Jay McBain, Forrester’s research and advisory lead for global channels, alliances, and partnerships joins us in this QnA to share interesting tips and trends on Channel Partnerships and B2B Sales.
Can you tell us a little about yourself (including your hobbies!) and your professional journey so far?
I have been in the channel my entire 25 year career. This included a combined 17 years with IBM and Lenovo in senior channel roles, and a channel software startup, ChannelEyes, as co-founder and CEO. I enjoy being a husband and father to 4 beautiful girls – 2 finishing in college and 2 still in preschool. I play hockey a few times a week and have travelled (on vacation) to almost 100 countries!
As a seasoned B2B Sales professional, what are some of the biggest sales challenges you’d like to fix in the industry?
With 75% of world trade flowing through indirect channels, it is time for partner programs and ecosystems to rise in visibility and execution to B2B organizations. Growing a robust partner ecosystem helps influence buyers early in the journey, bring them to vendor selection (in your favor), transact, and then implement, integrate and drive adoption for your product ensuring renewals, retention, upsell, and repeat buyers.
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What are some of your top tips to ensure tech (sales) teams optimize their channel partner management and strategies?
The partner of the future will likely not be a transacting one. It doesn’t make sense to the new generation of tech buyers who make two-thirds of all new tech decisions today. As mentioned above, 73% of business buyers find the web more convenient to make purchases, and we forecast that 17% of all B2B transactions will happen through eCommerce by 2023.¹ The era of “single throat to choke” and a “trusted advisor” anchored by a single bill will be a thing of the past. The new gig economy for tech services has already begun, and partners will need to get into the conversation.
What are your thoughts on the future of Sales/Salestech pertaining to AI? How do you eventually see Salestech play a role in the future role of a Sales professional?
When surveyed in 2018, partners ranked customer opportunities in IoT, automation, AI, augmented/virtual reality, 5G, and 3D printing as near-term, profitable areas that they can pursue going forward. For example, one of the fastest-growing places in the channel is in RPA, where companies such as Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, and UiPath are growing significantly and adding tens of thousands of partners to their ecosystem. This is a no-code/low-code environment where partners can codify customer workflows, develop business logic, integrate dozens or hundreds of SaaS applications, and make it a repeatable business. This is the stepping stone to AI and provides a tangible opportunity that can be sold and delivered.
Can you tell us about some innovative Sales/Channel Partner campaigns from the industry that have helped extract (more than the targeted) ROI? Could you also throw a little light on the SalesTech stack you have used to help you achieve better results?
I publish the channel software tech stack and other research that outlines emerging technologies such as AI in the support of partners. Areas such as PRM and through-channel marketing represent leading areas that are driving ROI for B2B organizations.
What are some of your 5 “must-haves” or “must-dos” for early users of AI-powered sales tech tools?
Enabling partners of all types to leverage vendor content, messaging, branding, and demand generation initiatives in their local markets is critical to driving a winning customer experience. Those brands that can balance their direct and indirect execution while using AI to ensure consistent customer expectations through distributed and localized marketing will have outsized success in the market.
The first step for a brand is to understand the growing number of partners and influencers, what they are specialized in, their sales and marketing acumen, and how they go to market. There will be experts, do-it-yourself, do-it-for-me, and laggards (do-it-on-behalf-of) that each need to be enabled in different ways. Platforms will need to be flexible, self-service (partner or concierge service), and highly automated to cover the plethora of digital and physical tactics.
What’s your smartest sales hack that you’d like to share with the audience?
There is a complexity in finding, recruiting, and managing thousands of partners globally, each with their own unique set of business practices, target markets, value proposition, and culture. We estimate that there are over 600,000 partners worldwide when you include broader technology channels such as IT, telecom, print, pro A/V, etc. This doesn’t include the millions of companies that are converging into the tech services space from far and wide.
Channel partners know that to be successful, they need to carve out a niche — whether that be by line of business, by industry (and, increasingly, by subindustry), by size of customer, geographically, technologically, and by business model. These six vectors are not mutually exclusive, and buyers of technology are looking for a match across all of them. More about community marketing can be found here!
Your biggest learning so far in Sales/Channel Partner Management.
A lot has changed in the 25-plus years I have spent in the technology channel. New technologies, partner business models, shifting demographics, expanding communication vehicles, and most recently, new technology buyers with different psychologies, behaviors, and journeys have created a whirlwind of change for vendors, distributors, and partners alike.
Tag (mention/write about) the one person in the industry whose answers to these questions you would love to read!
I publish the 100 most important people (in order) in the channel industry here
And also publish the key influences here.
Your favorite Sales/SalesTech quote
80% of life is showing up. With 68% of a buyers journey happening digitally before ever talking to salesperson, there is a considerable new interest in what it means to “show up” in this new world. Hint: ecosystems.
Tell us about some of the Sales/Salestech events that you’ll be participating in as a speaker, in 2020!
I keynote about 50 channel events per year around the world – here is a list of the 150 or so events that make up the channel.
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Forrester is one of the most influential research and advisory firms in the world. We work with business and technology leaders to develop customer-obsessed strategies that drive growth. Forrester unique insights are grounded in annual surveys of more than 650,000 consumers and business leaders worldwide, rigorous and objective methodologies, and the shared wisdom of our most innovative clients. Through proprietary research, data, custom consulting, exclusive executive peer groups, and events, the Forrester experience is about a singular and powerful purpose: to challenge the thinking of our clients to help them lead change in their organizations. For more information, visit forrester.com.
Jay McBain is one of the most visible and respected thought leaders in the global channel. Named to the Top 40 Under Forty by the Business Review as well as numerous channel magazines top influencer lists, he is often sought out for industry guidance and future trends. He has spent his 25-year career in various executive channel sales, marketing, and strategy roles within IBM, Lenovo, and ChannelEyes. Jay is the principal analyst for global channels, partnerships, and alliances at Forrester – one of the most influential global research and advisory firms in the world.
