PALO ALTO, CA–( EMWNews – April 1, 2008) – The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council

today released a scorecard and findings from its new Channel Performance

Outlook Study that many might view as a failing grade for how vendors drive

business performance through some of the most critical avenues of customer

engagement, purchasing and service worldwide.

Topping the list of channel complaints were lean lead rates, unqualified

opportunities, and lackluster marketing campaigns which failed to connect

with the customer. Lack of cooperation between the channel and field

marketing groups also surfaced as a significant issue, as well as the

perennial problem of key account conflict with direct selling groups inside

vendor organizations.

Sponsored by BLUEROADS (www.blueroads.com), the Channel Performance Outlook

2008 report includes insights from over 500 dealers, resellers, and

distributors across six industry sectors: Information Technology, Physical

Security and Surveillance, Telecommunications, Consumer Electronics, Office

Products, and Professional Audio/Visual Equipment. The combined revenue for

these business partners is expected to exceed $5 trillion by 2010 based on

aggregated data from vertical channel publications.

Despite billions of dollars spent on lead generation programs and branding

campaigns, the CMO Council reports a significant portion of these

expenditures are not driving channel performance or product sell-through.

In some cases, marketing and sales activities may well be alienating the

channel, reducing trust, confusing the customer and reducing overall

productivity and effectiveness.

Key findings from the study reveal that:

--  Less than seven percent of resellers say vendors are their most

    valuable source of leads

    

--  Only 19 percent said vendor leads were highly actionable

    

--  A surprising 70 percent of resellers said vendor marketing campaigns

    were ineffective or only somewhat effective in driving their business

    

--  When it comes to partnering, a disappointing 46 percent say vendor

    field marketing reps never or infrequently team with them in cooperative

    selling

    

--  Nearly 80 percent of resellers say they experienced significant, or

    some, conflict or competition with vendor sales organizations

    

--  On a positive note, despite the economic downturn, a surprising 57

    percent of the channel expects substantial increases in business

    

“With as much as 80 percent of business leads languishing, lost or

ineffectually handled, there is a big top-line revenue benefit for vendors

seeking to increase yield, productivity and accountability throughout the

channel,” commented Donovan Neale-May, Executive Director of the CMO

Council.

“All too often, organizations overlook the value of channel input and

customer data on product development, messaging and marketing program

design, and lack the visibility into where and how opportunities are being

delivered, executed and realized. What we found is that vendors across

multiple important industries are earning at best a ‘C’ grade in

vendor-channel performance. They need to add an O to the ‘C’ and embrace

the process of co-operative marketing, selling, product development and

problem solving,” Neale-May adds.

The findings of the Channel Performance Outlook study are in line with

similar results of a Customer Affinity Index report released earlier in the

year by the CMO Council, which reveals further vendor-channel disconnects.

In this poll, only 3 percent of channel partners indicated that their

vendors are extremely well aligned around the end customer, and only 8

percent of vendor marketing respondents said they do an extremely good job

of teaming with the channel to build stronger customer affinity. In

addition, vendors are not in sync with their channel partners to instill

trust with customers, the study shows.

“In today’s complex multi-level market, vendor revenue and margin is driven

by the channel’s ability to quickly act on opportunities, as well as

cultivate, up-sell and close deals,” notes Charles Watson, Senior Vice

President of Marketing and Sales for BLUEROADS. “Engaging effectively with

the channel can improve the relevancy of messaging and better focus and

direct marketing spend. Building a relationship of trust and a system of

accountability and reward is critical to optimizing channel performance,”

he states.

To download a free abstract of the Channel Performance Outlook 2008 report,

please visit our website at:

http://www.cmocouncil.org/resources/form_cpo.asp. The comprehensive report

is also available on our website and can be purchased for $199.

About the CMO Council

The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council is dedicated to high-level

knowledge exchange, thought leadership and personal relationship building

among senior marketing and brand decision-makers across a wide-range of

global industries. The CMO Council’s 3,000 members control more than $70

billion in aggregated annual marketing expenditures. Companies represented

on the CMO Council have combined annual revenue of over $600 billion. Visit

the CMO Council web site to find out about the initiatives geared to

address executive marketers’ challenges at www.cmocouncil.org.

About BLUEROADS

BLUEROADS Corporation delivers proven enterprise Partner Opportunity

Management solutions that help organizations with complex,

multi-dimensional channels market and sell more effectively. Customers like

Avaya, Polycom and Juniper depend on BLUEROADS’ unique closed-loop system

which empowers individual partner representatives to actively participate

in sales and marketing processes. BLUEROADS strengthens the bond between

vendors and their partners, achieving the mutually beneficial goals of

increased conversion rates, revenue and market share. BLUEROADS is

headquartered in San Mateo, California and is financed by ArrowPath Venture

Capital, Cardinal Venture Capital, El Dorado Ventures and The Halo Fund.

For more information, please visit www.blueroads.com.