RTM: I suppose industry verticals is one approach.

“Local dealers just become passive takers of business.”

RW: Yes, but only if your product really will appeal to a specific vertical market.  At mobile-telephone network provider One 2 One we did identify different vertical markets for which we produced tailored offerings, and that worked.  And we treated the product magazines as another vertical market to aim for.  But the segmentation was as much to do with attitude types as anything else. 

RTM:  For me, channels are vital for SMBs.  I remember my own experience.  I went from buying the lowest-cost PC I could from the lowest-cost supplier.  It cost me thousands in wasted time.  Then we started buying from local dealers.  The first one was incapable of networking the PCs and so after four or five years we eventually discovered a dealer with the technical competence we needed.

But it took me that long to work out the real time costs of what looked like cheap solutions.  I also know that I was positively put off by the idea of buying brand names, as I considered them more expensive.  So brands didn’t work for me.

RW: Yes, they did.  You were simply buying the "local brand" and service.  Channels have a hugely important role in providing the sense of being a local brand.  It can make the brand relevant to you.

RTM: Yes, I was fascinated by Vodafone’s approach, which was to get its dealers together and unveil different tariffs and offerings.  Vodafone would then tell its dealers "we think that this solution will appeal to companies which have remote sales forces or who operate warehouses, etc."  And it would end by telling its dealers to identify the companies at local level who were in those industries.