In my first four months I shared the podium with Gordon Moore for campus recruiting strategy sessions (yeah, college recruiting was that important!), ran a training program for Gordie Campbell’s marketing staff and admins on Intel history (my curriculum was a book from Radio Shack), and did one-off research “projects” for John Doer, then a field sales guy back in the Chicago office, where I would report after my initial stints in Santa Clara and Hillsboro, Ore.

On my very first day, though, I attended new employee orientation, hosted by Andy Grove. While I don’t recall any of Andy’s presentation, I do remember the session on the importance and reliance Intel placed on it’s distributors like Hamilton-Avnet, Arrow Electronics and Wyle. We learned how Intel avoided channel stuffing (a sin of many companies to this day) and about the relatively high percentage of business Intel expected to flow through its distribution channels (I believe it was ~30%).

These guys had a plan and were hellbent to achieve.

I’ll make a wager you don’t really know. Sure, you may “think” you know, but have you confirmed it? And if you have, in what ways have you incorporated this understanding into your internal communications and channel training materials?

In most cases, the companies we work with are NOT the top dog on the Channel Partner’s line card. Where the main product or service line may bring in 60-80% of the total revenue, our clients are in the smaller percentage (like less than 5% of the Channel Partner’s top line).

So for our clients, the things that keep their Channel Partners up at night have nothing to do with them!

Why the topic of the Ten Rules of Business Development?

It’s the subject CEO’s consistently rank as being “of greatest concern” according to The Conference Board’s annual research report. Regardless of business size, “Sustained and Steady top-line growth” was ranked as the #1 business challenge. For small businesses, 60 percent of the surveyed CEO’s put it on the top of the list.

What does this have to do with marketing? In my world, the quest for new business growth (and it is a “quest”) falls under the heading of…

If you sell or market to SMBs, join the Institute for the Study of Business Markets (ISBM) and me for a deep-dive into marketing to Small & Midsize Businesses.

There are 27 million SMBs in the U.S. and Canada and represent an outstanding new market opportunity for many firms. As a leading expert on this topic in the B2B space, during this one hour webinar I will touch on the following: SMB demographics, Top challenges SMB CEO’s face, Why it’s so difficult to get the attention of SMBs, Common obstacles in reaching SMBs, Segmentation strategies, How to avoid the Google Trap Door…

Before my good friend, colleague and resident Channel Sales expert, Frank Thomas, retired this year, we recorded a teleseminar about forecasting revenue through indirect channels.

Forecasting channel revenue is about as enjoyable as a root canal and as accurate as Shaq’s freethrow. For many of us, it’s a guessing game.

In this teleseminar, Frank shares his Sales Channel Scoring System using PLV (Performance, Loyalty, Visibility).

Do you sell through indirect sales channels? Are your channel partners zapping your support staff, or are they leading the charge with ever increasing revenue? Are you able to forecast your channel partner revenue?

If any of these are hot button items for you and your sales and marketing team, you’ll get a lot out of this teleseminar and the 1-page Sales Channel Scoring system self-assessment.

(side project)Tweet to create a personalized, printable Valentine’s card. Free! How to Tweet your Valentine’s card: 1. Tweet your greeting like this: 2. The Hashtag selects 1 of 3 cover designs (#oxo, #xox, #xxo): 3. Open your message from us (@myVDayCard), download your Valentine’s card (PDF), print it, fold it and take it with you on your date! 4. Let us know what you think!