Verizon's VP Janet Schijns gave a presentation about Millennials and the Channel. A majority of the polled Millennials did not know what a Channel Partner was. Change or Die. (I thought when Tiffani Bova left Gartner, we would have heard the last of that message, but alas it is still the drum beating.)

It isn't that most partners do NOT want to change. It is that most partners are heads down, entirely focused on survival!

The race to zero isn't helping!

A combination of the cable growth and the bandwidth price compression have forced agents to sell more and more to make less and less. There just isn't time to learn new services and shift gears. AND the SMB market IS consuming what they are selling - bandwidth, cheap voice, wireless.

That isn't to say that partner don't need to learn new services and sell them.

It also might mean that the message, training and collateral aren't nearly hitting the mark the way that carriers think they are. After sitting through 14 meetings this week as well as walking the floor daily, the messaging to the partners is product focused, tired, repetitive, and frankly unappealing.

The job of the carrier is to grab the attention, wow! the partner enough that they go sell the services whether or not there is a spiff.

While every carrier tells me they meet with their partners and have business plan reviews, etc. Are they really listening? Do they actually hear what the partners are saying?

My message is to the carriers: Change or die on your story and marketing.

P.S.

The more that carriers say that VARs and MSPs are better partners - (All we hear is the charge to the VAR brigade) - the less agents will listen to you. #justsaying

PPS

When carrier employees have a vague understanding of the products, it is a challenge for partners to have a good understanding of those products. See UC, SD-WAN, NFV and other acronyms.