Venture Marketing Partner Channel Consulting Services

Selecting the right Business Development partner is a tough job. Having been in your shoes, we know the challenges. How do you make the right choice in the shortest amount of time? How do you vet consultants (like us)?

With these questions in mind, we’ve provided a brief description of the four main services we offer. Everything we do revolves around one or more of these services. Their descriptions are not meant to be exhaustive, but enough to paint a picture for you.

To save us both a lot of time, we've also provided general pricing guidelines and timelines based on previous client projects. You will not find many consultants willing to list pricing on their website.

But we do.

Why? Because that’s what we always wanted from our vendors when we were looking for assistance. So much time is lost “looking.” But not here.

0. Starting Point Discovery
Before beginning any of the four Partner Channel Services (below), we meet with new clients for a half-day discovery session. Held at your offices, we meet with you and key representatives of your sales and marketing staff. The outcome of this session is agreement on overall priorities, timelines, duties, assignments and budgets.

Our Starting Point Discovery meetings are not sales calls, by the way. They are work sessions which set the overarching goals and objectives for all of our work. There is a homework assignment for all participants, due in advance of the session.

Budget: $3,500.

1. Assessment of current Channel Partners and potential, New Channels… Find the Gaps.
Ask yourself a few questions:

• Is your channel performing to your expectations?
• Do Channel Partners give you the mindshare you need to make quota? Or do you only get their attention when your field reps do a ride-along?
• In an opening pitch to a new prospect, do they lead with your product?

Before beginning any new project, we strongly advise clients get answers to questions like these to establish baseline. Assessments, like ours, are eye-opening, to say the least.

Most importantly, independent assessments provide unbiased field data that allows us to reach agreement on the gaps and the priority of filling the gaps.

Most assessments are completed in 6-8 weeks.

Budget: $12,000 young companies with limited existing Channel Partners to more than $22,000 for more established firms.

2. Recruiting New Channel Partners and New Channels.
This entails the creation of the outreach strategy, the plan-of-attack and the business metrics we’ll use to measure performance. While some clients want to completely outsource this to us, oftentimes, we share the duties. The development of the strategic plan and tactical marketing and sales elements take between two and three months. The yeoman’s effort (field work) often continues for many months.

Budget: $12,000–33,000. More for multiple channels and larger product lines.

3. Winning Channel Partners’ Mindshare.
After recruiting new Channel Partners, the work has just begun. Just getting on a Channel Partner’s line card does little to drive revenue through the Channel Partner to you. Winning Mindshare involves all the effort involved with selling and marketing to the Channel Partner to get him or her to PREFERENCE your product family. Similar to the Recruitment effort, many clients share these duties with us. This effort may run for six months, or more.

Budget: $12,000–33,000. More for multiple channels and larger product lines.

4. Collaborative, Outsourced New Business Development.
When you outsource your New Business Development to Venture Marketing, you’re entrusting us to act on your behalf. To function as your Business Development arm. It makes us responsible for opening new channels for you. In this arrangement, other than a modest retainer and expenses, our compensation is based on a pay-for-performance model.

Budget: Please contact us to discuss this in greater detail.