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When it comes to MDF, waste not want not

Launch International Managing Director Eric Nitschke wrote a guest editorial about Market Development Funds in CRN Magazine in November 2004:

Every year, 25 percent of the $1 billion in MDF available to the channel goes unclaimed and is added back to the bottom lines of vendors and distributors, according to estimates from CMP Media. How does that make you feel? If you're frustrated but don't know what to do it about it, you're not alone.

Vendors and distributors don't like wasting that money because it indicates that their programs are not as valuable or complementary as they should be. Certainly they need to know if you're not finding value in their programs, but let's leave that challenge for 2005. Your immediate marching orders: Claim the MDF you have accrued in 2004 and save it from reabsorption on January 1.

Be sure to check it out!