Highland Team Newsletter (April 06, 2003)
Greetings! In the past few months since our last Newsgram, exciting
changes have happened. I've teamed with two senior executives to
add even more expertise and value to our services. Highland Marketing
has changed its name. But Highland Team continues to work with companies
to create revenue-enhancing go-to-market strategies and programs
to launch and grow business. In this newsletter, we'll share some
of the insights and articles we've been using to help our clients
succeed in today's environment.
In this issue:
Highland Marketing Becomes Highland
Team, Introducing the New Team
I am pleased to announce two new principals have joined Highland
Marketing, leading us to rename the company, Highland Team. My
new colleagues strengthen the ability of Highland Team to create
revenue-enhancing strategies and programs by adding business development,
sales leadership and e-business expertise, as well as strong channel
management and marketing skills. Phyllis
Brock joins Highland Team from Nortel Networks, where
as Vice President of e-Business she created and managed that division
which achieved a run rate of $10 billion of transactions in one
year. She served in senior management roles at Sun Microsystems
in marketing and channels and had a highly successful sales career
with IBM. Karen Henken
(no relation) has merged her consulting firm, The Apex Group with
the Highland Team. She will add her strong market development
and channel strategy experience. Most recently, she served as
Vice President of Channels and International at Pillar Corporation
(acquired by Hyperion) and in senior sales, channel and business
development roles at Borland, Sybase and Sun Microsystems. Highland
Team can now provide:
- Strategic Marketing
- Channel management and marketing
- e-Business strategy and implementation
- Go-to-market planning and implementation
Highland Marketing and IDC team to provide influencer partner
strategies and programs
| New Research: |
"IDC estimates that influence partners account for a greater
share of software revenues than resellers." |
IDC estimates that of the total North American Software market
of $88.7 billion, over 60% was sold through direct or indirect
influence partners. Of that, further analysis shows that the indirect
influence is larger than the resale share and continues to grow
at a faster rate than resale. Highland Team, an Authorized Implementation
Partner of the Global Software Partnering and Alliance Group of
IDC is pleased to team with IDC as an Authorized Implementation
Partner (AIP) on their newest study, "Capturing
Market Share with Influence Relationships." For more information
on the study, click here. For
further information, contact Deborah at dhenken@highlandteam.com.
Are influence relationships important to your company? Do you
understand how best to manage these relationships and the differences
in influencer versus reseller programs? Let IDC and Highland Team
work with you to get the most from your influencer relationships.
The study focuses on how to estimate the revenue impacted by
alliances in a company, the appropriate metrics for measuring
the impact of influence and what elements need to be included
in an influence program to maximize benefit to a company. Highland
Team and IDC will critically evaluate a company's need to adapt
to an influencer partner program model, develop strategically
sound frameworks to launch a program and implement best-in-class
influence partner programs with a focus on clear and measurable
ROI.
Speeding Your Channels to Success
So much attention is spent on the front-end of channel development--
determining whether to build, buy or partner, channel selection
and channel recruitment. In our years of channel management, the
success of channels has depended just as much on the back-end--supporting
the channels correctly. Too often, the channel had to fend for
themselves. There was no channel program and expensive channel
sales representatives wrote sales training, developed collateral
and tried to solve support problems, rather than working with
their channel partners to build business and close deals. Enter
the channel lifecycle-a model to speed channels to success. The
model identifies the key leverage points to touch partners, support
their efforts and speed their time to success. See the Information
Corner on www.highlandteam.com for the
article and model (MS Word .DOC format).
Selecting Markets for Best Fit and Growth
As you take your product to market, it is critical that you
segment the market and identify the target market segments that
are the best fit for your product, your company and your sales
process. In the product development process, you (hopefully) developed
a profile of your target customer. You probably selected several
vertical markets (industries), the specific buyers in those markets
(titles, job roles), and possibly geographical regions to target.
As market needs are highly volatile and ever shifting, it is important
that you re-assess the targets, geographies and vertical markets
where those customers reside and buy before launch. See the Information
Corner on www.highlandteam.com for the
complete article (MS Word .DOC format).
Other News
I've been involved in re-starting the Silicon Valley chapter
of the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals, a professional
association for channel and strategic alliance professionals.
If you haven't heard about this group yet, click on www.strategic-alliances.org.
Recent Engagements
We've recently been helping clients identify vertical market
opportunities, analyze the best channels to reach target markets,
develop the best positioning to differentiate products and create
and implement marketing plans. If you need help in bringing your
products to market, or know someone who does, contact the Highland
Team at dhenken@highlandteam.com.
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