Janet Schijns: Top 10 Skills of Ecosystem Leaders

Channel Journeys Podcast

What’s a partner ecosystem leader? Who can become one? What are the most important traits? Those are questions I posed to Janet Schijns, CEO of the JS Group. Janet shares the top ten skills sales and channel leaders need to become ecosystem leaders. If you’re a sales rep looking to leverage the ecosystem or a channel leader with your eyes on becoming a Chief Ecosystem Officer, this podcast is for you.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Channel pros, just because you’ve worked in the channel for years, it doesn’t mean you’re getting that top ecosystem leader job. Here are the ten critical skills you need to not only to stand out but to succeed as an ecosystem leader:

1. Understand what’s happening with partner programs and have the skills to know what’s needed to develop an ecosystem partner program.
2. Shift your strategic focus from the channel as an expansion or replacement of sales to a strategic focus on co-selling. Sellers need to get the notion of owning an account out their head. Don’t block your partners from engaging you on an account. Embrace them.
3. Train your sales reps to become managers and influencers of their ecosystem. And train your Sales RVPs to become Ecosystems RVPs, levering the full partner ecosystem to drive sales growth.
4. The technology expertise you need now as an ecosystem leader is to understand the tools that will aid your ecosystem to do the job better. That includes PRM systems, account mapping tools, and automated partner services orchestration.
5. Gain the financial acumen to read an annual report, understand how EBITDA is calculated, and be able to have financial conversations with your partners and their business models.
6. Learn how to use digital marketing to stimulate demand. Today’s B2B buyers rely far more on digital information in their buying journey, spending less and less time with sales reps. Companies that provide customers the information they need, when they need it, through the channels they prefer, are best positioned to drive success.
7. Gain the ability to see the future that others haven’t seen yet by spending time with the folks who are going to influence the behavior of tomorrow. Don’t spend your time with the same partners at every event. Go out and meet the influencers in your industry.
8. Practice proactive listening. You need to get to the right watering holes and listen to what end customers, analysts, and partners are saying. Dedicate 20 or 30 minutes a day of going to the online watering holes like Reddit, LinkedIn, and Facebook, or hire an intern or an agency like JSG to do it for you.
9. Build communities bottoms up instead of top down. Who will be the most important ecosystem leaders 3 year, 5 years, 10 years from now? Start by asking where will your customers be? What communities will they be listening to?
10. Last, but not least, gain the skills to build your own brand and become a partner ecosystem influencer. This is the decade of ecosystem influence!

LINKS & RESOURCES

• Connect with Janet on LinkedIn
• Read how Traditional B2B Sales and Marketing Are Becoming Obsolete
• Gain financial acumen by signing up for free finance courses on Corsera
• Learn How To Become Channel Influencer in 3 Easy Steps

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