Channel Prejudice

At any given moment, millions of dollars are being poured into lead-generation programs. But by their own admission, most channel executives will tell you that those programs don't really work.

So the end result of most lead-generation programs is that vendors wind up distributing a lot of cold leads that do little more than raise the cost of sales for solution providers.

Vendors persist in the programs because most are loath to admit that it is the channel that drives demand. As in politics, all effective selling is done at the local level.

But vendors insist on misspending millions of dollars on pyrotechnic marketing campaigns that do nothing more than make end customers aware that a vendor's brand is associated with some vague issue such as e-business, because it is inconceivable to them that they are not the primary driver of demand for their products.

The truth of the matter is that most of that money would be better spent helping local solution providers market themselves and the products they represent. No IT organization worth its salt is going to embark on a strategic project because they saw an ad on TV.

But vendors persist in advertising and lead-generation efforts because without them, they would have to admit that it's solution providers that are really driving demand.

How do we know that most vendors know this but refuse to acknowledge it? Well if solution providers aren't driving demand, then why do most vendors have spif programs that reward solution providers for selling their products? If solution providers aren't driving product demand, there shouldn't be a need for spif programs.

Major vendors need to take a hard look at how they allocate resources across marketing, lead-generation and spif programs. If they do, they will soon discover that most of their resources are being squandered on programs that reflect their own prejudice, rather than the real marketing goals of their companies and, ultimately, the interests of the shareholders they represent.

Where do you stand in the lead-generation debate? I can be reached at (516) 562-7477 or via e-mail at [email protected].