Channel Tips

 

Take the Microphone

Share Your 2007 Channel Success Strategies
 

By Greg Nutter

 

Back in December, we started a discussion on how Q1 offers the greatest opportunity to positively impact channel performance, particularly when addressing major problems such as not having enough resellers, poor sales performance, or high channel support costs. First quarter is over and now we want to hear from YOU about your strategies to make 2007 more successful. To kick things off, I’ll tell you a bit about what I’ve been doing.

 

Channel Intelligence Enables Better Investment Decisions

Near the end of last year, one of my clients was putting together their 2007 plan and wanted to select the best investments to make in their reseller channel. Problem was that everyone they asked gave them a different answer. Since I’m a great believer in the adage that “whenever you’re not sure what to do, you probably don’t have enough information”, we decided on a research project designed to uncover a wide range of channel perceptions and requirements. By polling field reps, sales managers, marketing managers, and others responsible for driving sales performance, we captured a great picture of what was needed to help the channel be more effective. Good information drove good decisions on what kinds of programs, tools, and activities were required to kick up performance.

 

Driving Program Adoption

Last year I worked with a European software company in developing their marketing messages and sales tools for their US resellers. Unfortunately, resellers often won’t use new tools until they see them in action with real customers. True enough, usage was spotty and without the new tools, sales performance was sure to suffer. To address this problem, our 2007 Q1 initiatives involved a variety of customer engagement programs where resellers were invited to participate. After seeing first-hand how customers responded to the new tools, getting the resellers to dust them off and put them to use was a much easier proposition.

 

Focusing the Message: Maximizing the Impact

One of my clients decided to take a bold approach this year by narrowing their marketing message to target a specific business application. Many technology vendors prefer the shotgun approach where they claim their product is the technological equivalent of a Swiss Army Knife.  Even if true, this kind of marketing and sales approach doesn’t resonate well with most customers because, without a strong business focus to your message, all you can talk about is the technology – and technology by itself is simply a commodity. To support this new approach, they invested in a couple days of information sharing and brainstorming which helped to generate a much clearer picture of the overall business value their solution offers. Delivering clear and focused messages on business value is what sells technology and this new approach will help them cut through the competitive clutter and score big with customers.

 

Ready, Aim, Fire Approach to Channel Development

Another technology company I’m working with had recently acquired the source code for a software application from its original developer. While the product had a great deal of synergy with their existing products, they felt that they could get better sales scalability by marketing the product through third party resellers. Problem is, there are lots of different resellers focusing on different customers, markets, and technologies and not all of them were going to be successful with this product. So, rather than making significant investments in recruiting, contracting, and launching any reseller who came their way, they took a more strategic approach. By first analyzing the product features, existing customer applications, and their own go-to-market capabilities, we’ll be able to select one or more ideal target markets. These target markets will then be used to develop a profile of resellers with the greatest likelihood of success. Performing this upfront analysis will save the additional time, cost, and aggravation that comes from signing up the wrong partners and lead to a much faster return on their channel investment.

 

Now Let’s Hear from YOU!

What kinds of programs, tool development, activities or strategies related to improving the performance of your direct or in-direct sales channel have you deployed this year? Send me your ideas (greg@soloquent.com ) on how you’re helping your sales force be more successful and we’ll put you in the spotlight. Don’t want the competition to know your plans? No problem. Just let me know and I’ll describe your activities but keep your identity confidential. And to make it worth your while, I’ll send you a $25 Starbucks gift certificate if I publish your story. So fire up those keyboards and share the good news!

 

 

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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 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 greg@soloquent.com

 

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