Thank you for watching another informative episode of Channel Maven TV (#CMCtv) and a big warm welcome to our guest, Joe Gabriel, Sr. Director Global Partner Marketing at Informatica. Joe and his team work with Informatica Partners to develop programs and campaigns that drive more leads and grow their Partners’ pipelines.

Seventy-five percent of today’s buyers conduct online research before engaging with a sales team and when they do, it’s because they already vetted their options and think they’ve found a good fit. In a sea of Solution Providers, how can Vendors ensure their Partners have the impactful digital footprint needed to attract these savvy customers?

Channel Partner recruitment is fairly simple if your goal is to sign up as many random Partners as you can in hopes a portion of them sell your solutions. Sure, you give them onboarding support, assign a Partner-facing team member, provide assets and probably a portal, but are those enough to move the needle on the 80/20 conversation?

Based on challenges we hear from Vendors, it’s not. Depending upon your list size, let’s say recruitment endeavors net 2000 new Partners but only 10% (200) actually do something the first year but wait – it gets worse. Two years later only 20 of those 200 are still actively selling.

Mobile-first is a big push for 2018 and with 51% of web visits coming in via mobile, there will likely never be a movement backwards. Google is also poised to fully roll out mobile-first indexing, keywords are now focused on the long tail rather than one word, and Alexa is literally a household name. And let’s not forget - a big warm welcome this year as we begin the era of RankBrain, Google’s machine learning, AI driven algorithm that’s course-correcting search results on the fly and turning SEO best practices on its head. It's a lot to keep up with!

Regardless of your political or religious affiliations, 2017 has been an exhausting year. Whether your team won or lost, I think we can all acknowledge we’re fine seeing 2017 come to a close and hope that 2018 brings collaboration, cohesiveness, and maybe even a little calm? #1 in Chip Cutter’s 50 Big Ideas for 2018 is taking a digital detox and I, for one, am in! Along with the next health craze, the unforgettable public social blunders by a celebrity, and the next fidgeter’s best friend, here are our predictions for the Channel in 2018.

2018 is right around the corner and we recently sent out our final newsletter of the year! I wanted to take this time to reach out and thank each and every one of you for the engaging conversations, great feedback and continued support. It’s been a crazy year with organization consolidations, new business challenges, and what feels like a shift in Channel Programs and resources, to align with the shift to the cloud we’ve been feeling (or at least talking about) for over a decade.

Now more than ever, Partner recruitment is a two-way street. Vendor teams are actively seeking, recruiting, and onboarding new Partners and simultaneously, Partners are seeking relationships with Vendors that fit into their solutions and services offerings.

There is a lot of talk of security and dishonesty and saying one thing but doing another. I’m not just talking about The Channel, I’m talking about everywhere and it’s made me more skeptical. My husband, who sends me links to articles and videos on an almost daily basis, is now usually met with my “did you send this?” And I can’t remember the last time I took anything seen on TV seriously, which unfortunately now includes football. #StillGoPats

In a world where attention is a commodity and Partners are pulled simultaneously in numerous directions, Partner Program Optimization (PPO) is key. We know… easier said than done, especially when existing programs have been in place for years and assessing and repositioning the value proposition can’t happen overnight.