Social Media for alliance and partner management

transcript

Evolution of alliance and partner networks

Axel.Schultze@Xeequa.com

Approximately 30% of the one Billion Internet users are part of a social network

Social Technology Phenomenon

Social media is the fastest growing technology ever

It grew with zero advertising – zero saleszero cold callsIn 5 years to 250+ Million users

How can it help - YOU- TODAY?

How do most companies sell today

H I S T O R YBuy contact listsDo mail shotsFrom small Google ads to bill boardsFollow up with cold callsEngage call centersIdentify “readiness to buy”Qualify the yieldCall and try to get an appointmentStart a sales processHope for the best

How do YOU buy today

You ignore advertisingYou hate cold callsYou through the junk mail in the waste basketYou have spam filtersYou have popup stopper

You first check the Internet for meaningful commentsYou check forums and get interesting opinionsYou read blogsYou discuss with peers or expertsYou explore with friends or colleaguesWhen you are “ready to buy” the decision is pretty much set in stone

Buying and sales cycle disconnect

You and your prospects are worlds apartThe purchase decision is made - you didn’t even begin your sales cycleThe needs analysis and identification process happened in a social network you are not even aware of

RESULTThe lead qualities of all sources are worst than everBusiness is extremely tough Sales results suck

…I changed – you didn’t …

We need alternatives

Growing market share through your community87%(*) of purchase decisions are based on recommendationsWouldn’t it be nice to get your prospects connected with your customers to develop trust early on?Accelerate the conversation amongst customers, prospects, their peer groups90%+ of purchased decisions are based on choice:“Select, Compare, Decide model” let customers talk about it.

Become a market leaderMarket leadership is determined by your communityMake your customers to advocates, your channels to your alliances and your suppliers to partners

* Jupiter Research

How can it help YOU – TODAY?

Yahoo alone has several thousand groups organized around brands such as 3Com, Cisco, Mitel, Nortel, Polycom, Siemens…“Hi, We have an urgent requirement for Telecom Analyst. Location: Waukegan, IL. Duration: …”“We plan to moving to an all VoIP infrastructure, 800 stations, any inputs…”

Here is what you can do:

Build your own community

Provide a space for your customers to communicate not only with you but amongst each otherBring prospects into that communityHave your business partner help boost the communityBring your product and service teams into the communityProvide Forums and Q+A functionality for your communityMake this community your social business networkCollaborate and share opportunities with selected members of your networkStrengthen the relationship with all constituencies of your ecosystem

Social media in business – a few cases

Social media initiatives in retail

Social media initiatives for VARs

Social media initiatives for consultants

Social media for government business

The core philosophy

This is NOT your fathers business networking method: Networking to get a new contact through one connection you have to get to a new prospect. What a slow and painful process, no leverage, vague success.

This is all about highly effective LEVERAGE Your business ecosystem of customers, prospects and partners together are far more powerful than any individual relation to an individual person.

Make your customers talk to prospectsMake your partners missionaries of your visionLet your alliances speak for youLet your suppliers help you

The Socially Engaged Channel

The day you thought you can get rid of all your dealers – you realized they are more important than ever…

unknown author ~1800 A.D.

Renew the leverage

Microsoft has 780,000 partners 10 Million sales people = the largest sales force in the world

Cisco has 100,000 partners More networking engineers than all competitors together

Symantec has become the 4th largest software manufacturer with 65$ products through a channel only strategy – Over 100,000 resellers + every available retailer

Dell has launched a community system making over 1 Million customers to their advocates. But Dell remains to be the ONLY PC manufacturer selling exclusively direct

The rest fights with friction and channel conflicts that cost profits and market share.

The socially networked channel

Empower your partners to engage with your ecosystem.Leverage your partners to fuel the conversation, the experience, the recommendationsNo partner can provide ALL services – therefore help build peer-to-peer networksWhen you believe in the power of word of mouth – provide the words but consider your partners be the mouth. Facebook took only 5 years to win 60 Million customers – yes it’s free but it was ONLY word of mouth.Empower your partners to build their own integrated customer communities or somebody else will take those customers

A network of equal nodes

Partners

Producer

Channel Partner

Partners

Customers

OtherVendors

TruePeers to Peer

Networking

Facilitate the conversation

Customer

Partner

Customer

Partner

PartnerPartner

Partner

PartnerAllianceAlliance

A recent IDC report stated:“As firms mature in their approach to managing ecosystems, network thinking is becoming more prevalent and alliance executives will need a revised toolkit to deliver the results expected by their respective organizations.“

Summary

Vendors and Channels need to collaborate to create a networked environment for their respective customersToday’s purchase decisions are made within socially interwoven networks of peers, experts, colleagues and industry influencer – be there or loose itSocial media is no longer a trendy gimmick for freaks – but a way for businesses to harness market relationships and create an enormous competitive advantageAnd like always – average Joe’s shop will get it two years later when he realizes that most customers are connected elsewhere.

Thank You

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All materials contained herein are the property of each respective company identified on such materials, and may only be used, copied or distributed with the express written permission of each respective company.

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Inspiration@Xeequa.com

Xeequa is an online social business software provider. The company’s “Social Business Suite” helps corporations strategically develop a more trustful and loyal business ecosystem including their customers, prospects, alliances, channels and suppliers for a better business experience resulting in incremental market share.

Xeequa’s Social Business Suite is designed especially for corporations or industry associations and includes social networking, alliance networking, forums, blogs, event tracking and online collaboration such as opportunity or project collaboration. The solution supports corporate organization structures and provides an extended level of privacy rules created for corporate use.

The advertising free “software as a service” is subscription based and scales from small businesses to global enterprises. More info on www.xeequa.com or 1-888-xeequa1