Channel Growth Part 1: Supplier Perspective

Week one starts with the key objective of all channel partners: GROWTH. The lesson will focus on determining channel goals (financial and business) and metrics from the supplier’s perspective. The lesson will highlight the best practices in translating firm-level financial goals into channel goals and corresponding critical success factors. The class will focus on 5 financial drivers – growth, market share, profitability, cash flow, and asset efficiency.

Course objectives:

• Assess your current channel goal-setting process.
• Translate firm-level financial goals to channel goals.
• Identify channel-level critical success factors (CSFs) for achieving channel goals.

Senthil Gunasekaran

Senthil is a Co-Founder of ActVantage,  a company that helps distributors drive profitable growth through analytics and talent development. He formerly worked at Texas A&M University as a Professor for the Industrial Distribution Masters Program.

Senthil has worked within the industry for 20+ years and brings a quantitative approach to business challenges. Having deployed best practices across hundreds of distributors over two decades, he believes in the critical role of people in making or breaking analytics. His solutions & frameworks are part of his seven best-selling books at NAW.

Pradip Krishnadevarajan

Pradip is a Co-Founder of ActVantage,  a company that helps distributors drive profitable growth through analytics and talent development. He formerly worked at Texas A&M University as a Professor for the Industrial Distribution Masters Program.

Pradip is recognized in the industry as a thought leader, with 17 plus years of experience assisting hundreds of companies directly while co-authoring seven inspiring books that are consistently among the NAW Institute’s Top 10 Best Sellers. He has led workshops for over 4,000+ industry professionals over the years and is passionate about using a combination approach (data-driven and training) to help companies drive profitable growth.

Channel Growth Part 2: Distributor Perspective

Week two presents the distributor perspective to channel growth. The lesson will highlight nine growth strategies found across distributors of various sizes. The instructors will present growth strategies with real-world examples and key performance indicators (KPIs). The growth strategies include leveraging existing customers, penetrating new customers in existing marketing segments, broadening the product and service portfolio, adding new sales and marketing channels to reach customers, and more.

Course objectives:

• Learn to diagnose distributor growth challenges.
• Comprehend the key elements of the generating growth framework.
• Learn about nine growth strategies used by distributors.

Senthil Gunasekaran

Senthil is a Co-Founder of ActVantage,  a company that helps distributors drive profitable growth through analytics and talent development. He formerly worked at Texas A&M University as a Professor for the Industrial Distribution Masters Program.

Senthil has worked within the industry for 20+ years and brings a quantitative approach to business challenges. Having deployed best practices across hundreds of distributors over two decades, he believes in the critical role of people in making or breaking analytics. His solutions & frameworks are part of his seven best-selling books at NAW.

Pradip Krishnadevarajan

Pradip is a Co-Founder of ActVantage,  a company that helps distributors drive profitable growth through analytics and talent development. He formerly worked at Texas A&M University as a Professor for the Industrial Distribution Masters Program.

Pradip is recognized in the industry as a thought leader, with 17 plus years of experience assisting hundreds of companies directly while co-authoring seven inspiring books that are consistently among the NAW Institute’s Top 10 Best Sellers. He has led workshops for over 4,000+ industry professionals over the years and is passionate about using a combination approach (data-driven and training) to help companies drive profitable growth.

Channel Focus: Identify the Right Partner and Assess Existing Partner Performance

Week three dives deep into leveraging purchase order data to identify, assess, and maintain channel partner performance. The session will help you select backup suppliers and channel partners based on a data-driven performance model. The model will assess suppliers based on four key dimensions: spend (volume and growth), channel profitability, alignment, and supply chain performance.

Course objectives:

• Learn to identify the right channel partners.
• Assess existing channel partner performance.
• Leverage purchase order data for channel relationships.

Senthil Gunasekaran

Senthil is a Co-Founder of ActVantage,  a company that helps distributors drive profitable growth through analytics and talent development. He formerly worked at Texas A&M University as a Professor for the Industrial Distribution Masters Program.

Senthil has worked within the industry for 20+ years and brings a quantitative approach to business challenges. Having deployed best practices across hundreds of distributors over two decades, he believes in the critical role of people in making or breaking analytics. His solutions & frameworks are part of his seven best-selling books at NAW.

