Here are key insights from the study.

1. A Clear Brand Promise.

People often make a buying decision with their heart, and then try to justify it with logic afterwards. In sales emotions matter and it is important that we send out a very clear message to our prospects about our customers’ experience.

60% of respondents do not have a clear brand promise.

2. Well-defined Products And Services

Sales organisations have trouble articulating to their customers exactly what they are trying to sell to them. Half of all respondents do not have a clear definition of their products or services which poses the question – are we confident that our Prospects and Customers understand our products and services right from the start?

Half of all respondents do not have a clear definition of their products or services.

3. A Unique Selling Proposition (USP) And Killer Business Introduction (KBI).

Your value proposition must be more than a mere motherhood statement, such as: “We really care”. Instead, it needs to be hugely credible and must easily distinguish your business from that of your competitors, and you need to be able to back your statement up with evidence.

80% of respondents do not have an effective selling proposition with which to attract and engage their ideal customers. This often creates a huge top-of-the funnel problem with insufficient sales leads and poor conversion rates.

80% of respondents do not have an effective selling proposition.

What is your Unique Selling Proposition? I.e. can we clearly state what makes our business and its offerings unique, and why a buyer should absolutely be interested in what we do? What makes us and our business different from that of our competitors?

4. Who is my ideal customer?

Just under half of all respondents are unsure of who their ideal customers are. This often results in poor prospecting results and wasted lead generation efforts, leading to frustrations and low morale.

Just under half of all respondents are unsure of who their ideal customers are.

There is little point in engaging with the wrong kind of prospects. You are better off engaging with the right kind instead.

How clear are we on what our ideal customers look like, in terms of industry sector, size of their business, their geographic location, job title, their challenges, their opportunities, their ambitions and motivations, etc.?

5. Where do I find an ideal prospect?

More than 60% of respondents are unsure of WHERE to find their ideal clients. This creates problems with prospect engagement, poor sales quota attainment and loss of market share.

More than 60% of respondents are unsure of WHERE to find their ideal clients.

6. Access and engage the effectively.

A combined total of more than 80% of respondents do not know HOW to engage their ideal customers in a sales conversation. This is THE KEY CHALLENGE IN SALES TODAY. Ineffective prospect engagement kills your pipeline, waists your sales leads and creates an army of unimpressed prospects for your brand.

More than 80% of respondents do not know HOW to engage their ideal customers in a sales conversation.

Once you know WHO your ideal customers are, and WHERE you can find them, the question turns to HOW to engage them in a meaningful way that draws them into a sales conversation.

7. Skills to eliminate competitors

More than 70% of respondents say they are ill-equipped to fend off their competitors. This results in too many lost deals that should have been won, unpredictable forecasting and messy pipelines.

More than 70% of respondents say they are ill-equipped to fend off their competitors.

Let’s say you successfully engaged with a prospect. You are in the running now to win this deal. However, very rarely will you be the only seller in this race. Instead, you will most likely have to beat off any number of competitors.

How good are we at fending off our competitors, and ending up our Buyers’ one and only choice?

8. Using a sales proposal process to close more deals

There is often a degree of confusion between the sales proposal content and the sales proposal process. Sure, what goes into a sales proposal is important, but the way it is presented is also critical to its success.

More than 70% of respondents say they do not have a sales proposal process to help them win more business.

9. A superior pre, during and post-purchase customer experience

Most businesses understand how mission-critical the customer experience is to the success of a business at every step of the way. But do we really know how well, or how poorly, we are doing in that regard?

70% of respondents don’t seem to be fully focused on their customers.

Is this something they just don’t take seriously in their business? Is it a matter of culture? Is it a matter of leadership? Are the wrong KPIs and metrics driving this behaviour?

10. Keep customers loyal, win repeat business and to turn them into advocates

The experience our customers have with us does not end with a purchase or a transaction. The post-sale experience is critical insofar as it will determine whether they will choose to come back to do more business with us, or not.

Just under 60% of respondents admit that they do not have the ability to turn their turn customers into repeat customers and advocates who refer new business.

Will your customers rave about you, or will they rant? Is their experience a pleasant one that will make them recommend you to their friends and colleagues? Or is it one that will more likely make them warn people off doing business with you?

Conclusion

No business should rest on its laurels, there is always room for improvement.

Real leaders are not afraid to admit they don’t know something and that they can always learn something new.

