Walking The Channel Tightrope

Executives often have trouble with nuance. With the gray area. Leading the troops is difficult when marching orders are qualified by phrases such as "relative to", "within limits", or "balanced approach". However, in the world of marketing, particularly channel marketing, balance is everything. Like an aerialist walking a tightrope, channel marketers must constantly strike a balance between too little and too much.

Let us look at some examples:

Market Coverage

At Frank Lynn & Associates, we've seen many companies looking to expand into indirect channels for the first time. With no channel partners to start, the sales or marketing executive frequently tells the field team to start recruiting partners, the more the better. (Hopefully, the company has at least created a list of desired partner capabilities to somewhat target its recruiters). However, as shown in Figure 1, at some point the