Learn how to

- Select & Recruit
- Engage & Develop
- Manage, Lead & Advise
- Evaluate & Assess

Your Channel Partners

This executive education workshop is based on solid, real time, real world, best business practices — to help find, guide and lead the best business partners in the best channels to obtain greater market access, coverage, competitive advantage and increased revenue.

Upcoming Workshops • Why Attend? • Who Should Attend
Program Details • Faculty • Learning
Participants' Comments • Registration Form (PDF)

MNSA research conducted from over 3500 participants worldwide and 200+ companies, showed that vendors / manufacturers had:

• Unclear, inconsistent and non-communicated channel strategies, models, messages & Go-To-Market schemes; and,
• Insufficient understanding of how to work with business partners and partner business models

The topics of this year's workshop are pulled straight from today's volatile channel and partner business issues. This new workshop is designed to provide you and your colleagues with answers and solutions to these critical issues.

This workshop is for performance-oriented managers. You will:

• Improve your management skills in design and implementation of effective channel strategies with your business partners
• Find, recruit and engage the right partners and build strong partnerships
• Increase revenue, market share and market coverage through business partners
• Understand and sell your business value proposition to your business partners’ management
• Understand and support your business partners’ business models

By the effective use and integration of the right channels and right partners through better understanding, managing and leading.

Results

This workshop will help you to maximize the value-add of your partnerships. Best of all, you will leave with tools that will guide you in developing and managing your partners.

• 90% of the participants have improved their management style and/or performance within one year upon completion of MNSA channel and partner management programs.
  
  
• 1/3 of the participants have been able to implement new or improved company policy or direction within 90 days of completion of MNSA channel and partner management programs.

Upcoming Workshops

Why Attend?

The value-added chain of distribution is the one area where your company can increase its profits the most, cut costs the most and gain the most competitive advantages. The consequences of distribution and partner management have a more long term impact on the corporation than any other element of marketing. As a key player, you need to understand every possibility open to you.

Many companies are counting on indirect distribution channels and channel business partners to provide 50-80% of their total revenue. Management of your partners will absolutely impact your company’s revenue and image — if done well, you and your company will benefit significantly, if not …

Participant Benefits

• Receive ready-to-use: tool-kits, workbooks, manuals, contracts, concepts and ideas, for effective management now! (300+ pages)
  
• Learn how to find and recruit the right partners
  
• Learn how to build strong partnerships
  
• Improve your management skills for channel strategies
  
• Learn, assess and be able to implement best practices
  
• Increase revenue, market share and market coverage through business partners
  
• Target and focus on the partners where the business is
  
• Build winning value propositions
  
• Understand and support your BPs’ business models

Reference Materials

You will receive course syllabus plus monographs, workbooks and tools:

• Understanding Business Partners: Types, models & key characteristics analysis, 105 pages
• Best Partnering Practices: 35 pages
• BP Selection Process Workbook: 95 pages
• Partnership Evaluation Workbook: 32 pages
• Vendor Assessment template: 16 pages
• Sales Policy Roles & Responsibilities workbook: 44 pages

Who Should Attend

The workshop has been designed for industry managers and professionals of goods and services in a wide variety of functional areas: Senior Management, Corporate Marketing, Channel Development, Channel Management, Sales Management, Financial Management, Distribution Management Product Development, and Product Marketing – from manufacturers and business partners, goods and services, and FMCG to I-2-I (industry to industry).

This is for you if you are:

• Involved in establishing, implementing and managing strategies for distribution
• Changing from or integrating direct to indirect distribution
• Actively managing channel business partners
• Setting up distribution partnerships (selecting, appointing, supervising and managing business partners - VAR's, resellers, distributors, agents, vendors, etc.)
• Supporting the distributive effort in product development, general management, support and services

MNSA workshops on channel and partner management have been attended by over 7,000 participants since 1984 including in-company workshops to Sun Microsystems, IBM, Novartis, DuPont, Canon, Medtronic, Oracle, GE Plastics, GE Medical Systems, GE Access, Lavazza, HP and many others. They have been used by Management Centre Europe/AMA since 1987. MNSA Channel University Curriculum is followed by Sun, IBM, Medtronic and Canon.

Program Details

This workshop is designed to provide answers. From this workshop, you can build a comprehensive corporate-wide framework with guidelines, policies and procedures to effectively, efficiently and successfully manage your channel business partners.

A short session on Channel Essentials

• Channel essentials: segmentation, selection, allocation of channel tasks
  
• Channel dynamics: when, why and how you should change channels and impact of e-business, solution networks – replacing channels
  
• Channel design
  
• Channel audit and evaluation

Special attention is given to Partner Management

• Research results: Burning Issues in channels
  
• Why partnerships vs. relationships
  
• 5 Business Partners Models
  
• 11 essential characteristics of each BP model
  
• 13 best partnering practices
  
• Business value proposition
  
• Selection & recruitment process
  
• Pricing through
  
• Agreements and BP Sales Policy
  
• Roles and Responsibilities
  
• Managing the “marriage”’ relationship
  
• Conflict prevention & resolution analysis
  
• Partner & partnership audit & evaluation

This program and its derivatives can be customized and adapted for your specific environment and requirements, delivered when and where needed, in English, French and Dutch. Contact us for more information.

Faculty

Faculty will be selected from:

Michael W. Farmer
As a recognized authority on international business alliances, management and marketing techniques, and the leading European expert on defining, developing and managing distribution channels and partners, Mr. Farmer frequently speaks for and advises governmental and private organizations. He has authored and co-authored seven workbooks and several monographs on specific aspects of channel and partner management. More than 5000 participants of leading corporations have attended his seminars on distribution channel and partner management. Before MNSA, he was Regional Director of Europe for CPT, MNC Director for Motorola EMEA and General Manager of Exxon Office Systems Belgium.

Bert Landman
Mr. Landman is a specialist and leading authority in the development and transformation of marketing and distribution channels. His activities include industry analysis, corporate strategy development, channel strategy development, channel implementation, organization development, channel and partner performance evaluation, and channel reengineering. In addition to these activities, Mr. Landman presents at many public and in-company workshops and writes a column in the bi-weekly magazine Computer Partner. He has co-authored several management handbooks and monographs with Mr. Farmer. Prior to joining MNSA, Mr. Landman worked 25 years in the computer industry, including 20 years for IBM Netherlands, where he held several positions in sales, marketing and business management to further develop and enhance IBM's channel strategy.

Learning

During this course, participants learn through highly interactive classroom sessions and discussion about business examples and case-studies. They apply a variety of tools and programs to assess their own channels and partner management and to improve their own businesses’ performance.

It is highly recommended that participants have at least some experience in business partner management.

Participants' Comments

“Over three years, we tripled our growth in Europe, sold off a loss operation and reduced our accounts receivables to less than 30 days.” —Grow Chemicals Europe

“We have fully revised our distributor contracts to be more comprehensive and fair following MNSA’s advice” —WR Grace, Ericsson, Canon EMBU, et al.

"Your program was the one that helped me the most. It's what I can use.” —GE Medical

"Best value for time and money of any seminar I ever attended.” —IBM

"This workshop could have saved me $20.000.000!” —Ericsson

“Extremely practical” —Novartis, DuPont

“Mike Farmer is one of the best speakers I have ever had. Very well prepared and everything was applied direct to your business!” —Össur

“Real business experience valuable, open with information, provocative questions” —Medtronic

“The program established a “Distributor” (Channel Partner) management process and tools for us to use. All participants bought in and learned how to use the process and tools.” —Canon EMBU

To download the registration form (PDF), click here.