Real leaders are not afraid to ask for external help, advice and guidance.

The report clearly shows that there are enormous untapped opportunities for improvement, to lift sales, to give customers a better experience, and to grow the business.

What are you going to do about it?

The post 10 Costly Mistakes In Sales Engagement appeared first on Head Of Sales.

The best salespeople make it seem like an art form. Today, more than ever, it’s an art that flourishes with a disciplined approach, when backed by science and engaged with by a team empowered by the best digital and cultural tools.

Great works include a comprehensive CRM, a refined sales funnel, aligned departments, diverse teams, great culture and a strategic approach to AI-powered tools. And the artist’s handbook? Our new ebook of 50 pro sales tips from the best in the business across Australia and New Zealand.

Death of a salesman? Not so fast.

Customers can now buy whatever they want, whenever they want, from whatever device they prefer. What’s more, thanks to the internet, they can do their own research into a product or service or just check social media to see what’s being said.

Many feared the internet would see the end of the need for salespeople. What could they possibly say or do if customers were already as informed as them?

Instead, successful sales teams have discovered that rather than being shut down by the digital revolution, it’s given them a million new colours to paint with.

For example, AI-powered tools allow sales reps to offload time-consuming, manual tasks and focus on what they’re really good at – being trusted, insightful advisors to their customers. AI is transforming the way sales teams identify, nurture and convert leads and is bringing predictive power to play so that sales reps can anticipate customer needs.

And Cloud-based CRM is now a priority for high performing businesses who want the power to make sales anytime, any place with up-to-date data that is fully integrated into their other platforms.

Are you ready for the sales renaissance?

The digital revolution has driven a renaissance in the way sales are conducted. There’s never been a more exciting time to be building sales strategies and developing the teams to execute them.

The 50 Pro Sales Tips for 2020 ebook brings together unmissable insights from the best in their fields to give you a head start on the new decade’s challenges and opportunities. Balancing guidance on how to get the most out of new technologies with advice on how to nurture high-performance mindsets and successful cultures, the eBook gives you the tools you need to become a master of the art of sales in 2020.

Here’s a preview of what you can look forward to.

Five insights from the ebook

Tip #04 on building a great sales culture

In this one, CXC’s Corporate Solutions Director, Paul Chiswick, says their high performing sales team are involved every step of the way in developing and optimising client solutions. Rather than separating the sales team from that process, they’ve become integral to creating the customised models and tailored solutions they know their client needs. Expanding your picture of what your sales team is capable of might be the best move you make in 2020.

Tip #13 on lead prioritisation and growth

Sally Fallow, General Manager at Para Mobility, encourages you to match the passion of your sales team with the insight of your data. All the data in the world is no good if it can’t support the particular needs of each client. Using AI-powered tools to strategically mine your data is just one way data can boost sales revenue. Think lead prioritisation, forecasting and personalisation.

Tip #27 on social selling

Daniel Jurczyszyn, National Sales Director at Destined, cautions businesses to be authentic, or else. Customers won’t stand for inconsistency or perceived hypocrisy from a brand. By showing you believe in your brand and owning mistakes when they happen, you’ll be rewarded with customer loyalty online and off.

Tip #37 on negotiation

If you want to connect with your audience then you need to have empathy, says Kathy Rhodes, Chief Alchemist at the Thought Alchemist. Instead of communicating your value and making it about your brand, understand what your audience needs to hear and communicate that. A great sales pitch is one that offers understanding and solutions.

Tip #47 on building customer relationships

Phil Cleary, Senior Director of Sales Enablement here at Salesforce reminds us that we must know our customer better than they know themselves. Just when you think you’ve got all your personas down pat, drill deeper. With AI-powered tools, sales teams can further refine the customer journey and access personas they didn’t know existed. Step into your customers’ shoes: it’s one piece of sales advice that’s never gone out of fashion.

And what’s my sales tip for 2020? Find out by downloading your copy of the 50 Pro Sales Tips ebook and make 2020 your best sales year yet.

The post Introducing the 50 Pro Sales Tips for 2020 eBook appeared first on Head Of Sales.

The consumer demographic has shifted with Millennials and Gen X now representing 64% of U.S. online shoppers. With customers getting younger, buying priorities and expectations have changed – and retailers need to be able to maneuver quickly.

