, and
Incentives (45 percent) in order to gain mindshare and strengthen
partnerships.
Evolving Incentives in 2020:
This report found few respondents planned major changes to their
budget for channel incentives in 2020 pre-pan-demic. Just
one-quarter (25 percent) of respondents planned to reduce or
significantly reduce incentive spending and many based their budget
decisions on how certain incentives performed in 2019.
31 percent of respondents said Points Rewards produced the
lowest ROI in 2019 and 32 percent said the same of Traditional
Rebates, like consumer rebates (CR) and Sales Allowances. Between
86 and 93 percent of respondents said they would be using all three
strategies about the same or less in 2020.
On the opposite end, 27 percent of respondents saw higher ROIs
with Volume Incentive Rebates while 19 percent noticed the same
trend with MDF & CO-OP last year. Between 82 and 91 percent of
respondents said they will be investing the same amount or more
into these two strategies this year, building on the trend of
enabling channel sales and gaining mindshare. VIR in particular can
encourage large volume sales and reseller loyalty.
CHANNEL PULSE / Q1-20 5
The global pandemic has wreaked chaos across most industries.
Technology and telecommunication being a few of the exceptions due
to a continued need for their services and their subscription
business models.
Most other industries have struggled to pivot and retain
customers during the crisis. Pre-pandemic over 30 percent reported
challenges such as channel conflict, new product adoption, and
management commitment to the channel.
Now, these businesses desperately need their sales channel to
adapt to a new way of doing business. This should create closer
collaboration and a renewed investment in partnership. Only time
will tell how this plays out.
IMY CHANNEL!
$ $
86-93% WILL USE THESE 3 STRATEGIES2020 PLANNING
POINTS REWARDS / CONSUMER REBATES (CR)SALES ALLOWANCES
VOLUME REBATES & MDF CO-OP FUNDING
82-91% INVESTINGSAME AMOUNTOR MORE IN 2020 INVESTMENT
$
DELIVERING SUPERIOR CX! PROUD & LOUD
COMMENTARY:COVID-19
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Conclusion:
This report covered industry leaders' attitudes, concerns, and
strategies pre-Covid-19 pandemic. Based on our findings,
respondents were prioritizing the need to meet growing digital
demands and strengthen relationships with their resellers. Most had
begun to develop and implement CX strategies and were applying
similar principles to PX and DX as differentiator tools.
The trend of MDF & Co-op and SPIFFs incentives also
indicates that channel leaders were focusing more heavily on supply
chain enablement and behavioral modification success.
As the global crisis continues, we will be interested to see how
industries continue to approach CX and reseller enablement and how
these strategies help differentiate them from competitors in an
uncertain time.
CHANNEL PULSE / Q1-20 6
The Channel Pulse report offers channel decision-makers an
opportunity to learn from one another, share best practices and
develop informed strategies to further program success. Thank you
to all of our participants for your time and insights. Channel
Pulse is open to senior channel executives at large organizations
across North America. To review our eligibility criteria and be a
part of future surveys, please visit:
https://go.360insights.com/channel-trends
WANT TO PARTICIPATE IN CHANNEL PULSE FUTURE SURVEYS?
About the Channel Pulse®The Channel Pulse® report provides
insights from senior executives across North America on emerging
channel trends. Produced by 360insights, this quarterly resource
offers channel leaders an inside view into the latest channel
trends and investments, valuable benchmarking information, and
strategies to drive success. 360insights leverages its proprietary
database of channel management professionals to conduct the Channel
Pulse survey, targeting senior leaders with direct channel
management responsibilities at large, distribution-focused
organizations across a variety of industries throughout North
America. For more information on the Channel Pulse and to
participate in future surveys, please visit
https://go.360insights.com/channel-trends
WORDS FROM THE AUTHORThe Channel Pulse™ offers an opportunity
for channel professionals to share knowledge and learn from each
other. This report, like many other things, was disrupted by the
Covid-19 crisis. For those who provided input, we apologize if you
were impacted by this disruption. We know the report survives and
thrives through your active participation. I’d like to thank all
respondents for their support and encourage more to join in future
reports.
Steven KellamVice President, Marketing, 360insights
For best practices on developing and implementing traditional
rebate programs and understand-ing the differences between consumer
and instant rebates, click on the link below.
Advantages of the 360insightsSaaS Platform.
As we enter a post pandemic phase, vendors find themselves
needing to reevaluate short-term incentive strategies. Most
businesses are caught between a need to maximize revenue and
generate cash, and a need for profit to payback increased debt.
Certain incentives are less attractive in this environment. Take
for example Volume Incentive Rebates (VIR) which relies on
historical revenue baselines to create stretch goals and push
inventory through the channel. Post pandemic there is no real
reliable revenue baseline and the channel lacks the cash to take on
inventory. Many products are also in short supply due to a
manufacturing shutdown. We expect most companies will put VIR
programs on hold in the short term.
With MDF, many are shifting funds away from events and
certification and looking to initiate long-term enablement
campaigns, including leveraging the power of SPIFFs for behavior
modification, along with short-term digital marketing and training
support.
We anticipate consumer products will overall see a big boost due
to pent-up demand immediately post pandemic. However, to sustain
revenue beyond this initial burst we expect to see an increase in
consumer incentives especially in the areas of consumer durables.
Most consumers are operating with less cash post pandemic and those
without immediate need will require additional incentive to
act.
COMMENTARY:COVID-19
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