Aristotle thinks you need to invest in your brand. The ancient Greek philosopher’s writings covered a broad range of the big issues that humankind has grappled with for millennia. His wisdom has provided even modern humans with a framework for understanding the physical, moral, and natural world around us. No, branding was not one of … Read more
Key Stats at a Glance The Background Shawn Cordner is the founder of Root23 Agency. He is a 23-year veteran of the telecommunications industry, most of which has been spent in the channel. Shawn began working in the industry doing direct sales for Execomm (a Bell Atlantic agent) before moving to Lucent Technologies. He then … Read more
Root23’s Alexis Keller, a.k.a. The Blonde Don, is headed to Avant’s 2021 Special Forces Summit in Austin, Texas late this September, and she’s bringing her powerhouse knowledge and authentic approach with her. Trusted Advisors from across the channel space are encouraged to attend the conference, which will be held at the Fairmont Hotel September 27-29. … Read more
We talk a lot about content marketing and the importance of content-driven websites. There’s no doubt that content is critical today, and you’re probably engaged in content development and content marketing to some extent by now. In case you’re not a believer yet, or question your sanity as you slave away over writing blog posts, … Read more
Shawn Cordner 04/17/18 It’s Channel Partners time in Las Vegas again and I got lucky enough to be asked to do a presentation on The Transformational Power of a Compelling Brand. Honestly, not my best delivery, but I think the content was right on point for partners struggling with how to stay relevant in an … Read more
There seems to be a long held tradition in B2B marketing, especially in the Telecom and IT space, to be as boring as possible. What I see most frequently in the market is a very stiff, feature-advantage-benefit oriented approach to messaging. I think it’s byproduct of so many years of selling on features, “speeds … Read more
I just listened to a great episode of the 99% Invisible Podcast called McMansion Hell: The Devil is in the Details. If you haven’t ever heard of 99% Invisible, it’s a podcast “about all the thought that goes into the things we don’t think about — the unnoticed architecture and design that shape our world.”, … Read more
Where’d we leave off? Oh yeah, we just talked about how important it is to break the 80/20, and that the place to start is by targeting your partner recruitment and channel marketing efforts. Now let’s deal with the partners you have. Here are a few strategies to get more partners active, and the active … Read more
Getting over the 80/20 rule is a common challenge faced by channel marketers and channel organizations of all kinds. The name “80/20 rule” alludes to channels that get 80% of their revenue comes from 20% of their partners, or alternatively, that 80% of their partners are inactive while 20% are regularly producing. Inactive or underperforming … Read more
Here’s a little but effective tip I picked up a long time ago from a guy who was the top performing channel manager during pretty much my entire 8 year tenure with PAETEC: Channel managers should reach out to each partner individually at least once a week with some kind of valuable piece of information … Read more
