Channels are often used to increase sales, so it is natural to expect that one would expect to measure channel performance based on sales.  But if that is all that one uses, an IT Vendor may never give opportunities to "believers" and "diamonds in the rough".

Sales happen when a partner and the vendor have worked hard to enable success, have made substantial investments in time and money and have laid the groundwork to  provides growth.  If future growth is based on past performance alone, no one would be likely to make these kinds of investments that will produce future growth.

This is not to say that sales should not be considered as a criteria for measure channel success.  Sales are ultimately the key.  WIthout sales, the rest doesn't matter.  But before jumping too fast or using only the lagging indicator of sales performance as the measure of success, one should carefully consider how to meausre enablement status, investment and many other factors that produce sales.

What measures have you used to predict future success.

William Vanderbilt

+1 630 343 6261

WVanderbilt@InnovativeLearningChannels.com