The Great Pumpkin Is Not Coming!

OK, I admit it: I've grown weary of Halloween. Something about those blow-up yard ornaments makes me fantasize about lightening. Then, there are the designer pumpkins and fly-by-night stores chockfull of cheesy costumes. I yearn for the make-your-own costume when a bandana could transform anyone into a cowgirl or railroad engineer. And, while the brilliance of Charles Shultz cannot be denied, I find the time-honored episode about Linus loyally and eagerly awaiting the Great Pumpkin year after year unnerving. It pretty much puts to rest the axiom that "anything worth having is worth waiting for," doesn't it? So, in the spirit of taking the proverbial pumpkin by the stem (sorry!), we offer the following "treats" to help you strengthen your case for a solid channel budget during this year's planning season.

For starters, the most important question to revisit is "what does your company really need from partners?"

If your revenue plan is highly dependent on partners to reach new markets, the marketing dollars allocated to branding and demand generation should not significantly dwarf the amount of money budgeted for channels. While it's rarely a 50/50 split, the investment in partners and customers should be rationalized.

Once the split is determined, it's helpful to think about the partner lifecycle when allocating the channel portion. Call the functions what you like, but ultimately, companies in pursuit of partner revenue need to recruit, enable, and develop partners to drive that revenue. It's no different than what you do for your sales people, and mirrors the customer acquisition process. Yet, it's often minimized for partners when it comes to budget season.

If you think about where your company's indirect channel growth is along the "partner acquisition" continuum, the percentage of money that you should allocate becomes clearer.

1) Recruitment
    If you have all the partners you need, this portion of the budget will be relatively     small. If, on the other hand, you're just beginning your partner initiative,
    investment will be critical to attracting high quality, good fit partners.
    Recruitment budgets generally include recruitment collateral, sales tools, and
    web-based processes. It also accounts for channel sales resources and
    back-end account management infrastructure.

2) On-Boarding
    An often overlooked part of the budget, on-boarding is essential to getting your     partners trained and operationally able to sell. Perhaps too obvious, but if there
    isn't money to enable partners, it's not a wise use of money to recruit them.
    This is also     the place to look when management asks why partners aren't
    selling more. On-boarding budgets fund partner sales, technical training, and
    operational infrastructure.

3) Development
    Once partners are functionally ready and able to sell, let the marketing begin.
    Your investment may vary based on your objectives, product, and services, but
     these are the dollars dedicated to programs and tools that help partners reach
     new markets, convert prospects to sales, and ultimately, operate independently      from you. This is where the beauty of leverage begins to take off. Development      budgets are not only where market development funds reside, but also where
     you account for communication vehicles to your partners (like collateral,
     e-newsletters, partner councils, web portals, joint case studies, etc.)

4) Sales
    Largely a headcount expense, the Sales bucket accounts for the people that
    work with your partners to develop partnerships, and the selling tools that are
    critical here, like ROI analyses and pipeline management.

As you plow through the fiscal planning season, may you receive the entire budget you need to stay ahead of the curve, and may you enjoy all the leftover Halloween candy you can digest.