Anatomy Of A Winning Channel Program
By John Panek, Manager of Channel Marketing and Programs, Zebra Technologies
Zebra listens and PartnersFirst® delivers for their channel
What differentiates Zebra’s channel program?
Zebra has fostered partner success for 10 years through our PartnersFirst® Program, offering a suite of business growth benefits and programs tailored to help our partners deliver complete, value-add solutions and better serve the end customer. Participants are able to leverage our advanced products, while enjoying unprecedented access to marketing and business development tools, personalized support from our industry experts, and valuable product discounts.
Describe your ideal partner (requirements).
Zebra partners have unique needs, whether they are traditional VARs, systems integrators, or ISVs. We offer a variety of program levels in order to tailor support to each partner. Partners fall into one of three tiers: Associate, Advanced, or the highest level, Premier. Each level requires a dedicated number of sales and technical staff.
What types of service/support do you offer your partners?
PartnersFirst provides tangible benefits — real tools and expertise to drive partner success. Partners receive preand post-sales and technical support, product and technical training, generous discount levels, and individualized attention from knowledgeable channel sales and marketing teams.
How do you help partners with their marketing?
Zebra arms our partners with marketing support and content to fuel demand. Our dedicated team of Channel Marketing Specialists is uniquely skilled to engage partners in strategic marketing plans and effective use of market development funds.
What types of lead gen do you offer partners?
Zebra does extensive, nurture-based end user marketing to deliver sales-ready leads to partners based on their location and industry or application expertise.
We also help partners generate their own leads. Beginning in 2013, we offer bundled campaigns that enable partners to achieve predictable ROI with defined and proven programs.
What forms of education do you provide to partners?
Zebra partners benefit from peer-to-peer training and an online learning management system (LMS) of free training modules. Through the LMS, partners learn about Zebra products and services and how they deliver value to specific vertical markets. For more advanced partners and certified specialists, Zebra offers instructor-led training. New this year is Zebra’s PartnerInform, a multi-track monthly webinar series that informs partners on products, marketing best practices, and vertical market strategies.
What tools do you have to help partners succeed?
PartnersFirst members have ready access to the resources they need to broaden their reach and expand their capabilities without adding costly infrastructure. Our strategic global practitioners and regional vertical marketing managers provide a unique level of depth and insight to help PartnersFirst members understand and develop go-to-market strategies in key industries such as retail, manufacturing, government, and healthcare. We share these strategies with our partners to create opportunities for business growth by helping them add value to their product or service and better serve end customers. Zebra takes a high-touch approach to partnership to address a variety of member requirements. We’ve eliminated the barriers, making it easy for partners to integrate Zebra technologies into their solutions.
Through a portfolio of enabling technologies, Zebra is the organization that illuminates customers’ operational events involving their assets, people, and transactions so they can see opportunities to create new value, or what Zebra calls, the Visible Value Chain.
Contact Information
Zebra Technologies
333 Corporate Woods Parkway, Vernon Hills, IL 60061
(847) 634-6700
www.zebra.com