Channel is an overloaded term: Why the confusion matters

I recently spotted what I considered an odd hashtag on LinkedIn -- #savethechannel

The channel is an interestingly overloaded phrase. It’s used to refer to the indirect sales path for technology, which takes technology and the resulting services delivered not from the vendor themselves through sellers to those end customers. There’s a lot of pieces in that “channel” – the vendors, the distributors, and the services companies, and even within three. There’s the channel chief – a vendor employee – and the channel team, which are sales or marketing staff who deal with partners… who are also the channel.

Let's dive into the different channels, why the confusion matters, and why ecosystems are the future.

Looking for a link from the stories? The entire script of the show, with links to articles, are posted in each story on https://www.businessof.tech/

 

Do you want the show on your podcast app or the written versions of the stories? Subscribe to the Business of Tech: https://www.businessof.tech/subscribe/

 

Support the show on Patreon: https://patreon.com/mspradio/

 

Want our stuff? Cool Merch? Wear “Why Do We Care?” - Visit https://mspradio.myspreadshop.com

 

Follow us on:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28908079/

YouTube: https://youtube.com/mspradio/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mspradionews/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mspradio/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessoftech

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/businessoftech.bsky.social