There are plenty of nice people in Channel Sales roles. They know their product and can position it against the competition. So why don't partner executives really listen to them, why are their results so inconsistent and hard to forecast, and why must sales managers spend so much of their time holding their hands?

Channel Conflict or "The best laid plans ..."

This is the third in our three-part series on reducing channel conflict between direct and indirect routes to market. In Part One Harold Sunata looked at how compensation can be used to reduce conflict. In Part Two Harold examined how Partner Selection, Partner Enablement and Rules of Engagement can reduce conflict even further. In Part Three, Harold explores how company alignment can reduce channel conflict as well as improve overall channel performance.

The definition of what a "Channel" is and how it works over the past 20 years has changed considerably. With those changes, companies with channel operations have struggled to adapt. David Perrett of Channel Enablers talks about these changes and what they mean to you.

Rich Blakeman, Executive Vice-President of Channel Enablers, talks about adoption in his latest post, and what needs to be done to create value so adoption can be achieved.

Miller Heiman's Leigh Hooker offers her insights on what your channel sales team should look like, and what management needs to do to help foster success.