It’s time to get more coordinated with your channels than ever before, because collaboration is a competitive strength that you can’t afford to lose during this recession.  Here are ten strategies for fighting this recession with your channels – because no one is coming out of these hard times without building some exceptionally strong relationships.  Let’s get the illusion out of the way that any manufacturer – or company for that matter - can get through this recession completely on their own.

Here are ten strategies for surviving this recession with your channels:

• Get your channel partners to have skin in the game and re-engaged. Now is the time to get your channel partners refocused on the goals you both share, and consider re-evaluating the shared goals to make them attainable by your working together.  Channel partners need to have skin in the game like never before.

• Face time is key today. Get out and spend time with each reseller, channel partner, retailer and distributor to see what they need.

• Buzz for new products needs to start with your channels. Instead of being focused on how you can generate buzz through massive marketing spending, start by getting your channel partners into the launch of new products well before the actual launch date by asking for and acting on their feedback.

• Don’t give pricing concessions, give co-op instead. Don’t resort to price discounting to just keep your channel partners focused.  Go after more spending between both you and your channel partners by increasing co-op spending and use Market Development Funds (MDF) to protect key channels.

• Create new opportunities for growth by looking at new vertical markets. In the last recession the best defense that many channel partners pursued was finding a niche of being strong in a given vertical market.  That’s critical in this downturn as well – help your channel partners find that vertical strength.

• Get Special Pricing Requests automated. Get away from having your channel partners wait to get special pricing on deals approved; automate this process and you’ll be able to win more deals as a result.

• Accelerate new product introductions into the first half of the year. Competing by re-defining product generations in their industries is going to be one of the most pervasive competitive strategies in 2009.

• Make sales and product configuration pay. Get your channels onboard with sales and product configuration strategies and use these applications as the basis for giving your channels and opportunity to sell more.  Get new products launched quickly through product and selling configuration strategies to further differentiate.

• Escalate sales leads through channel collaboration systems, not manually. Getting sales leads to channel partners and quickly escalating them to the best possible reseller is also critical right now.  Get out and spend time with resellers specifically on this issue to make sure you know what they need in this area – and walk through the best approach you can serve them with leads.

• Get a Dealer Advisory Council created now, even if it is held online and through WebEx, to get insights into your channel partners’ unmet needs. You can go big on this and hold an offsite or you can do it virtually – but either way you need to get your channel partners’ unmet needs captured and concentrate on how to collaborate with them more closely than ever before.

Bottom line: Consider these ten channel strategies for making your relationships with channel partners stronger, more resilient, more profitable today.

Accelerating new product introductions into 2009 is a strategy that large and small companies alike are aggressively pursuing.  Microsoft, who plans on delivering Windows 7 by the end of this year, to auto manufacturers racing to get hybrid and electric vehicles launched to differentiate themselves and thousands of other manufacturers, the highest priority strategy today is getting new products out quickly.

New Product Launches – The Undiscovered Competitive Advantage

Turning new product launches into a competitive weapon is critical in these uncertain economic times.  One just needs to consider Apple Computer and their relentless product roadmap of iPods, iTouch and iPhone models to see how an aggressive new product introduction strategy can lead to dominating a market.  It is for many companies the greatest competitive weapon they have, many not seeing its full value.

Making Every Product Launch Count

With 25% to 35% of total revenues of a typical manufacturer being used for marketing, it’s time for a much greater level of accountability and focus on making product launches a competitive weapon.  There are those companies who have a standardized process for managing product introductions – and just going through the motions of these process steps is not enough anymore.

Focus and intensity on making new product introductions the critical catalyst for growing new business is also crucial if new business is going to be generated.  Start looking at how you can completely transform your product launch process and gain greater sales by working more collaboratively with channel partners, distributors, dealers and resellers.

Making Every Product Launch Count

In one manufacturer there is a 16-week process for launching products that every cross-functional team member in the organization has memorized.  The product launches get executed yet there is no passion anymore, no intensity to excel and use the launch process as a means of gaining market share. Many organizations are like this – and they need a wake-up call to start competing again with their product launch process.

