Channel Terms You Should Know

If you are greenhorn in the industry of technology and marketing looking to set his own path, you may want to know these few terms that you should really, really understand if you ever hope of competing in the market. As a fellow newbie, I just started to understand this stuff and had a hard time figuring things out. So here goes the definitions:

channel sales strategy

Channel software
Every channel sales strategy needs one. As the name implies, it is a program developed to organize the different channels that your company has. The channels usually only differ into two: direct selling types and indirect selling types. Regardless, these branch out into more complex and specific branches which have their own properties, like retailers, resellers, wholesalers and telemarketers. The software is basically to help you keep in track of what is happening in the channel network that you possess.

Channel Conflict
When two or three of your channel members have encountered each other over the same prospect, be aware that you may want to change your channel software. This is what it means when there is a channel conflict –two channel forces that you own that are competing each other they supposedly shouldn’t. There are many ways to avoid this but keeping track of your channel management is the best way to do it.

Channel Management
As the name suggests, this is the process of keeping everything under control with the use of channel software. It used to be that the Excel sheets were one of the best ways to list which is to be listed like sales per day, quota expectations and whether they were met, etc. Now, the software provides various functions for managers to let themselves be updated without really looking at every last detail by the end of the day.

Partners Portals
Portals are applications used by the associated members outside of your own company. They provide an all around solution to manual channel sales strategy. The channel members can access the data you have given them and even update their own information on the website. Good management provides this accompanied by other marketing data and their own accounts and passwords.