Coffee with an expert: Extending the Reach of Your Market Development Funds

Welcome to the fifth edition of Coffee With an Expert, a series of interviews with TSL Marketing's subject matter experts about their areas of expertise.

Throughout these interviews, you'll gain some valuable insights into our approach to digital marketing and lead generation for B2B technology companies.

Today’s Q&A is with Michael Stiriti, our Director of Channel Sales and Client Strategy.

Michael, how do you help TSL’s customers with their channel marketing efforts?

Michael: 

One of the biggest challenges that B2B Tech companies face is building a strategic marketing engine while also satisfying vendor partners that are frequently funding the efforts. It is difficult for a company to develop their brand within the confines of market development funds (MDF), budget that typically comes with a litany of rules and regulations.

My goal is to help channel partners with planning their B2B marketing efforts in a way that effectively promotes their vendor’s products while also generating sales opportunities that align with their specific solution offerings.

Why do B2B Tech companies turn to TSL for ongoing marketing support?

Michael:

Simply put, after 20 years of experience in the B2B tech marketing space, we are an agency that our customers can trust to develop an intelligent marketing plan that meets their specific needs. We understand their business challenges, their external and internal pressures, what vendors are looking for, and what a company needs to be able to grow.

It’s beneficial to be able to see that full landscape. We bring all those aspects into alignment and establish the marketing efforts that will satisfy all these needs.

We help B2B tech companies plan and develop their go-to-market strategies. 

How can channel partners best balance the vendor’s needs with tending to their own company growth?

Michael:

First and foremost, I urge channel partners to budget internally for marketing efforts in addition to receiving monetary aid from manufacturers. A vendor should not be paying for a partner’s website, as that needs to be a reflection of that partner’s brand.

Once you have built your own marketing engine that aligns with your business growth goals, then you can enhance those efforts with MDF.

Use the extra budget to fund the creation of compelling content, digital advertising spend, or specific B2B marketing lead generation efforts that will benefit everybody involved.

What would you change about the traditional B2B Tech channel marketing?

Michael:

I would urge manufacturers to trust their partners. Trust that when one of your best partners generates a new website visitor, prospect, or lead, that it will benefit you in the long run. Once that trust is established, you can begin to fund more flexible and long-term MDF programs.

Allow for funding to cover SEO efforts and other mechanisms to increase partner website traffic. Extend engagement time frames to allow for appropriate (sometimes long) sales cycles. And finally, understand that end users don’t care as much about the logo on the server as they do about the expertise of the solution provider installing it…and act accordingly.

TSL can also help you with channel partner recruitment. Find out more here.