Marching Orders 2018: Do Something Different or You're Done

What can Microsoft partners do differently in 2018 to make a business breakthrough? We put that question to 16 top experts, including HOWARD M. COHEN, SENIOR RESULTANT, THE TECH CHANNEL PARTNERS' RESULTS GROUP. For more tips on finding success in the Microsoft channel in 2018, read our full Marching Orders feature here.

Burn the word "value" into your mind, along with the word "innovate."

Famed sales motivator Zig Ziglar warned us, "If you're doing what you've always done, you're probably getting what you always got," but that's no longer the case for the IT channel. Now, if you're doing what you've always done, you've been getting less and less, and this year, you're probably done.

The only way to avoid that dismal fate is to recognize three things:

• Customers are only interested in the value you bring to them, so you need to have all of your marketing and messaging focus only on that. Don't talk about the great products and services you offer. Talk about the value of what you provide brings to your customer.
• Recognize that your customers' needs are constantly evolving and changing, so what you provide must constantly be evolving along with them. You must always innovate value.
• Note that I keep referring to what you provide, not just what you do. We've evolved from a partner channel to a channel of partners.

Always define everything in terms of the business value it brings to your customer. Talk about their gains in their language. How do you increase their profits? You must identify new products and platforms that allow you to constantly innovate new value for your customers, or they will forget about you.

The channel has finally completely changed. No longer is it about a product produced by a manufacturer, distributed by a distributor to resellers who sell it to customers. It is now about you. You are the starting point of the channel that delivers value to customers. You pull in services and software from partners you carefully select and vet to provide maximum innovation and value to your customers.

These are not marching orders. They are survival strategies. Others talk about "shadow channels" that simply don't exist. There is no channel. There is you. Your insight, your innovations -- these are what your customers are buying from you. If you're doing something new, you're probably getting more than you ever got.

Posted by Howard M. Cohen on March 07, 2018