Thursday, December 04, 2003
ISSUE: Finding the Real Channel Metrics
I loved Michael Lewis’s latest book Moneyball, The Art of Winning An Unfair Game!
Since I hate baseball, this is not a book I would have read except it was recommended to me by Elliot Levine of The Sales Factor. This book is now among my favorites for management and business development. Right up there with Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom (strategy on how to win against impossible odds) and Rhodes’ Making of the Atomic Bomb (management of complex, diverse organizations in product development and product launch.)
This book has everything: Organizational politics, performance metrics, recruitment, management, PR, and sales. In this book, Lewis answers the question “How did one of the poorest teams in baseball win so many games?” What was the secret? Billy Beane of the Oakland A’s changed the way baseball is managed because he realized the historical benchmarks of baseball were misleading. (Click on Ernie the Attorney for a concise book review.)
Why do I love this book? Because it made me think about how I approach channels in a new way. A few of the thoughts I had while reading Moneyball are as follows: For decades, people said that you could not measure outfield performance. Similarly, I am repeatedly told that CAM performance cannot be measured because of poor POS. The ever popular RBI is irrelevant because it attributes success to luck. Simple sales quotas mask true individual contributions. On-base percentages correlate to scoring. Sales management correlates to channel sell through. Offense is more important than defense. Business development skills trump account support skills.
I want to do with channels what Billy Beane did with baseball. I am looking for the Billy Beane in IT channels. Microsoft, the Yankees of high tech, sit on billions in cash and will always be in the channel world series. However, since your budget is a fraction of theirs, how can you change the competitive landscape?
I want to work with the CEO, COO or SVP who wins in the channel is spite of the fact that the budget is a fraction of Microsoft’s.
Scott Karren, The Channel Pro
I loved Michael Lewis’s latest book Moneyball, The Art of Winning An Unfair Game!
Since I hate baseball, this is not a book I would have read except it was recommended to me by Elliot Levine of The Sales Factor. This book is now among my favorites for management and business development. Right up there with Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom (strategy on how to win against impossible odds) and Rhodes’ Making of the Atomic Bomb (management of complex, diverse organizations in product development and product launch.)
This book has everything: Organizational politics, performance metrics, recruitment, management, PR, and sales. In this book, Lewis answers the question “How did one of the poorest teams in baseball win so many games?” What was the secret? Billy Beane of the Oakland A’s changed the way baseball is managed because he realized the historical benchmarks of baseball were misleading. (Click on Ernie the Attorney for a concise book review.)
Why do I love this book? Because it made me think about how I approach channels in a new way. A few of the thoughts I had while reading Moneyball are as follows: For decades, people said that you could not measure outfield performance. Similarly, I am repeatedly told that CAM performance cannot be measured because of poor POS. The ever popular RBI is irrelevant because it attributes success to luck. Simple sales quotas mask true individual contributions. On-base percentages correlate to scoring. Sales management correlates to channel sell through. Offense is more important than defense. Business development skills trump account support skills.
I want to do with channels what Billy Beane did with baseball. I am looking for the Billy Beane in IT channels. Microsoft, the Yankees of high tech, sit on billions in cash and will always be in the channel world series. However, since your budget is a fraction of theirs, how can you change the competitive landscape?
I want to work with the CEO, COO or SVP who wins in the channel is spite of the fact that the budget is a fraction of Microsoft’s.
Scott Karren, The Channel Pro
