Key Growth Strategy Insights

1. Key Growth Strategy Insights Channel Elite Webinar Series June, 2008

2. From CMP to… Everything Channel • Channel Consulting, Education and Market Intelligence • Over 50 years of collective experience in the channel • Thousands and thousands of partner profiles in every geography worldwide • More than 90,000 interviews with Channel Partners and their customers annually

3. Agenda What is Your Growth Type? The Capacity Factor Marketing is a Critical Success Factor

4. Why Are You In Business? • Solve Customer Business Challenges • Not just technology problems … business problems; i.e. accelerate business processes, increase revenue, decrease costs, etc. • With the Most Effective Technology Tools • Not just selling technologies … implementing technologies; deliver real value through total solutions • And Make a Profit • Not just a margin … actual economic profit; based on a combination of revenue streams from products, services, and actual business value for your customers

5. Let’s Review Our Definitions of Growth Lifestyle Business • Channel Partners who claim that they are either not focused on growth or are focused on simply keeping pace with the market. Many reasons exist for this: a desire to live a certain lifestyle, personal customer service, or a company in transition who is internally focused to get their business models structured right before entering growth mode. Moderate Growth • Channel Partners who expect to grow 4-15% over the next year based on a desire to target new markets- which is primarily driven by taking their existing solutions and adding expertise which make them specialists in a given category. Hyper Growth • Channel Partners who expect to grow their business more than 15% over the next year by adding practice areas or new product lines so they can capture a greater number of customers and a greater amount of customer share. Most expect to accomplish this through merger or acquisition.

6. The New Solution Provider Balancing Act • Critical Success Factors Capacity Opportunity Process Systems People Margins & Profits

7. The Capacity Factor

8. Growth: The Balancing Game • “GROWTH” is the Product of Two Basic Business Principles • CAPACITY … i.e. the resources, processes, and management acumen to deliver more output and create more value from your organization • OPPORTUNITY … i.e. access to more customers who need and are willing to pay for more of your resources and the value they create • Many Businesses Fail to Grow because They Put Too Little Emphasis on One Factor or the Other • Too Much Capacity / Too Little Opportunity = Low Margins, High Fixed Costs, Pending Layoffs, Need Better Sales / Marketing Effectiveness • Too Much Opportunity / Too Little Capacity = Low Customer Satisfaction, High Employee Burnout, Pending Customer Defection, Need HR for Recruiting and Operations for Process

9. The Capacity Engine Drives Growth People Process Tools

10. Capacity Planning and Managing • Define Growth in the Context of Business Model and GTM Strategy • Recruit/Hire/Retain Best Possible People • Equip With Tools to Accelerate Performance

11. The Solution Provider Management Profile • HARD SCIENCE • (What Solution Providers are “Usually” Good At) • Engineering • Systems Design • Technology Integration • Process Execution • Troubleshooting • Performance Monitoring • SOFT SCIENCE • (What It Takes to be Good At Recruiting Humans) • Culture Management • Interpersonal Skills • Vision • Motivation • Conflict Resolution • Human Performance

12. Reality and Readiness Check • Growth Strategy • Business context and model • Revenue growth to date and planned • Understanding the Dynamics of Capacity • What’s my “realistic” capacity? (People + Process + Tools = Production Capacity) • What is the “readiness” of each of my capacity factors? • Scale to Achieve Growth • Current state of my business performance • Growth is most impacted by your marketing, sales and talent management

13. Leveraging Marketing Capacity

14. Marketing Investments Pay Off ! Sales Revenues Number of Sales Inquiries from Existing Customers Number of New Customer Qualified Leads % Gain From Marketing Program Best in class % Gain Average % Gain

15. Where Solution Providers in the S&L Market are Investing Their Marketing Dollars

16. Position and Promote Your Unique Value:Marketing Tactics That Generate Demand Immediate Gratification References Demo’s/Trials Sales/Mktg Training Seminars/Events PR Web Site Development Case Studies TV/Cable Direct Mail Web Based Adv Print Advertising Vendor Collateral Email Mktg Requires Additional Effort

17. The Right Tactic at Right Stage… at Right Time to Right Person Stage 1: Generating Initial Responses Stage 2: Establishing Qualified Leads Stage 3: Engaging Qualified Opportunities Stage 4: Winning The Deal Stage 5: Retaining The Customer • Direct Mail • Telemarketing • Web Advertising • Referrals • Print Ads (Niche) • Public Relations • Referrals • Sales Training • Telesales • Seminars/Events • White Paper, etc. • Seminars/Events • Case Studies • Sales Training • Solution Config. • Collateral • Web Advertising • Testimonials • Demos / Trials • Incentives • References • Website • Proposal / Presentations • Acct. Mgmt. • QBR Meetings • Cust. Portal • Email Mktg. • Newsletter • Incentives/Rewards

18. Where Do You Go From Here? • Clarify Your Growth Strategy • It’s a conscious choice! • Balance the Capacity Factor with Opportunity Planning • Does your planning and execution lead to predictable and manageable growth? • Marketing Calls for Investment • Is your marketing engine driving sales and pipeline growth? • Execution: People, Process, Products and Tools