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Andy Grant

Andy Grant

Andy Grant is a B2B Marketing professional with significant experience in both national and international environments with particular focus in Channel Marketing and utilising Partner sponsorships via FIFA World Cup™ 2002-2008. Andy is a creative and effective thinker with proven commercial, management and communication skills which has resulted in consistent achievement against aggressive business targets.

Andy started out as an Account Manager at Australia’s largest field marketing agency Creative Sales managing Sales and Merchandising teams across Australia and New Zealand within the Palm Computing, Microsoft & Iomega Corporation accounts.  January 2000 he moved to the UK where he joined Lucent Technologies that then spun off to become Avaya UK in October 2000. Working through various B2B marketing roles Andy’s was the Head of Channel Marketing - UK, Ireland & South Africa for 4 of those 7 years. Andy also has extensive experience working across several EMEA marketing functions with companies such as Brocade, Huawei and ShoreTel.

In recent years Andy worked for Nortel where he joined from Avaya in May 2007 as the Regional Marketing Leader, UK & Ireland and then in January 2009 to Northern Europe (UKI, Benelux & Nordics). He is a member of the IDM B2B Marketing Council.

Andy has a Diploma of Business Marketing from Holmesglen College of T.A.F.E and a Bachelor of Business Marketing from Swinburne University of Technology, Victoria. Plus a Diploma of Direct Marketing from the Institute of Direct Marketing, UK. He resides in the UK with his wife and son plus their two Labradors Charlie and Harry.

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Work out the ROI on MDF
One common element of most channel programs is the availability of Market Development Funding (MDF), sometimes called Joint Marketing Fund (JMF) or Co-Op Funding; but many MDF requests are not approved because they lack simple metrics or an expected return on investment.

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Channels and customer communication

Perhaps, like me, you expect excellent customer service and excellent subsequent follow up service which includes ongoing communication. Service excellence and quality communication can really help to galvanise a solid transactional relationship, and even prompt me to provide some customer service endorsements. On the flip side, poor and lacklustre customer service can create a whole new world of customer frustration and the need to warn others against the firms in question. How well are your partners staying in touch with end-user customers? Do they have the knowledge and resources they need to drive more business from their installed base?

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Are events still effective channel activities?

Are channel marketing events still effective? With so little time available and so many alternatives like webinars available, running any kind of event can be a major resource drain. What makes a good channel marketing event and how do you get a positive return on your investment?

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Partner Self Service Has Gone Mad!

The more I talk to partners in the IT and telecommunications industry the more I feel their collective frustration at the vendor community. Vendors in this sector are fairly similar, they mostly have a US HQ and more or less divide into 4 regions; North America, EMEA, CALA and Asia Pacific. These structures and coverage models look fine in a corporate overview, but do they really work at ground level? Do global processes such as partner self-service really work for their loyal partners?

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Reward Loyal Partners

I have heard so much talk and read comments in the channel press from business leaders in the  IT & Telecommunications industry, about  vendors wanting to become more channel centric and more focused on the needs of their most valued and trusted partners. So why are so many of the big name vendors undertaking partner recruitment programs in an attempt to maintain or increase channel partner revenue when existing loyal partners may offer the best chance for quick revenue gains?

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