Is your Channel Marketing Program Organized? Here is a checklist to find out.

The Winchester Mystery House is a well-known mansion in Northern California  This mansion is renowned for its size and utter lack of any master building plan. It once served as the personal residence of Sarah Winchester, the widow of gun magnate William Wirt Winchester. Under Sarah Winchester’s day-to-day guidance, the mansion’s “from-the-ground-up” construction proceeded around the clock, without interruption, for 38 years. As Sarah continued to add on rooms, hallways, and staircases, the house become a maze that was disjointed and very hard to navigate. Despite the enormous, time-consuming investment, only about  10% of the house was ever practically in use.

Why do I bring up this strange bit of trivia? Because for many of us, our channel marketing programs have become disjointed in much the same way as the Winchester Mystery House. Over the years, we have found ourselves adding on to our channel programs, not necessarily thinking about the evolution of our programs so much as reacting to various factors like changes in leadership, Go-to-Market strategies, partner segments, verticals, turnover in the channel marketing department, etc. If you feel that within your programs, some confusion or inconsistencies have naturally unfolded over the years, rest assured you are not alone.This is the nature of an evolving, maturing channel marketing program.

Stairway to Nowhere

A couple of weeks ago we at Move The channel published the MTC Channel Marketing Guide and RIMES Chart 1.0. While many people have said that the eBook has given them innovative ideas for their channel strategy, one of the most surprising complements it has received is its value as an organizational tool. The entire guide, as a matter of fact, is based off of the easy-to-read RIMES chart, and it offers channel professionals a simple checklist with which they can compare their own program’s various components.

Is my program missing an ingredient?

Is there a component of my program that is no longer relevant?

Have I taken the time to reorganize my program and communicate it clearly to my channel?

What is the mission of my program?

After taking the time to sift through the 1000s of ideas and ingredients we received from Move The Channel members, we managed to organize the information in a manner that we thought might help you manage your own program. Because one of the worst things you can do with your program is keep adding to it without any real structure. You don’t want to end up only utilizing 10% of your program. So compare your important themes—your pillars—with ours. Use the RIMES guide as a checklist for your own program. And if you think of something that you feel we’ve missed, PLEASE shoot me an email so I can add it our next version of the guide.

Move the Channel,

Travis