We recruit alliances directors, channel sales managers and partner managers for foreign enterprise technology vendors in Japan. In a market where most enterprise deals pass through two or three companies before they reach the customer, this hire decides how much of the channel actually sells your product.
Which partners matter depends on the plan
There is no single profile for a Japan channel leader, because the partners that matter differ from one vendor to the next. For some of our clients, the global systems integrators and the hyperscalers carry the most weight. Others already have strong global relationships with those firms that carry over into Japan, and what they need is someone who knows the local partners.
Most experienced channel leaders build a tiered partner plan. Each tier gives access to a different set of customers:
| Tier | Examples | What it reaches |
|---|---|---|
| Large SIers | Fujitsu, NEC, Hitachi, NTT Data, CTC, SCSK | The largest enterprise and public sector accounts, usually as part of the SIer's own projects |
| Value-added distributors | Macnica, Networld, Tokyo Electron Device | The SIers and resellers serving enterprise security, infrastructure and data buyers, with the distributor's own engineers in support |
| Broadline distributors | DIS, SB C&S, TD SYNNEX | Tens of thousands of resellers, reaching the mid-market and regional Japan |
A vendor that needs to win Japan's largest companies will usually need the large SIers. A vendor aiming at the mid-market needs the reach of the broadline distributors. The right candidate is the one whose relationships match the tier your plan depends on, so the brief should say which that is.
What the best channel leaders do
The best channel leaders let the partner lead, and draw on the partner's customer relationships, but they do not leave everything to the partner. They stay involved in customer discussions, share responsibility for the deal, and put real effort into enabling the partner's sales and engineering teams.
Their main task is airtime. Large SIers and distributors carry many vendors, often several in the same category, so your product competes with others on the same price list for the same engineers' time. Channel leaders who win that competition usually do it through long-standing relationships and mutual respect built over years. In practice, that means:
- They are a named person the partner knows, who attends the partner's internal sales meetings and answers technical questions the same day.
- They win over the partner's engineers first, because in the value-added tier the engineers decide what gets recommended.
- They make the product easy to quote, with Japanese price lists, clear partner discounts and standard terms.
- They bring deals to the partner, because registered opportunities raise a vendor's priority faster than anything else.
Getting the brief right
A channel leader's track record should be judged on revenue sold through partners, not on the number of partners signed. Signing a partner is the easy part. The question for a candidate is which partners actually sold their last vendor's product, and why.
Frequently asked questions
Which partner relationships should a Japan channel leader bring?
It depends on the customers you need to reach. The large SIers lead to the biggest enterprises, value-added distributors bring engineering support into the enterprise channel, and broadline distributors reach the mid-market and regional Japan.
Should we hire a channel leader before a country manager?
The country manager usually comes first. The first leader often opens partner conversations before a dedicated channel hire is made. A vendor planning to sell only through distributors may need a channel-led first leader instead.
How do you assess a channel leader's track record?
We look at the revenue their partners actually sold, and at how they won airtime for their product against competitors on the same partner's price list.