The Channel Advantage

Today, executives and managers recognize that their go-to-market choics are having a dramatic impact on their long-term growth and competitive strength. Newer sales channels such as the Internet, call centres, and business partnerships are providing unparalleled opportunities to achive sustainable growth in revenues and profits.

The fact is it isn't just about what you sell anymore: it's about how you sell it. The Channel Advantage is the first book to deal systematically and comprehensively with the challenges companies face in developing high-performance go-to-market systems. It provides clear-cut answers to key questions such as:

• What are sales channels? How do you use them to increase market share, revenue growth, and profits?
• How do you identify the best new channels for your business — and ensure that they are right for your customers and products?
• What are the proven, tested best practices for building new sales channels?
• How do you manage multiple channels and integrate them to provide seamless, low-cost service to customers?
• How much do you have to invest in new channels to make them succeed in the market place, and when can you expect results?

This is the book that every sales and marketing professional should read and use, to achieve faster growth and success in the marketplace through channel innovation and go-to-market excellence.

1. Introduction: the competitive advantage of sales channels
• Part One: Choosing the Right Sales Channels …
2. The starting point: product-market focus
3. Aligning channels with how customers buy
4. The impact of products on channel selection
5. The bottom line: the economics of channel selection
• Part Two: … And Building Them
6. The 'leveraged' sales force
7. Busines partner (indirect) channels
8. Telechannels
9. The Internet
• Part Three: Managing Channels for High Performance
10. The art of channel mix and integration
11. Investing in (and across) a portfolio of channels
12. Measuring and managing channel performance

I am deeply embarrased! The concepts the authors describes are so simple and obvious, that I am surprised that we didn't learn them when I studied to the MBA. After some research, it shows that no MBA course (that I have found) have them integrated, nor is it usually taught at marketing courses.

Anyway, this is an excellent book, and an easy read and absolutely mandatory reading for anyone remotely connected to selling (i.e. everybody).

Read it, absorb the messages, and be a better professional!