360 Magazine has just announced its eagerly anticipated, widely discussed and immensely revered “Channel Champions Awards 2005″. Running for the fifth consecutive year, this award seeks to reward a company based on its relationship with its channel. And as it’s the partners who are the decision-makers here, what this really means is that it’s the company that has earned their trust which emerges the ultimate winner.
Each year the survey leading up to the award throws up some interesting findings. For the last few years, partners constantly stated that they wanted to see good quality products with a realistic pricing structure being delivered to the channel. In this year’s survey they seem to have taken the demand one notch higher. They want a quality product at a good price and most importantly they want it to be channel-centric. Brands that have taken the alternate sales routes have not fared well in this year’s Awards.
Does this mean that the channel is becoming vindictive? Not likely. It looks like partners are just watching out for themselves. A look at the votes indicates that partners concentrate on manufacturers who focus on them. As a result, the victory roll of “Channel Champions Awards 2005″ has some new entrants, displacing a number of old favorites, across categories.
But the most outstanding result of this year’s Awards is the maturity shown by partners. When first introduced, the technical & service support criteria was rated 10 on the scale of 1-12. This year it climbed to 6th position, thus proving that service is gaining more value in the minds of the partners. Warranty and margins too moved from 4th and 5th ranks to the 3rd position, this year.
The heartening news is that partners are finally assimilating the right business acumen. They know that margins are important, but they have also become discerning enough to realize that the manufacturer’s support is essential for their business. Gauging from the results, the formula for winning looks easy enough.
Good product + good support (technical, warranty, marketing) + realistic pricing = Channel Champion Awards.
Looking at the results, few could meet the expectations.