Here are some key take-aways to transform your product introductions from being routine to becoming a competitive weapon:

• Getting suppliers involved as early as possible in the design process. Too often, even for companies including Apple who compete using product introductions, supplier involvement is the most critical.  Don’t just stop there however; go after insight into how to make your product introductions more effective by creating a Channel Advisory Council to seek out ideas on how to make each product launch count.

• Get your channels to have skin in the game – with every launch. What differentiates those companies weathering the economic storm right now is that they have created such a strong level of trust and coordination with their channels that their entire marketing and selling strategies execute flawlessly in conjunction with one another.

• Measure, monitor and manage to a common set of channel metrics. This is another differentiating point of best-in-class companies when it comes to managing new product introductions – and turning them into strong competitive weapons.  Using a channel collaboration system can significantly improve this entire process.

• Foster competition in your channels regarding new product selling performance. Using a channel collaboration system to nurture competition between channel partners in terms of their selling performance is what Cisco, GE, and all auto manufacturers rely on.  A little competitiveness in terms of sales ranking with channel partners can go a long way to getting stronger results.  Encourage sales competition and reward the top-performing teams, make them champions.  You will be well on your way to changing your entire channel culture for the better.

Bottom line: Resolve to use product introductions as a competitive weapon – an opportunity to preemptively gain market share based on your latest product development. Top performing companies including Cisco, GE and others encourage competition and ownership of product launches in your channels as well – and give every channel partner a voice in the process – and then push for accountability to turn product launches into a competitive strategy that wins.

In order to truly engage your company in the Channel Management process and finally see some actual metrics that reflect an increase in ROI, you need to see that Channel Management is, in fact, a process, not a noun, and not a verb.

The Process of Channel Management:

The Channel management process is a process by which a company creates formalized programs for selling and servicing customers within a specific channel. Multi-channel management then expands on the processes already in place for each specific channel.

In order to understand what your company has for channel management right now, try and take a step back and define some very specific items and programs that you have and then how you can go about managing them more efficiently.

The four keys points to defining your channel segments and begin to manage them:

1. Goals: Define the specific goals you have for each of your channel segments. Consider the channel as a whole, but don’t forget about individual accounts. Remember to account for goals on both acquisition and retention.

2. Policies: Well defined polices are vital in administering accounts within a channel. Each of your segments must be taken into account when creating policies for divisions such as order management, product fulfillment, etc.

3. Products: Offering every product to every channel and segment might not be the key to your success. Look into which products fit each channel the best, and eliminate products that simply don’t fit in a channel. Funnel those products to the channels that can offer it best. You many just find some new opportunities for upselling.

4. Sales/Marketing Programs: This key for channel management deserves a post all it’s own, so check back tomorrow!

There’s an undercurrent that’s starting to tug at even the best manufacturer and distribution channel relationships.  It’s the ability to set and manage expectations based on supply chain visibility. and share that critical data with channel partners.  Distributors, dealers and channel partners don’t call it that, they call it vendor responsiveness when it happens, and being blown off when it doesn’t.

The ironic aspect of this topic is that while many manufacturers insist they have the ability to make and keep commitments based on visibility into multiple layers of their supply chains, their dealers and distributors report just the opposite.

Supply Chains and The Domino Effect

Visiting with auto dealers to gauge if Available-To-Promise (ATP) and Capable-To-Promise (CTP) were important to them on fleet sales proved positive: these dealers only order from manufacturers that can deliver ATP and execute to the date.  So fundamental but so true; dealers only trust manufacturers that have supply chains in focus, making and keeping commitments based on solid knowledge of their supply chains, production scheduling and order fulfillment.

When these dealers sell fleet vehicles, mostly to small and medium businesses to either replace or grow their own fleets, the ATP date from the manufacturer is the same date often a small business gets to expand and grow.  The Domino Effect, if you will, of an accurate ATP date means the small business now has additional revenue generating assets on the road – a critical link to their future growth.

