Navigating a Rapidly Evolving Go-To-Market Strategy in the CX Space
By Andy Miller, Managing Partner and Dino Di Palma, Managing Partner
At True North, one of our areas of expertise is developing and expanding our clients overall go-to-market strategy. Our focus is to create a framework that becomes a living document with our clients go-to-market strategy, whether it is an early stage start-up just evolving its strategy all the way to Fortune 500 looking to expand the current framework to new geographies, verticals and alliance/strategic partners.
Our focus at True North is centered on the CX space. There are six focus areas/segments within the CX space that we find a majority of our customers engaged in:
Contact Center
Engagement Channels
Self Service
Analytics
Employee Productivity
Field Service Management
In last week's blog, Scott Hoffpauir shared the True North view of what comprises the CX space, and details on each of the above six key areas. Each of these six areas of CX has a differing and unique go-to-market strategy, channel models, alliance and strategic partners and approaches around direct and indirect.
Aside from assisting our clients in the go-to-market framework, strategy and implementation, our focus is also to prepare our customers for the future, and help create a vision of the ever changing world of CX, including approaches on how to market to that customer base, create value propositions, buyer' journey's and playbooks.
At True North we see the future of go-to-market changing and evolving rapidly, and below are some key trends that we are sharing with our clients and prospects around channel and go-to-market.
Channels are a key vehicle in terms of how CX solutions are sold and delivered, and there are some key trends that when building out a channel framework/model and strategy that need to be thought through for today and for the future of our clients go to market strategy:
Indirect sales will grow slower than direct sales. SaaS products today that are delivered indirect, in terms of overall sales, have sat idle over the past ten years at the 30% mark.The remainder is via Direct sales, albeit a majority is B2C, t however this will extend to B2B as well in the coming years. Our clients will need to create a framework that entails a multi modal channel model that allows for both direct and indirect based on geo, vertical, solution and buyers persona. Not one size fits all.
Channel Leaders see a " Trifurcated Channel Model". In the past, the channel has been focused on resellers, agents and transacting partners. But as we vision out over the next several years, buyers spend 68% of their journey digitally, even prior to engaging with a salesperson or partner ! So what is a " trifurcated channel model" ? It comprises of three segments of channels :
The 'Influencer Channel' - Affinity partners, referral agents, advocates, ambassadors and alliances. ( NEW)
The 'Transactional Channel'- VAR's, Agents, Distribution ( TRADITIONAL/ EXISTING)
The ' Retention Channel' - Consultants, Integrators, Adjacent ISV's, digital agencies ( NEW)
Our clients will need to contemplate adding the ' influencer' and ' retention channel' into the channel framework, to allow for a ' truncated channel model', and agility for future market shifts.
Channel Professionals Become Ecosystem Partners- This is due to the convergence of the Influencer, Transactional and Retention Channel, and how they will create their own ecosystem. Partners of all types need to be found, recruited, onboarded, educated, trained, incentivized, loyal and the proper tools. Our clients as they build out their channel framework and organizations, will have to be aware and focused on the talent hired to run channel organizations, as no longer will the traditional channel personnel suffice, they will need to be versed and trained in each of the three areas noted above. The average channel program will grow the number of partners by 10X over the next five years, and 80% of these partners will be non -transacting, so this will be a challenging undertaking.
The above are just several key trends that we see taking place in the area of the channel segment of go to market. As we tell our clients and prospects, it is important to anticipate where the puck is going, not follow it !
The work we do for our clients in the area of channels is to map out a channel model based on a particular buyer's role, sub-industry, geography, sector, size, segment, partner business model or solution sector. We hope these trends have opened some eyes, as change in GTM is happening at a faster pace than ever before. We look forward to engaging with you at True North in the fasting pace area of CX.
Stay tuned next week for Part 2 of Key Trends to look for.
