From the PartnerOn Team

SYNNEX and Tech Data came out with the perfect ship name, TD SYNNEX. Some may say it isn’t quite as catchy as Bennifer (you would think I was aging myself with that one, but they are back together), but it does signify something great.

What is truly special about this merger is the value that they will provide to the partner community. TD SYNNEX is able to offer unique solutions that only an integrated distribution platform can.  PartnerOn has been part of both worlds helping to engage the partners and consumers in the great value that these two organizations provide. 

Stellr is an example of an important solution from which Tech Data and SYNNEX partners can benefit.  It provides improved business opportunities for the partners who are engaged with it.  Learn more about Stellr here.   

ContentMX provides the application to help partners learn and share the importance of the Stellr cloud offering. The Stellr content stream should be followed by all partners in the SYNNEX and Tech Data ecosystems. 

Last week, Jay McBain shared a list of publications that should be required reading for the channel.  We believe that following and engaging with the streams of content provided through our vendor partners is equally, if not more important. Want to know what the latest solutions and products are? Our content streams provide all the information needed to be successful in selling and marketing unique solutions. 

We partner with multiple distributors to bring you content streams that cover all aspects of the technology industry. SYNNEX DEMANDSolv offers not just unique content from their cloud marketplace Stellr, but great content from GOVSolv, Lenovo, Intel, HPE, HP, and so many others. And let’s not forget Arrow’s Curated Content and Tech Data who feature streams from Red Hat, Tech Data Cloud, IBM, Citrix Palo Alto Networks and more! 

Following content streams provided by vendors and distributors helps partners stay up to date on the rapidly changing industry.  There are new programs and new revenue streams opening up almost every day, and the key to success is being able to share solutions as soon as they come to market. By staying informed, and sharing information from the PartnerOn programs, partners and their sellers ensure a spot at the forefront of the industry and will be seen as leaders amongst solutions providers.

As we continue to work to increase the value of the editorial content we provide users, I have spent time tapping into reports on how content is consumed, as well as learning best practices from top marketers who are gaining recognition for their use of PartnerOn.  

Not all types of assets are correct for all types of sales.

Based on analysis from over 70 streams of content from more than 30 different organizations, who target markets from SMB, government, education, enterprises, finance, and manufacturing and who cover solutions from hybrid, multi-cloud, security, here is what we have learned…

Take, for example, SMS. SMB’s have fewer decision-makers and quick conversations between decision-makers is easier, plus they are typically purchasing single technology solutions. SMB consumers typically engage with:

1. Short videos- these are in the top 1/3 of content consumed.  Quick and focused on single solutions is what SMBs want.
2. Infographics- again they are focused on typical endpoint solutions

On the other hand, enterprise organizations tend to have multiple decision-makers and require the sharing of different information. For example, the business owner is going to want to first see IT spec’s financial benefits, and business operations benefits. They will then share content to the finance team, and IT teams that is most relevant to each team, and shows the solution to their specific problem. Often times these types of organizations are planning on purchasing AI or private/public cloud solutions, so their top content choices are:

1. Solution briefs
2. Financial benefit documents 

Because these are easier to share within a company, these make more sense to include in their purchasing process.

If an enterprise organization is in search of more complex, multi or hybrid solutions their content choices are:

1. Stories from large organizations that have solved similar challenges.
2. Cost analysis documents of the integrated solution
3. Solution briefs

Sharing suggestions from top users.

Our users are invaluable resources not only when it comes to seeing what content they use, but also for learning their best practices.  Take a look at what they have told us works for them to help improve the results from your own marketing initiatives…

1. Leverage the personal social networks of the sales team. A salesperson is a trusted source of information and can be the best ambassadors for the brand and your company.
2. Use emojis in posts to create excitement. “We have found eMoji’s can help increase engagement rates.” What catches your audiences’ eyes? It can be as simple as a smiley face.
3. Bury the lead – entice with a great heading, and provide them with a reason to expand the post to get more of the information. While it might not be smart to totally bury the lead, coming up with a good hook to reel in your audience is always a good idea.
4. Request reactions. Celebrations, support, love, likes, great ideas- these reactions can provide a valuable source of intent, but a reaction should be requested. For example, let’s celebrate the launch of our latest zero threat solution, or celebrate with us and we will schedule a call to review the new zero threat initiative. As a sales person or a marketer we need to ensure that we treat social reactions as opportunities, and follow-up with them. 
5. Educate sales people on the benefits of responding to the reactions they receive from posts. Salespeople who leverage social will hit and exceed quotas more often.

