What are your best practices for increasing renewal rates through the channel?
What have you found to be the most effective in enabling renewals through 2 tier distribution particularly given the current climate?
Answers
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There are a lot of variables here. One of the keys is clearly to look at ways to improve the transparency of information across the parties involved (OEM, distributor, reseller, customer) in the renewal process. This involves digitizing the renewal experience. Particularly in the long tail, often the number one and most easily addressed reasons for a customer not renewing is that they did not know about the renewal event. This can be largely addressed through an email marketing program, which is the preferred method of communication for these customers. And given that many partners do not have the tools and financial incentives to focus on smaller renewal opportunities, in many cases it can make sense for the OEM to sell the renewal direct to these customers.
At a more strategic level, my recommendation would be to think deeply about the customer and designing your customer engagement touch points and responsibilities to provide the best experience and value add for the customer throughout their lifecycle as your customer. This may need to be orchestrated in a new way, particularly as the OEM evolves to Cloud services. When you deliver on this, you will deliver on improved retention and dollar renewal rate.
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