The Millennial Report: What Does the Channel Mean to Millennials?

Before I started working in the IT industry less than two years ago, the concept of the channel wasn’t something I had ever encountered before. In fact, if asked what the channel was at that time, I probably would have ventured a guess about the English channel, or maybe even a technology-centric TV station.

And even though this might sound silly to many longtime channel experts, I don’t think my lack of awareness of the channel was unique to my situation—I would be willing to bet that most millennials are also in the dark in regard to the channel’s existence and how it functions. This will be an important hurdle to overcome if businesses want to reach new customers and attract young professionals, especially since the majority of the workforce will soon be dominated by millennials.

While it’s difficult to provide any tried and true methods for spreading awareness of the channel to millennials at large, I think it’s important to understand why the channel would be of interest to young professionals before we begin to ponder how to make it more accessible.

At its most basic level, the IT channel is no different than any standard supply chain—vendors sell products to specialized distributors, who then provide those products to resellers armed with unique skills and services to improve the value of said products and services. Even though customers can choose to cut out the middleman and buy directly from vendors, channel partners provide a valuable service by acting as vendor liaisons and providing technical support and mentoring.

So how does this process relate to millennials? For starters, millennials need expert services just like any other generation, despite our more advanced knowledge of IT. Very few of us can profess to be expert technology users, so having a trusted adviser is just as relevant to us as it is to a Baby Boomer or Gen X-aged consumer.

And for those of us who can claim to be tech gurus, acting as a channel partner provides allows millennials new ways to add something special to a popular product or service, thus creating more profitable opportunities outside of the initial vendor-to-customer sales process. If more millennials understood that the channel provides ample opportunities to piggyback on the success of big businesses, we would likely see a massive influx of value-added resellers, MSPs and CSPs looking to carve out a market for themselves.

If you want to bring awareness to the opportunities available for millennials within the channel, it’s important to make a conscious effort to bring on young professionals and to take the time to mentor them in your individual businesses. When attending conferences, take the time to seek out young professionals and start a conversation, and frame the conference in terms that are relevant to millennials whenever possible. And above all, remember to have patience with potential hires if they lack a proper understanding of what the channel entails—with a little training, you never know what kind of great ideas and suggestions these workers can bring to your business.

The Millennial Report is a weekly column by associate editor Michael Cusanelli, who graduated from Stony Brook University’s School of Journalism in 2012. He is an avid gamer and movie buff who spends nearly as much time concocting the perfect mix tape as he does writing. You can find him on Twitter @MCusanelliSB.