This article helps brands to understand consumer sentiments across the buying journey and leverage insights that can feed top line growth in the coming year. It covers factors influencing customer behaviour, buying patterns, the impact of a global recession. The various stages in the consumer buying journey and the ever-evolving role of digital and omni-channel in altering the wants and needs of today’s consumers.

It took 10 years for online shopping to grow from 5.6% to 16% of total retail sales – but in the days following the quarantine, e-commerce buying surpassed all records, growing more than 10% in just 8 weeks, to 27%, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, May 2020. Even as stores start to reopen their doors, our most recent survey suggests that 82% shoppers plan to continue shopping online.

Online consumers demographics and the buying journey

The customer demographic has shifted rapidly in the last decade, first with Millennials forming a huge buyer population and then with Generation Z accounting for almost 40% of the total global consumer base.

The online consumer today references multiple digital touch points before making a purchase decision. Retailers need to create strategies that engage their potential customers at every stage of their buying journey – from discovery to decision making. The below infographic gives a closer look at the buyer journey of an online shopper. With the right set of retail and marketing tools, competitive intelligence, and automated processes, retailers can get a competitive advantage by engaging with online shoppers across their buying journeys.

The online shopper is constantly comparing prices

94% of online shoppers compare prices at least some time, to get the best deal. This shows that price is a critical factor while making buying decisions online and shoppers should take steps in monitoring competitor prices and adjusting their prices accordingly.

28% of respondents said they often abandon a purchase due to high shipping costs while 56% others said they sometimes abandon purchase due to the shipping costs. These numbers show that shipping costs are a key deciding factor for many online consumers.

Retailers must take into account these consumer sentiments and upgrade their logistics and supply chain to offer fast and affordable delivery options and not lose interested customers on account of delivery charges.

The Impact of Potential Recession on Consumer Spending Patterns

Shoppers spend cautiously when threatened by recession:

Yes, I am cutting back on spending 51%
No, I am not concerned about my spending habits 24%

In the event of a global recession, respondents are most likely to splurge on essentials like food & grocery over other categories – a similar trend seen at the peak of COVID-19 crisis as well. Shoppers have been exercising caution while making purchase decisions. They are concentrating on increasing savings and are cutting down on spending on non-essentials like apparel, footwear, home furnishings, electronics, etc.

What items are you most likely to cut costs on in the event of a global recession?

35% Phones, Laptops and Tablets
40% Clothing, Footwear and Accessories
35% Home Décor
19% Home and Kitchen Electronics
19% Toys, Gaming Equipment
15% Sport & Fitness Equipment
5% Pet Supplies
20% General Grocery
11% Book, Stationary & Office
13% Makeup & Skincare
19% None of the above

In order to optimize growth, retailers may want to consider how they can leverage the categories that shoppers are more likely to “splurge on” during a recession. General grocery, pet supplies, and skincare appear to be in the safe zone in case of further economic deterioration.

The Pandemic and the Birth of the New Online Shopper

Within a few weeks, the COVID-19 pandemic has had the entire world in its grips. Most countries enforced strict regulations, restricting business for non-essential shops and forcing many retailers to shutter their stores. Social distancing coaxed people into buying online, some for the very first time, creating a new sense of confidence and an increased level of comfort in the e-commerce channel. From our findings we can infer that this switch to online channels is here to stay even after things get back to normal. Retailers need to jump on this opportunity and adapt to convert these shoppers with little or no cost of acquisition.

We saw varied reactions from shoppers to the crisis. Yet, one common thread across the survey was that the younger generation was more opinionated on how brands were promoting themselves, and were keener on choosing local brands to help drive business or brands that were extending help to fight the crisis.

Brands need to be cautious while promoting products during crisis as 24% of online consumer do not want to be sold to during COVID.

What is your response to retailers continuing to market their products to you as usual during the COVID-19 outbreak?

• I still want to hear from brands, but only those that I normally shop at 18%
• It doesn’t bother me 55%
• I only want to hear from brands doing something to help in the COVID-19 crisis 11%
• I find it insensitive 11%
• I do not want to be marketed to at this time 13%

The younger demographic wants to see brands extend help during the crisis

It is interesting to see that the younger demographic is paying overwhelming attention to what brands are being socially responsible and this could in turn reflect in their purchases. 52% said they are paying attention to what brands are being proactive about helping and plan to buy from them after the pandemic. 71% of consumers in the 18-24 age group and 70% in the 25-34 age group say they have been paying attention to which brands are pitching in to help.

