The Battle for the Next Generation of Networks: Where Will We End Up?
There has been a lot of press in the last couple of years on the next generation of the networking. The industry seems to have amassed a desire for change – but what form will that change take?
I talked about the evolution of the data center in a series of posts earlier this year called “Where is all this Going” and the second installment focused on the impact of VMware and virtualization and the pent up demand for change in the network. I was talking to a friend and colleague a few weeks ago who worked at VMware starting in 2000 – long before VMware even had ESX… He’s now involved in developing products for the next generation of networks and I asked him a simple question,“
“How does the level of customer pain from the network today compare to the pain to customers experienced from server sprawl and the inflexibility from physical servers back in 2003?”
The Recipe for “Productization”: Step 3 – Build a “Solution Cookbook” to help your Channel Sell More of Your Product
Part of a Series: The Recipe for “Productization”
- 3 “Productization” Steps to Help your Channel Sell More of Your Product
- Step 1 – Define the “Solution Menu” Partners Can Sell to Drive Product Sales
- Step 2 – Create a Solution Enablement Toolkit (SET) as the “Recipe” for Marketing, Sales and Delivery
- Step 3 – Use a “Solution Cookbook” Portal to Communicate the “Solutions Menu” and the “Recipe” to Partners
In the last two weeks, I’ve talked about how you can help your partners “Productize” your offerings their business as an analogy to building a menu for a restaurant, with a Menu that includes multiple entrees, the recipe for those entrees and the ingredients that make up the entrée.
Today’s post will focus on Step 3: Creating a “Solution Cookbook” – the third and final step in “Productization”.
The Recipe for “Productization”: Step 2 – Create a Solution Enablement Toolkit (SET) to help your Channel Sell More of Your Product
Part of a Series: The Recipe for “Productization”
- 3 “Productization” Steps to Help your Channel Sell More of Your Product
- Step 1 – Define the “Solution Menu” Partners Can Sell to Drive Product Sales
- Step 2 – Create a Solution Enablement Toolkit (SET) as the “Recipe” for Marketing, Sales and Delivery
- Step 3 – Use a “Solution Cookbook” Portal to Communicate the “Solutions Menu” and the “Recipe” to Partners
In last weeks’ post, I discussed the 3 steps to “Productizing” your offerings within your partners’ business, and focused on the overall approach and the details of Step 1: Defining Solutions that Partners Sell that incorporate your products. In this week’s post, I will talk more about Step 2 in this process – Creating a Solution Enablement Toolkit (SET).
The 3-Step Process for “Productization”:
- Define the solution(s) that your solution-focused resellers sell that incorporate your products. These solutions are the “Appetizers, Entrees and Desserts” that you offer on your “Solution Menu”
- Create a Solution Enablement Toolkit (SET) for each solution
- Promote these assets to your solution-focused partners as part of GTM program to sell and deliver the Solution – including both Phase 1: Planning and Productization and Phase 2: GTM Execution. The SET and the underlying process are supported in a partner-facing portal we the “Solution Cookbook”.
The Recipe for “Productization”: 3 Steps to Follow to help your Channel Sell More of Your Product (Part 1 of a Series)
Part of a Series: The Recipe for “Productization”
- 3 “Productization” Steps to Help your Channel Sell More of Your Product
- Step 1 – Define the “Solution Menu” Partners Can Sell to Drive Product Sales
- Step 2 – Create a Solution Enablement Toolkit (SET) as the “Recipe” for Marketing, Sales and Delivery
- Step 3 – Use a “Solution Cookbook” Portal to Communicate the “Solutions Menu” and the “Recipe” to Partners
Last week I talked about how getting “Productized” in your partners solutions was a good way to grow your channel revenue and defined the process that partners use to absorb your products into their solutions as Plan, Productize, Promote, Sell and Deliver (PP-PSD). That model is shown in Figure 1 below. If you have not read that post, you might find it helpful to read as background on “why” and “what” on “Productization.”
Figure 1: How Partners Consume (Plan and Execute) a Solutions GTM Program (PP-PSD)
In this week’s post, I’ll talk about specific steps you can take to assist your channel in “Productization.” (more…)
“Climbing Out of the Box”™ 