What is a Channel Master?

YOU ARE!

In December of 2007 I took part in IPED's channel masters program and was very impressed with it. They get a great group of channel professionals together and put you through a boot camp of sorts until you are beaten up, sweating, limping, and crying in some cases. At the end of the 3-days however you are a better channel professional.

As channel professionals we can fall into the trap of sitting in our bubble while creating our programs and not keeping tabs on how our solution providers needs are changing. IPED slaps you with some cold hard reality around the developments in channel programs and what we need to do to become and stay competitive. Did you know that solution providers have a choice whether to sell you or sell someone else? Some vendors don't act like that is a reality.

Surrounded by Directors of Channel from SAP, NetApp (I was at EqualLogic at the time so that was funny), EMC, Oracle, Panasonic, HDS, and others; it was nice to see we ALL had something to learn. IPED even brought in solution providers to tell us how they really feel, whether or not we were prepared to hear it.

After the three days there are once a month webinars that you participate in to keep the conversation going. I had some great connections and have kept in touch with some in my group to continue the channel banter.

Regardless of how much you think you already know, you can definitely learn something. Who knows, maybe you do know it all and you should go just to teach the others.