Conversely not delivering to an ATP date kills the pipeline of new revenue the small business was betting on and forces them to repair damaged trust with their customers.  This Domino Effect of commitments in fleet sales has a lasting effect.  One manufacturer wedged into a tight rural market by having superior knowledge of and control over their ATP dates versus entrenched competitors.  The result: 30% of sales are with the new manufacturer, from offshore, due to better supply chain visibility.

Don’t be Afraid To Tell The Emperor He has No Clothes

For manufacturers that are getting beat in these fleet sales channels, the disconnect between corporate and the field is noticeable and significant.  C-level executives, insulated from the channels by consultants and system integrators that profit more when the world outside is seen as in OK shape but internal systems need massive re-working, are hesitant to tell the CEO that basically the emperor has no clothes.  Not wanting to tell them their channels are in complete disarray – or worse not knowing it – costs the companies millions in lost opportunity.  All because no one has the courage to say that for all the internal system spending the fundamental systems that matter to channels and customers are broken and need fixing now.

When the auto industry’s  C-level executives are told about how badly broken their supply chains really are, say “Our business model doesn’t require use to deliver Available-To-Promise…” and that the supply chain is not important to their channels.  In those words is the unraveling of a channel strategy and the drop-off of channel selling on the part of these challenged manufacturers.

The reality is that for every manufacturer that relies on channels that ignores providing supply chain visibility on especially complex manufactured products, the greater probability their competitors are.  So it’s the choice of each manufacturer, but given how small businesses purchasing fleet vehicles to grow their own businesses key off of ATP and other commitments from channel partners, manufacturers need to realize that by enriching the channel they are enriching their customers – and that being myopic and falsely secure in corporate, away from the channels, is an illusion.  The reality is in the channels.

Time To Make Your Channels Stronger

It used to be just a matter of margins and Market Development Funds or MDF for short, to keep a distributor, dealer or channel partner satisfied and selling your products.  No more.  Competitors want your channels and will deliver advanced systems that give dealer reps the assurance that ATP, CTP and other indicators of delivery dates from your supply chain are real, and can be counted on.

Bottom Line: If you have invested in delivering this to your channels, great.  You just made a massive debit in your credibility account with your channels.  If you’re ignoring it, go visit your lowest performing dealers and see how many of your competitors’ products are selling there and why.  Chances are it’s because the dealers have learned to trust an emerging competitor’s visibility into their supply chains and have the track record of making and keeping commitments to prove it.

In the original days of relatively simple selling procedures involved one major channel: The desk between you and your customers. In today’s complex selling environment corporations are contending with a dramatically and increasingly fragmented channel strategy to satisfy a consumer group that is capable of going through 8 different channels for the same product.

The Goals of a Multi-Channel Order Management System:

The goal of a multi-channel order management system is to provide a uniform customer experience regardless of the sales channel. This also enables customer-service and sales representatives to view and manage orders across sales channels that are available. It is a frequent misconception of the public that there are 9 different outlets available for one product, without understanding that there is still only one company, back down the line, that is actually manufacturing that product. That one company must correctly manage all of it’s sales channels or risk losing it’s market share and it’s reputation.

From a demand management perspective, global organizations are focused on unifying the order process. They must enable multi-tier distribution channels to extend product offerings and dramatically improve channel

In order to correctly manage the channel process, corporations must intrinsically accept the fact that the rapid adoption of the internet has accelerated the trend towards multi-channel shopping, along with multi channel identity management and reputation management opportunities and risks. These risk and opportunities have reinforced the importance of the direct-to-consumer channel that must be managed properly in order to compete in a global market.

How to Measure Quote-to-Order Results:

In order to properly quantify the savings and gains that your company realizes through a Quote-To-Order system implementation, you have to do some serious benchmarking ahead of time. Too many companies wait until after they have implemented a QtO strategy before they really keep track of the increases in cross sells and up sells, quote to order time savings and cycle time reductions. When you wait until after to crunch your numbers, chances are that your CFO won’t see a calculable difference in returns simply because there was no benchmark in the first place.