Consumers plan on shifting spends towards small and local businesses

During the COVID-19 crisis, are you more likely to shop at small business retailers to help these businesses stay afloat?

• Yes, I have or plan to shift my spending towards small or local businesses (48%)
• No, I will not change where I shop (33%)
• Undecided (19%)

Looking ahead

Consumers are more cautious about their buying decisions in these difficult times, often taking into account how brands and retailers are helping with the fight against COVID-19. They expect retailers to exercise caution while promoting their brands and expect them to contribute in combating the crisis.

With consumers increasingly looking to buy from brands that align with their beliefs and purposes, brands are making strides to represent social and environmental causes and incorporate sustainability and fair trade across their value chain.

The current e-commerce boom is here to stay, with 82% saying they will continue shopping online even as stores open up. Additionally, with many first-time online shoppers having crossed the barrier of the unknown during the pandemic, retailers have a unique opportunity to onboard these with little to no cost of acquisition.

In summary, the retail industry is going through a wave of transformation and will never be the same.

Unprecedented external factors have contributed to this turn of events and have carved a sure-shot path for a data-driven, digital first, unified future of retail. Retailers and brands need to embrace this change and ride this transformative wave to win in the age of Amazon. They need to unify compelling online and instore experiences and weave them throughout the consumer buying journey to reel in consumers at every stage and win market share.

Survey methodology – Intelligence Node in partnership with Dynata, conducted six consumer surveys to study and analyse the U.S. consumer buying behaviour across all major retail sectors.

The post Buyer Behaviour Trends And The Impact Of COVID appeared first on Head Of Sales.

Preparing for this year’s list of future channel trends has been an immersive experience, to say the least.

In 2019, I was able to talk to 497 companies one on one about their channel strategy and programs, including 130 of those face to face. I received 78 briefings from the technology companies that are inventing new ways to automate and scale indirect sales. I also had the honor of speaking (over 40 times) to tens of thousands of channel professionals globally and participating in countless webinars and podcasts. Finally, I was able to share channel data and insight 129 times across the 54 global channel magazines.

Added to this, we acquired the amazing SiriusDecisions company a couple of days into 2019 and added it to the collective wisdom of 675,000 consumers and business leaders around the world that we collect through rigorous and objective surveys.

To sum 2020 up in simple terms, we are seeing a monumental shift in how buyers acquire products and services and how companies are reacting with their go-to-market and routes-to-market strategies. Over 80% of my time is spent in the technology industry, where 64% of all dollars flow indirectly. That is US$2.26 trillion (with a T), if you are keeping score.

2020s Trends

1. Indirect Sales Will Shrink Every Year For The Next Decade

We are watching several buyer trends in this area. First and foremost, 73% of B2B buyers report that buying through eCommerce, web direct, or marketplaces is very convenient. Consumer trends, such as direct to consumer, are starting to shift into business. Brands are developing the capability to sell and fulfill directly to consumers, and this will extend to their B2B buyers, as well.

The cloud and emerging technologies such as AI, automation, and the internet of things (IoT) are growing quickly and carry lower indirect percentages than some of the legacy technologies they are replacing. For example, after 20 years, software-as-a-service is still stubbornly sitting below the 30% mark for indirect sales with no signs of change. Salesforce is recruiting 250,000 new partners in the next four years and has effectively shut down its reseller program.

The $2.26 trillion of indirect technology spend will continue to grow, but grow more slowly than direct sales causing the 64% split to drop each year for the next decade.

2. Marketplaces Make Their Mark

Forrester is predicting that 17% of the $13 trillion in B2B spend will flow to marketplaces by 2023. While some of these marketplaces are indirect (e.g., Amazon or Alibaba), most of them will be run by big tech vendors (e.g., Microsoft, AWS, Google, Dell, Salesforce, or IBM).

I foresee 20 “super” marketplaces taking a sizable share of this marketplace revenue and creating a whole new set of tech jobs (such as marketplace SEO, community managers, and ecosystem strategists).

3. Channel Leaders Contemplate A Trifurcated Channel Model 

For 38 years, the channel has been synonymous with resellers and transacting partners. Programs have been anchored on precious metal (gold/silver/bronze) pyramid schemes, and the partner journey has been predictably linear from recruitment to onboarding, incentives, co-marketing, and management. In 2019, we saw Microsoft announce that 7,500 new partners were joining the program each month. What it didn’t announce is that 80% of those partners are nontransacting.

