• Home
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Special Offers
Business Intelligence Info
  • Business Intelligence
    • BI News and Info
    • Big Data
    • Mobile and Cloud
    • Self-Service BI
  • CRM
    • CRM News and Info
    • InfusionSoft
    • Microsoft Dynamics CRM
    • NetSuite
    • OnContact
    • Salesforce
    • Workbooks
  • Data Mining
    • Pentaho
    • Sisense
    • Tableau
    • TIBCO Spotfire
  • Data Warehousing
    • DWH News and Info
    • IBM DB2
    • Microsoft SQL Server
    • Oracle
    • Teradata
  • Predictive Analytics
    • FICO
    • KNIME
    • Mathematica
    • Matlab
    • Minitab
    • RapidMiner
    • Revolution
    • SAP
    • SAS/SPSS
  • Humor

New Buyers, Shadow Channels Present Significant Challenges for Traditional Channel Partners

December 13, 2018   NetSuite
gettyimages 529840739 New Buyers, Shadow Channels Present Significant Challenges for Traditional Channel Partners

Posted by John Goode, Senior Director of Channel Marketing

Changing buyer behaviors and requirements present some real challenges to traditional IT resellers. In fact, those challenges, which include a shift in the actual buyer and the knowledge necessary to sell to that buyer among others, are only going to become greater, according to Forrester Research.

“We think that there is going to be more change in the channel in the next 18 months than there has been in the last 37 years combined,” guest speaker Jay McBain, Principal Analyst serving B2B marketing professionals at Forrester, said in a recent webinar.

According to McBain, there are a few “uber” trends affecting the channel:

  • Different Buyers

65 percent of all technology decisions are now made by business leaders across finance, operations, HR, sales and marketing — not IT. Jay predicts this will rise to 80 percent in the next few years. In the past, CIOs would attempt to prevent this type of behavior, but today it is the new normal. In about one-third of these cases, decision makers do not involve their internal IT department. They bypass IT, avoiding possible delays, because they are under tremendous pressure to deliver results and act quickly.

  • Shifting Buyer Behavior

Business line buyers behave similar to consumers. For example, much like consumers, 68 percent of business buyers prefer to do research on their own into a new technology solution, according to Forrester. Business buyers are using online tools like Google, industry forums and peer networks to do their research before ever talking to a sales person. In addition, most people spend most of their time at work, regardless of role, using technology. The result: everyone has an opinion on technology tools and what they need from a new tool to be successful.

This change in buyer role and behavior has led to a change in technology budgets. CFOs and CMOs now spend more on technology than the IT department in most companies, and technology spend is increasing across every line of business, according to Forrester. Business leaders are deciding to spend more on technology rather than people or programs, like marketing demand gen, for example.

  • Hyper-Specialized Skills 

Buyers have researched their solution, even scoped out the technology stack required. Yet when they begin discussions with the sales person, they find that salespeople lack the specialized knowledge required to understand the buyer’s need, McBain said. In the past having knowledge of a vertical industry was enough, but today’s buyers expect sales people to have knowledge down to the specific sub-vertical industry and the needs of each department within companies operating in that sub-industry.

Shadow Channels

Most business buyers are hiring channel partners and consultants to implement their projects, bypassing their internal IT departments in many cases. However, instead of using traditional IT resellers, they’re working more with new types of partners that make up what McBain calls “shadow channels.”

Here are the different types of shadow channel partners, according to McBain:

  • XaaS Ecosystem Consultants: Line of business experts who generally anchor their practice around a select vendor(s), and understand cloud-driven best practices.
  • Industry-based Professional Services
    Firms: Accounting, legal and marketing firms are becoming IT services companies. For every $ 1 spent on a SaaS platform there is $ 4 in high margin services business these firms can go after.
  • Independent Software Vendors (ISVs): There are now 100,000 ISVs that are using SaaS platforms to offer their solutions in the cloud, up from 10,000 10 years ago.
  • Born-In-The-Cloud Firms: There are 10,000 companies with specialized skills that offer technology solutions in the cloud only. They frequently partner with other shadow channels to deliver their solution to customers.
  • Startup Community: These companies are well funded and disrupt traditional markets with unique technology or an approach to the market that solves business problems in a new way.
  • System Integrators: The top SI firms, such as Accenture and PWC, are investing billions of dollars in developing their digital transformation services, and they are now focusing on the midmarket in addition to the Fortune 2000.
  • Managed Services Providers: Almost a quarter of companies have outsourced to MSP that own the technology and business application for their client companies.

3 Key Takeaways

These trends put traditional IT channel partners’ business at risk. In order to adapt, survive and thrive McBain suggests three steps partners can take to assess their readiness:

1) Be Ready to Change: As a partner, what is your capacity and will to change? Are you willing to work with other partners? Do you need to hire people with the required skills to sell, market and architect for the new business buyer? Are you willing to acquire or be acquired to gain needed skills?

2) Focus on the New Business Buyer: Target the line of business decision maker via your marketing and sales efforts. Move away from focus on products, speeds and feeds and instead focus on solving business problems.

3) Specialize and personalize to meet the needs of the today’s business buyers. Identify your value-add, hyper-specialize and build your intellectual property and brand. Who is your ideal customer? Is there an industry, sub-industry, geography or other area where you do especially well?

The process for purchasing business solutions, like ERP, is changing. Decision makers and budgets reside outside of IT departments. These business line buyers exhibit unique purchasing behaviors and they require a greater level of personalization and customization. Traditional IT resellers today must consider a strategy for adapting to this new landscape or they risk being left behind.

If you are interested in becoming a NetSuite partner, we have a program that can enable you to start selling and implementing in 90 days. Contact SolutionProviders@netsuite.com to find out more.

View the full webinar to learn more about the challenges modern channel partners are confronting.

Posted on Thu, December 13, 2018
by NetSuite filed under

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

The NetSuite Blog

Buyer's, Challenges, Channel, Channels, Partners, Present, Shadow, Significant, Traditional
  • Recent Posts

    • How to Use CRM Integration to Your Advantage – Real World Examples
    • WATCH: ‘Coming 2 America’ Movie Review Available On Amazon Prime & Amazon
    • IBM launches AI platform to discover new materials
    • 3 Ways a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management and EDI Integration Enhance E-Commerce CRM Strategy
    • The Neanderthals
  • Categories

  • Archives

    • March 2021
    • February 2021
    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • November 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
    • July 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • March 2020
    • February 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • March 2018
    • February 2018
    • January 2018
    • December 2017
    • November 2017
    • October 2017
    • September 2017
    • August 2017
    • July 2017
    • June 2017
    • May 2017
    • April 2017
    • March 2017
    • February 2017
    • January 2017
    • December 2016
    • November 2016
    • October 2016
    • September 2016
    • August 2016
    • July 2016
    • June 2016
    • May 2016
    • April 2016
    • March 2016
    • February 2016
    • January 2016
    • December 2015
    • November 2015
    • October 2015
    • September 2015
    • August 2015
    • July 2015
    • June 2015
    • May 2015
    • April 2015
    • March 2015
    • February 2015
    • January 2015
    • December 2014
    • November 2014
© 2021 Business Intelligence Info
Power BI Training | G Com Solutions Limited