Depending on the extent of manual system changeover to an automated QtO system, you company can see results such as a 60% decrease in order cycle time, a huge jump in quote creation time and accuracy that also results in a massive reduction in incorrect orders.

The question is, how can you know the percentage of gains and savings if you don’t know what your numbers are now, before your Quote to Order system implementation or upgrade?

You can begin defining your measurements of QtO processing by looking at the performance of your company in key metrics. Go through your entire Quote to Order process, department by department including sales, operations, manufacturing, service, customer service and development. Talk to each department to find out what their greatest frustrations are in the process and see where the biggest lags and cost busters are.

Each measurement of efficiency and inefficiency will help you measure where your process is today and quantify your savings and gains later .

How long does it take to complete an order?
How often do orders require a re-work? What were the most common reasons?
Which parts of the process are redundant?

All of these elements are going to help you get a baseline measurement of your company’s QtO process.

Enterprise Resource Planning solutions come in various shapes and sizes. Many systems do not handle invoice management well if at all. Those that do attempt some sort of invoice management usually are limited to billing and order fulfillment, but the actual management of the invoice may get lost in the shuffle. The tasks involved in managing invoices are so specialized that ERP software developers tend not to focus on them. That’s understandable since this aspect of an enterprise supply chain are typically vastly different from company to company.

With multi-channel invoicing, a single order could require several invoices, all originating from different departments of the manufacturer and each sent to a different department of the receiving company. That’s why managing the invoicing process separate from other business functions makes sense. But thankfully you can integrate your invoice management processes into the overall ERP solution that you already have in use.

Tasks involved in invoice management that may require an automated support system include:

• Accounts Payable Tracking
• Accounts Receivable Tracking
• Forecasting
• Reporting
• Printing
• Labeling
• Multiple copies of single invoices
• Packaging
• Integration with other business functions

By integrating your invoice management processes into your ERP and supply chain management functions you can ensure that you cut expenses, increase efficiency, and manage your entire billing cycle more effectively.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server is the most popular channel collaboration tool on the market and there’s a good reason why. It integrates well with other systems and is widely used worldwide. We at Cincom Acquire like it because it offers a comprehensive platform for channel collaboration and management with so many good features.

Besides connecting with your channel partners through portals, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server also enables communities through social computing. This is the new wave of marketing. With social media tools like Twitter and LinkedIn that allow companies and managers to connect outside of their organizational websites, communications in the 21st century have become so much more streamlined. But with Cincom Acquire’s social computing application you can establish your own social network within your company’s channel collaboration tool and integrate them into a portal for ease of use, central management, and better, more effective communication throughout your enterprise.

Instead of trying to get your employees all on one social network outside of your organization, you can build the social network within your walls and employ a system-wide network that addresses everyone’s needs. Turn your company portal into a social networking site and foster better channel collaboration at the same time.

How many people in your organization and beyond are responsible for parts of your estimating process? If you’re like many organizations, the process is complex and could take a very long time to complete. That’s why you need a solution that makes the estimating process simpler and allows your channel partners to easily integrate their processes into the mix.

With Cincom Acquire Estimate Management you can collaborate with your channel partners, engineers, and sales people to make your estimating process more efficient and customer focused. We make it easy to estimate the future cost of your project by allowing the people involved to communicate better. You’ll have a better chance of closing more sales and increasing your business by focusing on details that matter instead of running through the same old inefficient processes. The Cincom Acquire Estimate Management solution is a continuous improvement solution that works for any company.

Channel collaboration is one of the biggest challenges for many complex sales organizations and workflow management is one area that keeps some organizations from experiencing higher ROIs on a consistent basis.

Cincom Acquire’s sales and product configurator includes:

• Portal administration capabilities
• Workflow management
• Integration & automation
• Forms management
• Reporting & analytics
• Cincom business rules

With graphical drag and drop tools you can you can plan and create workflows that keep your organization on track and running smoothly, connecting the right people, processes, and systems. For a demo of the Cincom Acquire Sales and Product Configurator click here.