What is a trifurcated channel?

–> With buyers spending 68% of their journey digitally before speaking with a salesperson (direct or partner) and an astounding 71% of them reaching vendor selection after a digital-only journey, brands are wising up to the importance of getting in front of customers early and often. Creating an “influencer channel” made up of affinity partners, referral agents, affiliates, advocates, ambassadors, and alliances is critical to success in 2020, and the program will need to serve these early digital influencers in a nonlinear fashion.

–> The traditional “transactional channel” doesn’t go away. In fact, those partners that have spent years on the “long-tail” list may actually find a home somewhere else in the program that has, up till now, only pushed them to resell. Tweaking channel data management, automation, insights, onboarding, incentives, co-selling, and co-marketing will determine winners and losers here.

–> Because almost every company in every industry is thinking about or actively converting to a recurring, subscription-based model, a new “retention channel” is starting to take hold. Knowing that the customer journey never ends in a subscription scenario and that brands will need to re-earn a customer’s business every 30 days, partners that can drive adoption, ongoing customer experience, and the ability to upsell and cross-sell become critically important. These partners appear as consultants, integrators, adjacent ISVs, accountants, digital agencies, etc.

The prediction from a few years ago about millions of shadow channels entering the market came true. When looking through this trifurcated lens, more than 80% of these (potential) partners will show up before or after the sale, and channel leaders need to break the transactional channel mold.

4. Channel Professionals Become Ecosystem Professionals

In an Accenture survey, 76% of business leaders agree that current business models will be unrecognizable in the next five years — ecosystems will be the main change agent. Reading the annual reports of the Fortune 500, it is becoming abundantly clear that every company is becoming a technology company, such as, for example, the legacy manufacturer of forklifts that integrated IoT sensors in its product and now delivers thousands of data points per second to construction companies, architects, and others in the value chain. The company has partnered with AWS, Google, and Microsoft and is busy building a tech partner ecosystem.

One of the most common things I talked about with the 497 companies in 2019 was the idea of the expanded channel Venn diagram including influence, transactional, and retention type partners and how to manage them all with one program. The average program has 90 different elements, and implementing it across transacting and nontransacting partners is surprisingly easy. Partners of all types (transactional and nontransactional) need to be found and recruited, onboarded, educated, trained, incentivized, motivated, loyal, and have the tools necessary to support/promote your product or service from a sales and marketing perspective.

The program needs to be automated, flexible, scalable, and anchored on self-service. The effective use of technology tools is no longer optional — ecosystems don’t run on spreadsheets.

5. Emerging Tech Is No Longer Emerging — It Is Here

In 2019, we saw many of the emerging tech categories that we have been watching for years turn into multimillion dollar revenue streams for partners. 2020 will be the year of switching early adopters into an early majority for technologies such as IoT, AI, automation, 5G, advanced security, and blockchain.

The fastest-growing subindustry in the technology space has been RPA, or robotic process automation. RPA blends workflow automation with AI and software bots and has become one of the foundational tools of digital transformation. One of the leaders in the Forrester Wave evaluation on RPA was UiPath, which grew 5,614% to become the fastest-growing software company to $100 million in revenue in history, with 70% of the opportunity flowing through partners. (It eclipsed previous holders of the title: Microsoft, Salesforce, and, most recently, Slack).

To get an idea of the size of the emerging tech ecosystem, Forrester is currently watching 800,000 firms globally — all potential partners of those brands that are looking to influence a particular set of buyers.

6. New Channel Tech Companies Emerge In Ecosystem Space

The channel software tech stack from 2019 included 106 companies that were broken down into six categories, including partner relationship management, through-channel marketing automation, channel incentives and program management, channel data management, channel enablement, and channel finance.

In 2020, we are seeing several moves toward channel software that supports transacting- and nontransacting-type partners. From a functionality perspective, support for resellers, managed services providers (MSPs), referral partners (affinity, affiliate, advocate, ambassador, digital influencer, etc.), alliance partners, ISVs, consultants, and shadow channels is a necessity. Attribution, which has traditionally been in marketing domains, is quickly becoming a critical skill for channel professionals growing a trifurcated channel.

