September 12, 2008, 3:28 PM — When Forrester surveyed vendor channel executives about how their partners ranked, the results weren't terribly impressive. The execs said channel partners were only average in their participation in deal registration programs, and below average in taking advantage of vendor-provided sales leads.
But when SearchITChannel followed up on the other side of the deal, it seems that the Forrester report didn't exactly tell the whole story. The lack of follow-up isn't always due to laziness. Deals don't get registered because VARs are afraid that the vendors will steal the business and turn it over to the direct sales team, and the sales leads often aren't followed up on because they're not as valuable as the vendors think they are.
Of course, the best leads are always the ones that are self-generated, because you know how the leads were derived. VAR readers, what's your opinion? Are the sales leads you get from vendors of any value?
