Now more than ever, an independent software vendor’s (ISV’s) path to profitability depends upon the strength of their go-to-market strategy. And with nearly 70% of global revenue for ISVs currently derived from third-party channel sales, no other approach to distribution ensures the exposure and revenue of the channel.
But, with up to 1 million ISVs crowding the $528 billion cloud services market by 2027, vying for the most strategic route to meet your customers’ demand depends entirely on how well an ISV navigates the ins and outs of channel sales. In turn, charting a course to channel proficiency depends upon optimizing your channel partner engagement strategy at every stage.
A delicate balance for the Modern ISV
As you can see, the process of readying your business to engage with and operate through the channel is of vital importance to the modern ISV. By doing so effectively, you can unlock a path to scaling profits.
However, misunderstanding and mismanaging this journey can expose an organization to the potential pitfalls of selling through the channel, including:
- Losing control over sales processes or branding
- Diminishing profit margins
- Experiencing increased complexity and reduced agility, resulting from working with more salespeople outside a company’s network
Paving the way to channel proficiency requires a keen understanding of your current channel partner sales capacity, plus a firm grasp on the progress you’ve made toward optimizing your collaboration with channel partners.
Three distinct stages of channel maturity
To assist you with this all-important self-assessment, CloudBlue is introducing our Channel Maturity Scale. Drawing on our experience partnering with 200 of the world’s largest cloud marketplaces and managing 30 million cloud subscriptions, the following report details three distinct stages of channel distribution maturity. Furthermore, this guide offers you best practices that can help you map your journey to expert channel engagement.
From channel-ready ISVs to channel-proficient ISVs to channel-expert ISVs, three pivotal stages of channel effectiveness are characterized according to six key metrics. These include product offering, scalable fulfilment, revenue operations, sales and marketing enablement, partner ecosystem and team culture.
Progressing on the road to channel proficiency
As ISVs chart their course to the customer in an increasingly important and competitive space, CloudBlue’s maturity scale gives you a yardstick reference for measuring your channel maturity, so you understand how far you’ve come—and how far you have to go.
To help you accurately gauge your business’ channel proficiency, take a moment to download your complimentary copy of our latest white paper—The Software Vendor’s Guide To Channel Maturity.
