Top Reasons Why Manufacturers Fail to Deploy Adequate Content for Partner Enablement.
Empowering a channel partner to be motivated, knowledgeable, and productive doesn’t happen overnight. It certainly doesn’t happen without a clear and concise, meticulously outlined channel marketing enablement strategy.
For manufacturers, enduring the daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly complications of channel marketing enablement can be a maddening process. Each channel partnership is unique and challenging. Encompassing its own catalog of roadblocks and discrepancies at nearly every step of the process. Additionally, each channel rapport mandates a different set of objectives and expectations—parameters that can seem impractical and naïve, but nonetheless, demanding and laborious.
However, inefficiency to move channel inventory or convert leads into deals can’t solely fall on the shoulders of channel partners. In more ways than one, it’s the manufacturer that should endure most (if not all) the blame. After all, channel partners depend on their vendor as a source of influence, consultation and mentoring, communication, documentation, and allocated ad funds, incentive programs, rebates, etc.
But in the case of channel marketing enablement, failure to align content with channel partners’ , pain points, interests, needs, and objectives is a surefire strategy for accomplishing partner disengagement.
Top reasons why manufacturers’ channel marketing enablement fail to deploy adequate content for partners:
1.) Content is burdensome due to length and unfavorable aesthetic design.
How to repair?
Position your content based on prioritization; situate your content using the inverted pyramid formula. Deploying “need to know” information in highly accessible locations, and secondary data as links helps to not overwhelm your partner.
2.) Content is inaccessible and/or requires too many obstacles to accumulate.
How to repair?
Jumbled portal access and a poorly designed interface is the main culprit regarding inaccessible content; additionally, your lead generation strategy may be too stringent and/or demanding—disinteresting partners to engage in further access to additional resources or opportunities.
Employ an external PRM provider or channel consultant to assist in building an aesthetically appropriate partner portal platform. If you’re building a portal via internal resources, you may be lacking the resources or experience to sufficiently produce a cloud-based community that accelerates partner enablement.
3.) Content is irrelevant, dry or inconsistent with the partner’s needs, pain points, and objectives.
How to repair?
Each channel partnership is unique and maintains its own set of values and expectations. Implementing a one-size-fits-all content formula is sure to present you with more problems than you care to imagine. Therefore, terminology, pain points, annual objectives, location, market segment, industry, etc., should all speak to a partner’s relative demands; if not, you’re likely to see a steady stream of partner walking away from B2B participation.
By tailoring your content accordingly, you demonstrate your understanding for each partner, which in turn, affects their decision to engage with a business.
4.) Content does not accelerate business opportunities or productivity or mitigate resource costs.
How to repair?
As stated previously, each channel partnership mandates something different. One of the best strategies is to offer robust, personalized incentives; indirect sales opportunities that equate to addressing partners’ needs and goals via practical, mindful, and easy-to-implement offerings.