Pradip Krishnadevarajan

Pradip is a Co-Founder of ActVantage,  a company that helps distributors drive profitable growth through analytics and talent development. He formerly worked at Texas A&M University as a Professor for the Industrial Distribution Masters Program.

Pradip is recognized in the industry as a thought leader, with 17 plus years of experience assisting hundreds of companies directly while co-authoring seven inspiring books that are consistently among the NAW Institute’s Top 10 Best Sellers. He has led workshops for over 4,000+ industry professionals over the years and is passionate about using a combination approach (data-driven and training) to help companies drive profitable growth.

Channel Value Proposition Part 1: Critical Elements of Channel Value Creation & More

Manufacturers and distributors expend resources on developing customer value propositions but do not necessarily apply the same principles to channel relationships. The channel value proposition encompasses how each entity creates and captures value from the other while serving end customers. This lesson focuses on the two balancing elements of the channel value proposition: (1) value creation and (2) value capture.

Course objectives:

• Understand the trade-off of the channel value proposition.
• Discover the critical elements of channel value creation.
• Learn about channel compensation comprehensively using 11 forms of capital.

Senthil Gunasekaran

Senthil is a Co-Founder of ActVantage,  a company that helps distributors drive profitable growth through analytics and talent development. He formerly worked at Texas A&M University as a Professor for the Industrial Distribution Masters Program.

Senthil has worked within the industry for 20+ years and brings a quantitative approach to business challenges. Having deployed best practices across hundreds of distributors over two decades, he believes in the critical role of people in making or breaking analytics. His solutions & frameworks are part of his seven best-selling books at NAW.

Pradip Krishnadevarajan

Pradip is a Co-Founder of ActVantage,  a company that helps distributors drive profitable growth through analytics and talent development. He formerly worked at Texas A&M University as a Professor for the Industrial Distribution Masters Program.

Pradip is recognized in the industry as a thought leader, with 17 plus years of experience assisting hundreds of companies directly while co-authoring seven inspiring books that are consistently among the NAW Institute’s Top 10 Best Sellers. He has led workshops for over 4,000+ industry professionals over the years and is passionate about using a combination approach (data-driven and training) to help companies drive profitable growth.

Channel Value Proposition Part 2: Compensation Elements & Channel Data

One of the significant challenges in channel compensation is that the distributor’s engagement level may be low across many channel incentives. Five channel effectiveness metrics represent the criteria by which distributors assess the attractiveness of channel incentives. The metrics include relevance, magnitude, immediacy, equity, and complexity. This lesson focuses on these metrics and explains how channel partners may leverage the same.

Course objectives:

• Measure the effectiveness of channel compensation elements.
• Assess current channel compensation elements.
• Harness the power of channel data.

Senthil Gunasekaran

Senthil is a Co-Founder of ActVantage,  a company that helps distributors drive profitable growth through analytics and talent development. He formerly worked at Texas A&M University as a Professor for the Industrial Distribution Masters Program.

Senthil has worked within the industry for 20+ years and brings a quantitative approach to business challenges. Having deployed best practices across hundreds of distributors over two decades, he believes in the critical role of people in making or breaking analytics. His solutions & frameworks are part of his seven best-selling books at NAW.

Pradip Krishnadevarajan

Pradip is a Co-Founder of ActVantage,  a company that helps distributors drive profitable growth through analytics and talent development. He formerly worked at Texas A&M University as a Professor for the Industrial Distribution Masters Program.

Pradip is recognized in the industry as a thought leader, with 17 plus years of experience assisting hundreds of companies directly while co-authoring seven inspiring books that are consistently among the NAW Institute’s Top 10 Best Sellers. He has led workshops for over 4,000+ industry professionals over the years and is passionate about using a combination approach (data-driven and training) to help companies drive profitable growth.

Channel Alignment Framework: Connecting All Stakeholder Interests

Channel alignment is the holy grail of channel partners. This lesson takes an analytical approach to define and assess channel alignment. It shows how to connect inventory mix, supplier performance, and customer profitability. It concludes by linking suppliers’ and distributors’ goals through various channel incentive mechanisms. Students will learn best practices to map profitable business at the intersection of CORE customers, PROFITABLE inventory, and CORE supplier mix with robust benchmarking to increase accountability and break down data silos.

