Channel Partner Teams focused horizontally create value in their throughput. There’s no room for one-and-done, I-work-in-my-silo / you-work-in-yours mindset.
As an MSP (Managed Service Provider) – developer, IT (information technology) leader and decision maker – what’s the view from your side of the business table? Is your corporate culture structured to create value via horizontal channel partner teams?
Business development is part of everyone’s job function, whether stated in your job description or not. When teams operate in departmental and discipline-driven vertical silos, it’s difficult to drive revenue through your own organization let alone your customers’.
That’s why focusing on creating robust yet nimble horizontal channel partner teams may be your best bet in creating value.
That’s not how your channel partner teams typically operate, is it?
As an MSP, your developers, sales engineers, tech leaders and decision makers are called into your business equation on an “as needed” basis. Everyone operates at a different pace, with overbooked schedules. It is difficult enough getting everyone simultaneously seated around the business table. Often decisions are reached via a combination of emails, conference calls, virtual communications, text messages, you name it. The very definition of the workplace ranges from physical to virtual to airborne en route to Somewhere.
There’s no horizontal channel partner team “feel” in this snapshot of workplace dynamics, is there? It’s just “the way things are.”
MSPs that establish horizontal channel partner teams have a tremendous opportunity to create value: for themselves and for their customers.
What I’ve just stated is disruptive, isn’t it? It smacks of change with a big “C” and that word is loaded.
I’ve just moved you 1 millimeter outside of your collective comfort levels. Oh brother, better settle back into your legacy corporate culture, which these days can be offshore on multiple fronts.
I’ll take you through what’s involved in creating sustainable Horizontal Channel Partner Teams starting in this post and two posts each in February and March.
We will take a page out of entrepreneurial and startup mindset. Our focus is on the Minimum Viable Concept involved when creating horizontal channel partner teams.
My task for you, as an MSP, is to start pondering the current value created by all the discrete pieces of your channel partner puzzle. What happens to cost structure and efficiency when you integrate these components, cross-functionally, horizontally, much like the throughput and outcomes you create for your customers?
My task for you, as an MSP, is to consider the minimum pivots necessary to recombine or re-orient, all of your moving pieces. This aspect of your business equation could become your biggest single channel partner team “hack.”
Consider the power of establishing horizontal channel partner teams. How much more comparative, competitive value do you introduce into your internal and external business equation? We’ll explore more on February 2.
This post was brought to you by IBM for Midsize Business and opinions are my own.
Babette N. Ten Haken is a management consultant and business coach. Babette develops business, technical and engineering professionals of worth. She remodels startups and small-to-medium manufacturing and service companies experiencing difficulty with unpredictable revenue streams. Her book on horizontal business development and collaboration strategies, including tools, Do YOU Mean Business? is available on Amazon.com.
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