The Channel Advantage, The: Going to market with multiple sales channels to reach more customers, sell more products, make more profit

The Channel Advantage is one of the first books I read on Channel Program Development. I keep it on my desk and refer to it often.The first time you read this book you'll be introduced to Friedman's and Furey's arguments for viewing the channel as "the" competitive advantage for a sales organization, something more powerful than the brand strategies being cooked up in the marketing departments. For an organization invested heavily in one channel strategy, the authors use a comparison/contrast method to demonstrate the relative merits of different channel strategies: direct sales, VAR sales, telemarketing, and Internet. Without arguing for one strategy over another, the authors will open your eyes to aspects of a strategy you haven't considered. For instance, until reading The Channel Advantage, I've been negative on the Internet strategy, but these guys will show you how to make it work without completely undercutting your sales force.The second time you read this book, you will refer to p.187 for the chart illustrating Channel Mix and Integration. It visually illustrates a plan for creating the right combination of your channel strategy through alignment of your sales process. It makes the powerful argument that each channel strategy can be used at different times in the sales process, to help move it along and shorten it. The Channel Advantage is a "power tool" that helps you analyze how to invest your limited resources in a "portfolio" of channels and to measure your performance. Read Part One and Part Two one time through, but keep referring to Part Three.The writing in Channel Advantage is academic, but there's a lot of red meat here. Strongly recommend for the experienced Channel Manager or the Sales Manager who wants to learn more about how channels can add to his/her performance.

Tim & Lawrence managed to take a complex topic and make it very easy to understand even for a beginner like myself.

Good read but perhaps too academic. Lacks wheels of practicality.

Somewhat dated but standard concepts still valuable in today's markets. This book is an easyread and reviews several channel sales approaches.

This book increased my knowledge and understanding about marketing and the marketing process. This book can help you and other marketing minded people too.

Great book for somebody wanting a 101 course-like reading the channel sales model. It was worth my $ and time!

I just returned from a conference in Sydney at which Mr Friedman was the keynote speaker. Mr Friedman is one of the leading strategists in the world today in the area of channel strategy. I have recently read this book The Channel Advantage, and it is excellent. Although it is introductory in nature it addresses virtually every issue today's channel manager or executive will encounter. Smaller companies can use this book to develop a clear sense of the Big Picture for growing their businesses. For larger companies the chapters on channel integration and economics will prove most useful.

This book is a nice easy read lesson in the highlights of channel strategy. The book provides concise questions any channel strategists needs to ask themselves when planning sales channels for their products. Well worth the read.