ChannelVision Magazine July-August 2016

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customer, we would need to configure
our product portfolio and delivery mech-
anisms for the SI to ensure the SI is in
compliance during product delivery.
No. 4: Always ask
for feedback
Constantly solicit feedback from
your distribution partners and, most
importantly, listen to it and incorporate
it. Ask how the selling is going, wheth-
er they think the relationship is suc-
cessful and how it could be improved.
The answers will vary, but any
and all feedback is valuable. For ex-
ample, a partner may say you need
to improve your products because
customer demand is decreasing, or
that technology has moved beyond
the old value proposition. This sounds
negative, but you should look at this
as a positive – this is a way to always
make better products and improve
customer satisfaction. We’ve gotten
some of our best feedback from the
field on ways we can improve our
products and services and, many
times, those recommendations make
their way into product updates.
Alternatively, any negative feed-
back might reveal that you have not
provided key information – a specific
tool or proper training during a techni-
cal enablement. You then can take the
opportunity to retrain and re-engage
with your partners and improve their
knowledge and understanding of the
product. In the Vision Solutions part-
nership survey, almost nine out of 10
respondents (89 percent) indicated
that when selecting partnership pro-
grams, technical pre-sales and post-
sales support was either “very impor-
tant” or “important.”
Remember, the sellers in the field
are a valuable resource and have the
power to help you improve anything
from product development to delivery
mechanisms. Partners often want to
give that feedback and soliciting and
utilizing it is one of the greatest ways
a manufacturer can maintain its rele-
vance, demonstrate its commitment to
its partners and evolve as a company.
Successful channel partner pro-
grams are about more than just con-
tracts and handshakes – they’re about
creating value. While you depend on
partners for your own profits, you also
need to ensure you are always mak-
ing your partners more successful with
their own customers as well. If you do
this, you’ll make yourself so valuable
to your partners that they can’t be suc-
cessful without you.
Chris Cleary is senior vice presi-
dent of Double-Take global sales
for Cleary can be
reached at
channEL
MANAGEMENT
70 CHANNELVISION | July - August 2016