In 2019, we saw M&A activity such as Impartner acquiring Amplifinity, Loyaltyworks merging with Incentive Solutions, 360insights acquiring MTC Performance, and E2open acquiring Averetek, as well as some pure ecosystem technology plays by Impact, WorkSpan, and Crossbeam, along with early-stage companies Apideck, TidWiT, and P2P Global.

7. Partner Experience (PX) Will Catch Up To Customer Experience (CX)

B2B channels are in transition — from a tiered, resale, and fulfillment function to a more fluid indirect ecosystem of affiliates, advocates, alliances, and referral partners. Upward of 70% of global revenue comes from third-party channels, and partners play a key role in shaping the customer experience. But most organizations have been slow to make the link between partner experience and customer experience.

A strong 43% of global B2B marketing decision makers rank improving customer experience as a top priority in 2019, while 39% are looking to improve the partner experience. We predict marketing decision makers will rank improving partner experience on par with improving customer experience in 2020, and both will rise to more than 50%.

Brands are wising up to the notion that customer obsession also means partner obsession and are looking for channel organizations to deliver.

8. Channel Account Managers Turn Into Community Managers

The average channel program will grow the number of partners by 10X in five years, and 80% of these new partners will be nontransacting partners. The complexity of finding, recruiting, and managing these new partners, each with their own unique set of business practices, target markets, value proposition, and culture, will be daunting. We estimate that there are over 600,000 partners worldwide when you include broader technology channels such as IT, telecom, print, pro A/V, etc. This doesn’t include the millions of companies that are converging into the tech services space from far and wide.

The small- and medium-sized business channel, which makes up over 90% of these firms, is significantly influenced inside its own chosen communities. For example, if you were to look at the MSP market, you would find 31 distinct communities that highly influence the 50,000 MSPs globally. Targeting these 31 communities is a manageable and, for many vendors, profitable market.

Communities offer a smaller group of like-minded people (perhaps even competitors) who share similar experiences and challenges, have the ability to collaborate, and help improve decision making. The feeling of belonging is strong, as well as the affinity of membership. There is a feeling that communities are more democratic, as they are built by the membership, and participation is encouraged and celebrated.

Brands will create mini channel chiefs (or community managers) for each part of the channel Venn diagram they want to succeed in.

9. Superconnectors Pave The Way To Channel Recruitment

Channel leaders are struggling to find ways to expand recruitment across many new partner types without making significant investments. Superconnectors provide a gateway to diverse partner ecosystems and play a key role in guiding vendors to maximize their visibility and influence in front of these new channels.

Leveraging online resources, a brand can easily map out a channel ecosystem based on a particular buyer role, subindustry, geography, sector, size, segment, partner business model, or solution specialty. Mapping what partners read, where they go, and who they follow is a key activity in understanding the makeup of the influencer communities and, more importantly, the top 100 superconnectors in any particular niche.

As I listed out in detail in 2019, the global channel community reads a total of 54 channel magazines, listens to 64 podcasts, belong to 24 associations, participates in vendor and distributor communities, and follows thought leaders to over 150 channel-related trade shows per year. If you collect all of the speakers, board members, contributors, digital creators, consultants, analysts, and media professionals and scored them on visibility, you would have a stack-ranked list of the most influential people.

You then need to meet the top 100 superconnectors, educate them enough to be dangerous (to the point that they can explain to others what you do and how you are differentiated), and most importantly, get them to endorse you (unprovoked) across their platform(s).

10. The Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) Takes The Channel Reins — Beyond The Org Chart

In the technology channel, I estimate that there are 10,000 vendors that publish a channel program and actively support it with personnel and technology. When we ask about organization structure and reporting lines, we still see about 80% of partner organizations that are siloed.

Even if the reporting structure is directly into sales or marketing, the channel organization usually employs its own channel sales, marketing, operations, and finance teams that report to the channel chief and don’t collaborate much outside the silo. In the partner-obsessed world where partner experience is paramount, attribution is a key measure for the majority of partners and nontransactional programs become ubiquitous; the ability of a channel organization to succeed on its own is becoming improbable.

Ten years ago, organizations looked at their direct sales and marketing organizations and (correctly) decided to pull them under a single leader. To reduce the friction and put responsibility in the right buckets, the CRO focused on the entire cycle from top-of-funnel activities to customer success.

In the 2020s, organizations will start to break down silos and get the channel integrated into the entire customer cycle. This means neutral compensation, strict rules of engagement, and a cultural DNA that squashes channel conflict.

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