There is a monumental shift in how buyers acquire products and services and how companies are reacting with their go-to-market and routes-to-market strategies.
Forrester’s Principal Analyst, Jay McBain spoke to hundreds of companies about their channel strategy and programs, liaised with many industry professionals around the world and participated in a profound number of webinars and podcasts before formulating a thought-provoking reflection of where the IT Channel is going.
The global channel or indirect sales currently equates to US$2.26 trillion. This however is shrinking each year as more companies develop the ability to sell directly to consumers via B2C sales platforms.
The traditional “transactional channel” doesn’t go away. But with customers spending 68% of their time on the web researching products or services before talking to anyone, vendors need to understand how to leverage the evolving channel to influence customers earlier in the buying cycle.