Forrester Opportunity Snapshot
Channel research sheds light on what to focus on to increase partner effort.
For decades, vendors have used channel incentives to drive behavior—suppressing old behaviors, establishing new ones or completely repositioning partners for a new opportunity. Rewards have played a large part in promoting successful partnerships, but research shows it's time to improve upon them and address the elephant in the room—motivating the people in channel programs.
A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of ITA Group researched the unique needs of U.S. channel partner owners and sales reps to find out how they feel about the current state of channel programs and examine what it would take to increase future investments of partner time, resources and revenue.
The research shows that vendor programs have done a good job helping partners with their product and staff development, and they're satisfied; but, partners indicated reward and experience elements could be more effective—more personalized.