CHANNEL STRATEGY · PARTNER PERFORMANCE · CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
Your strategy isn't the problem. Inconsistency is.
Stores, dealers, inside sales and digital can each do their job well and still produce inconsistent results. The problem is usually in the system around them: different standards, conflicting incentives, weak hand-offs or support that doesn't reach the front line. I help find the gaps and fix what sits behind them, so every channel can do what it does best while the customer experiences one brand.
25+ years
building consumer sales channels across Canada.
2,500 people
across seven channels as SVP Channels at TELUS.
700 locations
corporate and dealer at The Source.
712 locations
Rogers, Fido and chatr, corporate and dealer.
THE PROBLEM
Channels don't stall for lack of effort.
Most channel problems get diagnosed as a people problem. More training. A new rep. A sharper sales contest. Sometimes those help. But when the same problem keeps showing up, I look at the system around the people: what they are being asked to do, how they are rewarded, and whether the tools and processes make the right behaviour easier.
Misaligned incentives
Compensation, MDF and targets can reward one channel for winning at another's expense. If the system creates a conflict, the customer eventually feels it.
Broken trust
When partners don't understand the rules or don't feel supported, effort drifts toward what feels safest rather than what creates value.
If the problem is in the system, fix the system. That is the work.
Operational friction
Lead routing, order changes, and hand-offs create friction. Each issue can look small until you add them up across the customer journey.
THE RECORD
Built from inside the channel
Everything I bring to an engagement comes from running these channels myself, not advising on them from a distance.
TELUS · SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, CHANNELS · 2005-2012
An integrated national multichannel network
Led TELUS' industry-leading multichannel strategy: one national network of corporate stores, independent exclusive dealers, national retailers, online, outbound call centres, MDU and door-to-door teams, with 2,500 people. I reset the basis for competition around the quality of TELUS' channel partners, and built every channel to deliver the same client experience.
Annual sales growth of 8% to 20%. Sales, churn and operating expense targets consistently met or exceeded. Team engagement among the highest in the organization.
What it taught me: seven channels can deliver one brand.
CLEARNET → TELUS · 1999-2004
Took a six-month-old program of 30 kiosks and built it into an award-winning national retail chain. Distribution points up 76% on 80% of capital plan. Churn down 57%.
Proves: a channel can be built to keep a brand promise from day one.
WOW MOBILE BOUTIQUE · 2015-2018
93 locations carrying six wireless brands, run by an outsourced operator without big-company infrastructure. Sales up 60%. EBITDA up 300%. Customer LTR of 92%.
What it taught me: you understand partner performance differently when you have lived with the economics yourself.
THE SOURCE · 2013-2014
700 locations: 550 corporate stores and 150 dealers, with more than 3,000 people. Wireless sales up 13%. Residential services up 86%.
What it taught me: accountability for sales travels across ownership models.
ROGERS · 2018-2021
712 Rogers, Fido and chatr locations: 362 corporate stores and 350 dealers, with more than 3,000 people. Sales productivity and customer satisfaction up 20%.
What it taught me: one standard can hold across three brands, and across channels you control and channels you only influence.
See the full record
Four places channels break
Every channel problem I have worked on traced back to one of four places. The Channel Diagnostic looks at all four, because the symptom usually shows up in one and the cause sits in another.
Channel strategy
Market coverage, the role of each channel and the go-to-market model. Understanding why your customer shops each channel, and using what makes each one different.
Partner performance
Dealer, retailer and operator economics. Incentives, MDF, trust and support. Partners grow when the system makes growth feel fair, simple and safe.
Customer experience
Standards that deliver your brand promise in every channel, and a journey between channels with no friction at the hand-offs.
Sales productivity
Recruitment, onboarding, training, CRM and lead management, and a performance cadence that makes results predictable.
Why an operator, not a consultancy
Most channel advice starts with a framework. A team arrives, studies the business, benchmarks it, makes recommendations and leaves a deck. There is nothing inherently wrong with that. It just isn't how I work.
This isn't a report you file and forget. Changing how a channel works takes time because incentives, standards, relationships and habits don't change overnight. The Diagnostic gives you a clear starting point before you decide how far to go.
I have run the channels you are running: corporate stores, exclusive dealers, national retailers, call centres, online and door-to-door, often several at once. I have also run the partner on the other side of the table. I know what it feels like to be accountable for the number, and what it feels like to be accountable to a brand whose decisions affect your economics.
And I do the work myself. The person who works with you to understand the problem is the person who stays involved in fixing it.
It fits organizations that sell through two or more channels, where results vary between channels, regions or partners, and the reason for the variance isn't clear.
Start with the problem. Go further when the evidence says you should.
Each engagement is built around your channels, your data and your customers. There is no licensed playbook and no off-the-shelf answer.
START HERE
THE CHANNEL DIAGNOSTIC
Two to four weeks. One-to-one conversations with leaders, sales teams and key partners, combined with a hard look at the data you already collect. You get a clear picture of what's working, where performance varies, what is getting in the way and where value is being lost between channels—plus practical actions you can take immediately, whether or not we work together again.
CORE ENGAGEMENT
CHANNEL ALIGNMENT
Three to nine months, phased. Redesign the system around your channels so teams and partners are working toward the same customer and business outcomes: channel roles and coverage, compensation, MDF and recognition, partner standards, support and the management cadence that keeps it moving. Hands-on through implementation, not a report on a shelf.
TARGETED WORK
JOURNEY & CONVERSION
Scoped to the problem. Map the funnel from first contact to active customer, find the fallout at each step, and close it: lead routing, follow-up, hand-offs, installs and sales team productivity. Often, these are the places where relatively small changes can have a measurable impact.
I've been the brand, and I've been the dealer
Twenty-five years building and running sales channels in Canadian telecom and retail. Senior Vice President Channels at TELUS. Senior Vice President Sales and Operations at The Source. Senior Vice President and Managing Director of the WOW Mobile Boutique partner network. Vice President Branded Retail at Rogers. Teams of up to 3,000 people across as many as 712 locations. It started in 1999 with 30 Clearnet kiosks, no retail experience and a brand promise worth keeping: "The future is friendly." Keeping that promise in every channel has been the work ever since.