Are You Executing “Outside of the Box” with Your Alliances and Channels – The Checklist (Part 2 of 5)

AKA Why Do Companies Struggle to Build the ATM Bridge – the Checklist (Part 2 of 5)

• Part 1: The Four “Boxes”
• Part 2: Are You Executing Out of the Box?  The Checklist
• Part 3: The Product Box
• Part 4: The Ownership and Task Boxes
• Part 5: The Solution-Branding Box

Part 2: Are You Executing Out of the Box?  The Checklist

I recently met with a former colleague who  is now VP of Marketing at a late-stage startup.  We talked about the challenges of aligning his products with the overall industry story and solutions for cloud, virtualization and converged infrastructure, and about the effectiveness of his channel GTM.  Then he said something that reflects the view of many tech executives,

 “We are already using best practices.  How does what you recommend differ from what we are already doing?”

That is a great question, and something that should be discussed in more detail.  Many of today’s sales, channel and alliances “best practices” originated in the late 1990s and early 2000s when Microsoft was the underlying platform and server, storage and networking hardware from companies like Sun, IBM, HP and Cisco was the center of customer “solutions” and the focus of the sales process.  Times have changed, and in this era of converged, virtualized and “cloud” architectures, software is what provides the differentiation and “solutions” are made up of a combination of hardware, software and services from multiple vendors.  In today’s world, products need to be sold in a way that is similar to how customers buy– as part of an overall architecture.  In this world, the role of your Alliance Partners (as part of a solution), and your sales channels (to architect and implement the solution) are critical.  From a marketing and sales standpoint, this evolution forces all of us in the industry to look at things differently – to think and “Execute Out of the Box™”.

It is hard to visualize a new approach. If you think a “mobile” phone looks like the old “bag phone” of the 1990s, it is hard to picture a smart-phone with a touch screen.  If you think “communication” and marketing is an email, it is hard to picture how social media works.   To get a better feel for what “Out of the Box” Alliance GTM Programs look like, complete the brief survey below.  You may get some new ideas on how to evolve your approach – and you may be able to able to see a clear vision for your Alliance GTM future…

Take the “Climbing Out of the Box™” Survey

If you are not able to check most of these boxes, you are not “Executing out of the Box”,  and your organization is missing revenue opportunities.   

Download the Are You Executing Out of the Box_Checklist_Jan 2014 from the Andrews Consulting Group, to find out more about these practices.

In the coming weeks, I will talk about how to build these programs to address these gaps, in the context of the “Alliance GTM Bridge”

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