This holiday season the Core team would like to say a heartfelt "Thank You" to all of our customers, partners and friends who have been so supportive this year. A new era has begun for Core Strategies. The team has grown into a seasoned, international consortium of channel veterans whose passion for the IT industry and the Channel is unequaled. And, with partners like OgilvyOne and BlueRoads, we believe we are positioned for great results in 2005. Our goals continue to be your goals: Creating strong partnerships with Solution Providers and the greater Channel that drives profitable revenue.

From the entire Core family and our loved ones to you and yours, we wish you all a Merry Christmas, Bright Solstice, Warm Chanukah, Soulful Kwanzaa, and much hope and good cheer for the New Year.

The Core Team

In survey after Channel survey, Solution Providers and Resellers named sales leads as one of the Top 10 things they want from a vendor. Equally consistent, however, are the complaints from the Channel that the leads vendors provide are most often unqualified and a waste of time for the resellers. Our challenge, as business and marketing development professionals, is to meet the needs of our partners in a way that maximizes revenue, profits and ROI.

Obviously, the first step is a sound lead-generation strategy. Different markets, regions and product stacks require unique strategies for reaching the audience and generating a lead that has the potential to travel the entire sales cycle. Lead generation strategies are as varied as the products we sell and can range from direct response and advertising to event marketing and traditional industry trade shows. Knowing the best strategy for your business and how to get the maximum ROI for your marketing dollars is the key. With over 20 years' experience, creating profitable, high ROI strategies is where Core can help you whether you are a vendor or a reseller. Read the full article...

Under an arrangement between Core Strategies and BlueRoads Corporation, the indirect channel is no longer being considered a black hole. Instead, a truly systematic approach has formed a clear path toward lead generation, profitability and increased market share.

BlueRoads focuses exclusively on providing channel management software that allows companies to market and sell more effectively through indirect channels. BlueRoads is unique in providing a closed-loop system with built-in methodology, which empowers individual partner representatives to actively participate in sales and marketing processes. Read the full article...

Over the last 20 years of developing programs for the channel — that are equal parts incentive, education, information and rewards — our industry always seems to come back to the ageless method of rewarding channel partners in two basic ways: marketing funds and rebates.

Marketing Development Funds (MDF) which has also gone by the name Co-op and BDF (Business Development Funds – a name invented by former EVP of sales at Seagate, Bernie Carballo, who thought that any use of funds for "marketing" was a sin!). Whatever the name, the idea has always been to hand out money to our successful partners so they can implement "marketing" activities to drive more sales.
Read the full article...

Community: Core Partner Spotlight – Charlie Wallace Singing for the Children of India

Buy a CD this holiday season by the world renowned Mount Madonna Choir to benefit an orphanage at the base of the Himalayas.
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VARBusiness State of the Market 2005 –
Things are Looking Up!

The folks at CMP Media have, again, been hard at work interviewing over 1,000 Solution Providers in North America to analyze seller and buyer sentiment and, with great care, make a few predictions for the coming year.

According to the "Key Findings" — which are posted on the Core Strategies website — solution providers agree that 2005 will be fruitful. Small, midsize and large VARs, expect their revenues to increase over 2004. And, with increases ranging from 19% for small VARs to 32% for large VARs, the technology refresh predicted for 2004 many finally be on tap for 2005. Read the full article...