Course objectives:

• Assess your current channel alignment process.
• Connect all channel stakeholders’ interests to create channel alignment.
• Apply the channel alignment framework as a channel relationship tool.
• Understand how to quantitatively measure channel alignment.

Senthil Gunasekaran

Senthil is a Co-Founder of ActVantage,  a company that helps distributors drive profitable growth through analytics and talent development. He formerly worked at Texas A&M University as a Professor for the Industrial Distribution Masters Program.

Senthil has worked within the industry for 20+ years and brings a quantitative approach to business challenges. Having deployed best practices across hundreds of distributors over two decades, he believes in the critical role of people in making or breaking analytics. His solutions & frameworks are part of his seven best-selling books at NAW.

Pradip Krishnadevarajan

Pradip is a Co-Founder of ActVantage,  a company that helps distributors drive profitable growth through analytics and talent development. He formerly worked at Texas A&M University as a Professor for the Industrial Distribution Masters Program.

Pradip is recognized in the industry as a thought leader, with 17 plus years of experience assisting hundreds of companies directly while co-authoring seven inspiring books that are consistently among the NAW Institute’s Top 10 Best Sellers. He has led workshops for over 4,000+ industry professionals over the years and is passionate about using a combination approach (data-driven and training) to help companies drive profitable growth.

Channel Evolution: The 4 Phases of Implementing Channel Performance Analytics

Many manufacturers and distributors consider channel management a necessary evil. They manage the channel with a loaded preconceived mindset driven by past experiences (both good and not-so-great). The mindset of top executives should shift toward leveraging the channel as a competitive advantage. This shift is critical to igniting cultural change across the organization and channel. This lesson examines essential elements of implementation and how channel partners can adapt.

Course objectives:

• Understand the implementation factors for channel management processes.
• Learn four phases of implementing channel performance analytics.

Senthil Gunasekaran

Senthil is a Co-Founder of ActVantage,  a company that helps distributors drive profitable growth through analytics and talent development. He formerly worked at Texas A&M University as a Professor for the Industrial Distribution Masters Program.

Senthil has worked within the industry for 20+ years and brings a quantitative approach to business challenges. Having deployed best practices across hundreds of distributors over two decades, he believes in the critical role of people in making or breaking analytics. His solutions & frameworks are part of his seven best-selling books at NAW.

Pradip Krishnadevarajan

Pradip is a Co-Founder of ActVantage,  a company that helps distributors drive profitable growth through analytics and talent development. He formerly worked at Texas A&M University as a Professor for the Industrial Distribution Masters Program.

Pradip is recognized in the industry as a thought leader, with 17 plus years of experience assisting hundreds of companies directly while co-authoring seven inspiring books that are consistently among the NAW Institute’s Top 10 Best Sellers. He has led workshops for over 4,000+ industry professionals over the years and is passionate about using a combination approach (data-driven and training) to help companies drive profitable growth.

Roadmap for Implementation: A Blueprint for Execution

Now that the students have seen the channel alignment framework, assessment details, applications, implementation components, and how others have applied it in the real world, you may be asking how to start implementing these practices in your firm and channel. This lesson provides a blueprint for execution.

Course objectives:

• Learn to adapt to channel forces.
• Comprehend the five principles of channel advantage.
• Put together a roadmap for implementation.

Senthil Gunasekaran

Senthil is a Co-Founder of ActVantage,  a company that helps distributors drive profitable growth through analytics and talent development. He formerly worked at Texas A&M University as a Professor for the Industrial Distribution Masters Program.

Senthil has worked within the industry for 20+ years and brings a quantitative approach to business challenges. Having deployed best practices across hundreds of distributors over two decades, he believes in the critical role of people in making or breaking analytics. His solutions & frameworks are part of his seven best-selling books at NAW.

Pradip Krishnadevarajan

Pradip is a Co-Founder of ActVantage,  a company that helps distributors drive profitable growth through analytics and talent development. He formerly worked at Texas A&M University as a Professor for the Industrial Distribution Masters Program.

Pradip is recognized in the industry as a thought leader, with 17 plus years of experience assisting hundreds of companies directly while co-authoring seven inspiring books that are consistently among the NAW Institute’s Top 10 Best Sellers. He has led workshops for over 4,000+ industry professionals over the years and is passionate about using a combination approach (data-driven and training) to help companies drive profitable growth.