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Channel Tips:

2007 Channel Success: What You Need To Do NOW!

By Greg Nutter

It’s December and most vendors are focused on closing those final year-end deals. Understandably, reseller activities are mostly about asking which deals will close and what help is needed to get them. However, while channel success requires year-round effort, what you do over the next few months has the greatest impact on whether your 2007 channel performance is a success or just more of the same. So you need to start NOW!

Dissatisfaction with reseller performance normally falls into one of the following categories:

1)                 I don’t have enough resellers

2)                 My resellers don’t sell enough

3)                 Reseller channels cost too much

As Einstein was fond of saying, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. Surprisingly, this is exactly what many vendors do and each December they bemoan another year of mediocre channel performance.

This week we’ll explore the first problem and tackle the others in future columns.

I Don’t Have Enough Resellers

There are four stages involved in building successful partner channels:

1. Program Definition
2. Recruitment and Contracting
3. Program Launch
4. Program Management

When vendors don’t have enough resellers, the problem is often related to the Program Definition or the Recruitment and Contracting stage or both.

Program Definition is where vendors strategically define their partner program. Missteps here cause all kinds of problems downstream. Properly answering these important questions heavily impacts recruiting success:

Ø       What markets do we want to reach?

Ø       What does the customer require for a whole-product?

Ø       How will we handle channel conflict?

Ø       What are the roles, responsibilities, and expectations of each?

Ø       What’s the business model? How will you and your partner make money on the investments you both need to make? Is it enough?

Once your program is defined you begin Recruitment and Contracting. This stage involves both tool development and operational execution. Here are the minimum tools you’ll need:

1. A partner profile – what does your ideal partner look like?
2. The message – what is the compelling reason for a reseller to partner?
3. Basic selling tools – at minimum, you’ll need a presentation, an opportunity brief, and a partner agreement. These provide details regarding the market opportunity, the investment, and the return.

Once you’ve built your tools it’s down to sales 101 – you’ll need to generate leads, manage sales cycles, and close deals just like you are selling your product. One of the biggest mistakes is treating this as a part-time or ad-hoc endeavor. Part-time partner recruitment is about as successful as part-time selling – it might work for Avon or Amway but it won’t work for complex offerings.

So what should you be doing right now if you want more resellers in 2007?

1. Revisit your Program Definition – are changes needed?
2. Look at your partner profile and message – are you targeting partners who will respond to your message and see value in your program? Is your message clear, compelling, and differentiated?
3. Look at your partner recruiting tools. Back-of-the-napkin opportunity briefs don’t cut it any more and they say lots about the vendor’s ability to support the reseller. Now is the ideal time for a refresh.
4. Decide how you’re going to resource the recruiting effort. Someone with executive level selling skills must lead the effort and be able to allocate dedicated time. If you don’t have the resources in-house, look at contracting with someone who can provide added bandwidth.

January through April is the best time to approach channels with new products. However, there’s lots of competition for good resellers and most will shy away from vendors who don’t appear to have their act together. You’ll need a good story, good tools, and capable execution. And now’s the time to start.

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 selling performance. He has over 20 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 gnutter@soloquent.com

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