Channel-Specific Trends for 2022

It’s no secret that the IT talent shortage is a problem. But so far, most people tend to blame recent societal changes (COVID-19, stimulus packages) for the upheaval. There’s another aspect that will continue to affect talent acquisition throughout 2022: field compensation strategies, SADA’s Safoian said. Winning greenfield (or all-new) cloud deals “takes a very long time” and does not pay the same as other types of sales. This results in more churn and contributes to the talent shortage, Safoian said.

(As an aside, selling greenfield is indeed very different from helping clients who are already in the cloud, Google Cloud’s Chason said. Salespeople — channel partners included — have to conduct different conversations with the C-suite, she said.)

Another change in 2022 ties to more co-selling between vendors’ internal sales teams and indirect channel partners. Vendors need to keep beefing up the perks tied to co-selling. For instance, Google Cloud, Chason said, “is incentivizing our sales teams to think partner every time. … Every account executive needs partners in their business plan.”

But getting direct sales to incorporate indirect often depends on mentality. Too many people in the sales world still don’t have experience with the channel and don’t understand what partners bring in terms of expertise and capabilities. It’s going to take concerted effort from vendors — under pressure from partners — to change that.