Nov 20, 2007
Channel Tips
Partner Management: Where the Rubber Meets the Pavement
By Greg Nutter
Over the past few months we’ve talked about the first three foundational phases of developing a reseller channel: program definition, partner recruitment, and program launch. If we’ve done all of these things correctly then it’s time to sit back and begin reaping the rewards: a fully functioning, cost effective, revenue driving sales channel – well, not quite.
While managing and growing a channel is dramatically easier and much less expensive if you invested in getting things right on the front-end, now comes the important day-to-day activities which are critical to delivering the payoff. So what’s channel management all about? As Kenneth Rolnicki explains in his book ‘Managing Channels of Distribution’, “Your primary job is to achieve a disproportionate share of your distribution channel’s resource commitment". Let’s talk about a few strategies to help you realize this.
There are four key elements to managing a channel to success:
1) Performance Management
Sales performance management involves much more than product training and quarterly spiffs. It requires training, mentoring, and support on how to prospect and sell your products effectively and efficiently. Many suppliers miss this key fact and incorrectly assume that if the reseller knows enough about the product they’ll know how to sell it. Beyond mentoring and support on the selling process, you’ll also need to have regular activity reviews just as a manager does with a direct sales rep. These monthly or quarterly reviews consist of a structured communication about the pipeline, sales strategies, action plans, and support requirements. Performance management done properly will enable the reseller to become progressively more successful. Done poorly, revenue won’t flow and you’ll incur the cost of having to directly manage many of the deals yourself.
2) Relationship Management
Another mistake a lot of suppliers make with their channel is they expect the partner will sell simply because of the revenue opportunity you’ve given them. The reality is that, in most cases, they have LOTS of revenue opportunities and yours is just one of them. So if you want to achieve that ‘disproportionate share of their resource commitment’, you’ll need to do things differently from their other suppliers. Two bits of advice:
· Treat the channel as a partnership versus a transactional relationship: This means collaboratively developing strategies and actions that enable both parties to meet their corporate goals. Too often, suppliers develop their plans, revenue goals, programs, and policies in a vacuum and expect the channel to simply comply because they have no choice. Resellers tend to react very poorly to changes that are forced upon them because those changes often impact their business far more than the supplier anticipated. Partnerships require a level of communication that transcends product and pipeline and goes well beyond wining, dining, and other schmoozing activities. To do this effectively, senior management must periodically participate in a business-level dialogue with the partner to ensure the parties’ goals and strategies are maintained in alignment.
· Strive to be ETDBW: Often, dealing with a supplier can be like dealing with the phone company – lots of time on hold and even when you get to speak to someone, they either don’t understand your problem or can’t help you with it. As F. W. Taylor once noted, “Life which is one continuous struggle with other men is hardly worth living". Being ‘Easy To Do Business With’ is the cornerstone of successful channel management and requires a culture to be flexible and channel management with the authority and resources to resolve issues rapidly.
3) Program Refresh
Reseller partners normally don’t blaze new trails but, instead, take your product to their existing customers and markets. To get them to make the journey more than once, you’ll need to give them something new to say. This means the marketing programs and tools you gave them at launch must be updated regularly with new what’s-in-it-for-the-customer messages. Be careful that you don’t over do it – the channel can only absorb so much new information at a time and will start treating your programs like SPAM if there’s too many of them. An ideal schedule is to have one or two message rollouts per year.
4) Continuous Improvement
No one gets their channel program perfect on the first go-around so being attentive to where you could make improvements is critical. Observations and feedback from the day-to-day management often suggest the need to make changes in the recruitment or launch (and sometimes even program definition) phases of your program, so you’ll need to setup processes to capture, review, and incorporate that intelligence on an ongoing basis.
Putting this all together requires people who possess a combination of management and selling skills, plus a high degree of finesse. While it doesn’t happen over night, building and maintaining a high performing sales channel can be a significant enabler towards taking your company to the next level.
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Greg Nutter is a Principal with Soloquent Inc. (www.soloquent.com) where he helps technology companies develop go-to-market strategies, programs, and tools that increase indirect and direct sales performance. He has over 25 years experience in sales, sales management, and channel development in the HVTO industry.
Got a comment, got a question, got a problem? Send Greg a note at greg@soloquent.com
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