"The Last Responsible Moment": How this principle helps in Developing your Channel Program

Companies constantly seek avenues for sustainable growth and increased market reach in today's competitive business landscape. Building and operationalizing a robust channel program is a key strategy companies adopt for achieving these objectives. But what does it take to build a successful channel program, and how can the idea of "the last responsible moment" play a pivotal role in its success? This blog serves as a prompt to institutionalizing authentic curiosity while helping you prioritize (or delay) decisions until the last responsible moment to enhance operational leverage and deliver the best possible outcomes.

The idea behind the Last Responsible Moment is simple. Rather than doing everything all at once, you become more intentional and invest time, money, effort at the point at which you need it, or the point at which it would be irresponsible not to do it. This can be carried out by any discipline and at any phase of your channel program lifecycle.

The last responsible moment is the instant in which the cost of the delay of a decision surpasses the benefit of delay, or the moment when failing to take a decision eliminates an important alternative. Because this is such a simple concept it’s easy to put into practice. All you need to do is ask: ‘do we need to do this now?’ Whether the answer is "yes" or "no", make sure you can answer the question "Why?"

In this case, "Do we need to build a channel program now?".

If the answer is ‘no’ then you can move on to something more immediately important. If the answer is ‘yes’ then you should follow up with: ‘do we need to do all of this now?’

If the answer to this question is no, then just by asking one or two simple questions there’s a good chance you’ve better prioritized and reduced your immediate workload - critical for start-up and scale-up organizations. As an added bonus these questions tend to encourage breaking big tasks down into smaller ones — another essential principle of agile projects.

Last Responsible Moment Channel Questions

Far too many businesses fail at developing a channel program that delivers results as they fail to recognize the “last responsible moment” but rather try to anticipate or rely on their gut when considering how/when they might leverage the channel ecosystem that's available to them. Let's explore the questions every start-up/scale-up organization should be asking themselves.

Justifying your "need" for a Channel Program

A channel program is a carefully designed framework that establishes partnerships between a company and its distributors, resellers, agents, or affiliates to extend the reach of its products or services. By leveraging these partnerships, businesses can tap into new markets, increase brand visibility, and drive revenue growth. However, building an effective channel program is not a one-size-fits-all solution. It requires careful planning, continuous assessment, and strategic decision-making.

• Validation Point: Is the effort of building a channel aligned with the overall GTM strategy? In other words, will developing a channel satisfy a need that serves the organization’s strategic goals? It is not unusual for an organization to be working on problems that are no longer in sync with its strategy or mission. In that case, the effort (and perhaps the whole initiative) should be reconsidered. Have we determined our ICP? GTMF? Pricing? Packaging?

The Power of Flexibility & Navigating Uncertainty

To ensure a channel program's success, adaptability and flexibility are essential. This is where "the last responsible moment" comes into play. Another way to think about this concept is to delay critical decisions until the last possible moment before they become irreversible. This approach enables businesses to gather as much relevant information as possible, leading to more informed and intelligent decisions on program structure, benefits, markets served, etc. Keep in mind that iterating on a channel is one thing, but guardrail to guardrail changes are not.

• Validation Point(s): Have you created a repeatable, predictable sales motion that your partners can apply and win with? Is your pricing/packaging nailed? The last thing you want to do is to constantly make sweeping changes that will only serve to undermine your credibility with your partners. Do your discounts represent your "discount strategy" for the markets you serve? How do we account for Fx fluctuations? Do different regions warrant different considerations? When we develop quotes in international markets - do we show our list price?

You may not have the answers to these questions (and I assure you there are many more), however ensuring that you're fostering an environment where flexibility is built into your channel framework is essential. The examples above give you a feeling for how to apply this very basic principle.

What are the benefits of working this way?

There are three major benefits to the Last Responsible Moment.

1. Spend less time doing work. This doesn’t mean that you do less work, it just means that rather than spending a lot of time polishing a single feature and covering every possible scenario or edge-case, you use the same amount of time to get more things done. You can then approach additional requirements as and when they become important.

2. You won’t always need to do the things you think you need to; sometimes the Last Responsible Moment never arrives. Like many Channel Leaders have seen, they've spent cycles on partner portals that were never used, or built documentation that was used only once, simply because in the time between when the original idea was hatched to the time it was released; requirements were superseded, or the partner strategy had changed. By asking whether something needs to be done now you may find it doesn’t need to be done at all. This also forces you to question things that you might do simply out of habit.

3. We work in a fast-moving industry, especially in the age of AI, it’s entirely possible that if you delay doing something until you need it, there may be a better way of doing it.

4. Taking an iterative approach to developing your channel. Building a channel program is not a one-time event; it is an ongoing process of learning and improvement. Embracing the last responsible moment principle allows businesses to adopt an iterative approach to your program's development. 'Your" program is not the one that a channel leader brings from the large box vendor and replaces your name on the materials and starts running. In fact, rather than committing to fixed plans from the outset, stating assumptions, gathering feedback, and iterating based on real-world results are essential. This continual learning process ensures that the channel program remains relevant, efficient, and aligned with the company's goals.

5. Fostering Collaboration The last responsible moment philosophy also encourages collaboration among various stakeholders/departments involved in your channel program. By postponing decisions, businesses can engage in open discussions with their partners, distributors, and affiliates. This collaborative environment fosters a sense of ownership and shared responsibility, leading to a more cohesive and efficient program.

The importance of developing a channel program cannot be overstated. Start-ups and Scale-ups should take advantage of their ability to move quickly, while ensuring that they don't oversubscribe resources on the wrong set of investments. By embracing the concept of "the last responsible moment" when making crucial decisions, companies can navigate uncertainty, foster collaboration, and manage operational leverage more effectively. This approach empowers businesses to stay agile, adapt to changing market dynamics, and continuously improve their channel program to stay ahead in the competitive business landscape.

Although the Last Responsible Moment is an agile principle, it’s not an agile process. Rather it’s an agile way of thinking that can be applied to any project regardless of methodology. All you need to do is ask ‘do we need to do this now?’ and see where that question leads you.

Not sure if you're at your last responsible moment? Let's chat!! info@channelsales.ai