The PartnerOn platform is not only an amazing service to help improve through channel marketing, but it also provides great insights into how content is used and consumed. It is a privilege to be able to provide our users both!

Company’s heads are in the cloud. Now more than ever companies are increasing their cloud infrastructure. According to DigitalOcean’s most recent Currents Report, cloud spending is one of the top three concerns of SMS, and 62% said that they have expanded or upgraded their cloud usage.

Salespeople should be asking companies; “Is your infrastructure in the cloud? Are you trying to create a flexible working environment that is secure, fast, and reliable? Is your goal to have a highly collaborative team that may all be in different locations? Is there data that you want to keep on-premises or data that needs to be shared across multiple cloud environments?” The challenge is offering cloud solutions to all of these questions and more. 

As you know by now, we believe in the power of content, and telling stories through content that satisfies a company’s needs. So, how do we know what content is needed to help move the cloud buyers from interest to purchase?
SpiceWorks Ziff Davis surveyed 500+ decision makers about their cloud buying process. The third section of their report covers content- how, when, and what are important for decision makers. So we decided to compare their information with what we have found through the usage of our content marketplace.

I would argue that these types of content are great for selling a public cloud, but if you were to dive into selling usage of the cloud-based on more complex systems you may find that content needs change. So, to help round out the analysis provided by SWZD we took a look at three content streams we currently offer. 

Here is a look at the most popular content on each stream:

IBM Cloud:

1. How-to video on engaging in the hybrid cloud
2. Why go hybrid video
3. Case study on organizations who have created hybrid solution

Azure for Enterprise:

1. A story about creating and leveraging deeper analytics from Azure
2. Leveraging AI in the cloud

SYNNEX Stellr:

1. Top Business and Technology Trends of 2021
2. Hybrid cloud with HPE Greenlakes
3. Why it’s time to start a Cloud Practice with Azure

Having insight into the most popular content allows us to gain perspective on what solutions are sought after. But it’s important to take it a step further and following SWZD’s report, remember that different job functions within the same company will be interested in different aspects of a solution. As a partner and salesperson, the question becomes, how do you provide relevant content that satisfies the way each job function perceives the problem? While one person in an organization may be seeking product specs and technical implementation information, another person may be interested in the scalability of the solution, or the ROI. 

SWZD’s report is quite important in understanding the buying process. By melding usage analytics from our content marketplace, with their process report, you can create a comprehensive content story that covers all aspects of the buying process and builds a better experience for customers.  

Have you ever read a review about a new tech product and thought how amazing it is, but have no idea how you could actually use it? Or worse, do you ever find yourself opening up a new application, taking the tour of all its capabilities, and then not using any of the really cool features you just learned about because you don’t know when or why you would use them? The technology is there for the taking, but you just don’t know how to apply it to your needs.

How do we bridge the gap between knowing what a product does and how to apply it to a customer’s needs?

Oftentimes, the complexity of using content to sell technology solutions is that the content is too focused on features and benefits, and doesn’t integrate real-life scenarios. This leaves customers to figure out how to use the technology they know they need, but maybe can’t quite figure out how to optimize its full potential. A good content story needs to be more adept at leveraging the strength of third-party experiences that can help define the problem and give examples of how they solved their problem. If a customer can see a solution in action, they can relate it to their own experience. 

When we ran the CyberSecurity Journal we had the good fortune of interviewing the FBI Chief of CyberSecurity, M.K. Palmore.  We discussed the 2017 hack on Equifax, and heard his thoughts on building an effective Cybersecurity solution that covers the different paths that a hacker may take to disrupt a business. Listening to Palmore, organizations can draw parallels between his thoughts and experiences and their own organizational needs.

PartnerOn provides content from third-party publications that helps define needs, challenges and how organizations use the technology. We make it even easier by providing industry-specific streams that focus on SMB, enterprise, federal, education, and collaboration needs.  These streams help build the story around the need and then deliver on the solution. Third-party content is a core element to a successful content storyline. In fact, our stats show that consumer engagement with streams that promote third-party content is often much higher than streams that do not. Partners and vendors who focus solely on product or technology content are losing sight of how to keep customers in the flywheel. The end goal is to encourage relatability which will lead to more engagement and ongoing dialogue about desired solutions as well as delightment when you can provide them with answers, which we all know is what keeps customers coming back.