(How to Build a Winning Channel Team)
Recognizing where limitations lie, in this case, the ability to harness channel data and make clear and successful
strategic or execution decisions from it is also a recognition that therein lies both a gap and an opportunity to solve a problem.
You are measured on outcomes and you have a choice, to be a potential victim of data and live at the behest of those who have the controlling stakes; or to recognize that anyone is a data victim when considering that we are all subjected to bad data, and therefore bad outcomes happen to everyone.
So, the opposite of being a victim is knowing that everyone can be affected in the same way.
But you have the ability to change this and it takes a one-directional shift – to learn the mechanisms of how data is built, the layers involved that result in great analysis.
You can take control of data despite the narrowing corridors because those that focus on data see it everywhere and are able to filter what’s helpful and what’s not, and question what they are receiving in a valuable way.
You also have the ability to collect data or leverage it from other teams, as long as the business case is clear and the cost is low, but to do this you have to recognize the need and learn how to assess data.
Becoming Data-Savvy, and How to Lead Through Data
Data, in its rawer forms, is not a solution, it’s just an opportunity.
But it doesn’t take many steps to learn how to harness that data and become a leader through data.
Once you’re there, the projects you undertake and confidence in your decisions will transform your outlook into one of expanding opportunities and measurable, repeatable success.
Unless you have a naturally analytical mind, where balancing multiple parts of data and considering them concurrently is enjoyable for you, data analysis and reports are a constant bane.
Why? Because you are giving up control in such an important area.
Performance, results, health scores, productivity, trends, outcomes, next steps.
Your hope is to enable the team around you and be supported well. But my experience, in spending years around senior people in the channel, and in witnessing and imposing new analyses on managers and teams is this: there is no reason to resist new approaches to understanding your data blindly, but if you have the skills to assess the relevance and outcomes of new dashboards and tools, or better yet, commission the build of these, you will rise above the masses who got stuck in their ways many moons ago.
“Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen. Few in pursuit of the goal.”
Few will describe Nietzsche as a simple writer, or person for that matter. But in spending much time ill and bedridden he was able to observe those who passed in front of him, and although on first reading it’s not obvious, he is describing the differences between leaders and followers and what sets them apart.
However, the caveat here is that the treading of someone else’s path can pervade the behavior of people right through a hierarchy, and with big businesses rarely remaining owned by founders, the original visionaries, there is a real risk that true leadership, the ability to step away from the road, can be totally lost within a microcosm of society such that a business is.
But data and its brilliant application is your enabler. If you can heed Nietzsche’s words and overcome a
the natural implication to always go with what you know, you will be the ultimate winner.
Building Success: What are the approaches and tools?
If you would like to find out how specific channel tools can support you and your teams better, and learn more detail
around exactly how they help, myself, TPC Global, and our tools and methodologies will continue to exist, enhance and support channel teams across the globe
With complex organizations, requirements become very specific. Not all of what we have templated and built today will be relevant to your team or management, but with every channel client we’ve worked with, our approach is to adapt what we do to meet their specific needs.
Tools and methodologies covered include the following subject range:
➢ Distribution Optimization
➢ QBRs & Strategic Reviews
➢ Reseller Analytics
➢ Channel Marketing & Programs
➢ Competitive Pricing & Analytics
➢ eCommerce Growth
➢ Incorporating Amazon into Your Channel
You will also find that going through this process will stimulate your mind and, quite apart from considering other people’s great ideas, you will start to have great ideas yourself.
If you’d like to chat, you know where to find me.
Best wishes
David Porter
CEO & Founder
TPC Global
May 14th, 2021