One of the hot topics I’ve been hearing a lot about this year has been how to make a channel ecosystem work together effectively to deliver the very best outcomes. This has always been the heart of creating a well-functioning channel program. Yet, lately there has been new emphasis on getting suppliers to unite in order to provide more cohesive marketing around vertical solutions. While this type of marketing is often most effective for channel partners, it does require an additional level of sophistication and expertise to support the complexities of having more brands involved with delivering shared content.

We at Zift have recently gone through a related exercise as we acquired SharedVue from The Channel Company.

The acquisition greatly expanded the number of suppliers coordinating their marketing through the Zift platform. It also provides much greater exposure of the benefits that Zift provides by allowing The Channel Company to extend their traditional offering with Zift’s unique capabilities such as Dynamic Content Syndication, Lead Distribution Management and Embedded Access Apps.

Conceptually, it was easy to see how everyone would benefit from the acquisition. However, it actually turned out to be quite challenging to create the framework that allowed all the parties involved to work together effectively. This is where getting advice from a true expert was critical. In our case, the guidance and advice we needed came from a team at our lawyers, Wyrick Robbins, and specifically from their lead on our deal, David Creekman. David was able to use his experience to establish a deal structure that sidestepped many potential pitfalls, and allowed us to navigate through several prospective roadblocks. Getting our deal structure right from the start unlocked the synergies of this acquisition, and allowed us to greatly increase the value we provide to our clients.

Likewise, as we move forward with the largest community of technology vendors and channel partners using Zift Solutions, I am hopeful that we can provide the expert advice and guidance our customers need on how best to make multi-vendor, vertical marketing come together to drive success.

 

Header image courtesy of Estée Janssens on Unsplash and Studyclerk.