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channel management
The first line of offense in your program is your
channel manager. When was the last time you trained
them on more than a product? These people are the
conduit to your company for the channel. Many are the
only interaction that both customers and partners will
have with your company. Don’t you want to invest in
them? Invest in your employees with some personal
development or sales training. If they are recruiting
partners, shouldn’t there be some training around mis-
sion, partner profile, message and more?
It isn’t about more traffic to the funnel; it’s about
better traffic – more qualified traffic – in the funnel.
Next it is about increasing the close ratio. Target and
message better; then close more. All are skills that
can be learned and improved with some training.
The tech industry is seeing more com-
panies that have only two sales channels
– indirect partners and online. In several
cases, the inbound leads are being fed to
the channel partners. This is a no-brainer
for a channel partner. “You are going to
give me leads? And no channel conflict?
Yes, please! Sign me up!”
Even hosted VoIP companies are
starting to feed leads to channel partners.
How would a VoIP company that doesn’t
offer leads compete? There are so many
hosted VoIP providers in the U.S. that
any advantage is needed. That can be a
higher SPIFF or providing leads.
GENBAND has a marketing automation
program (called the Channel Marketing and
Management Platform) that is powered by
Zift Solutions to assist partners in promoting
GENBAND-powered technology and ser-
vices. This system consists of customized
collateral content that GENBAND created,
social media syndication, email campaigns
and analytics. The partners have to upload
their lists to the system and the rest is au-
tomated. This will help partners with lead
generation. It isn’t as easy as handing them
leads, but it is much better than no help with
lead generation. (This program allows GEN-
BAND to control the message as well.)
Another program element is co-
selling. Telcos (most notably Qwest,
Verizon Wireless and AT&T) have gone
through periods when co-selling with
direct sales reps and channel partners
was encouraged. (There were also
periods where it was not allowed.) Co-
selling can be an expensive prospect
(paying two sales reps for each order).
This is a rather directed approach
to sales however.
Four Tips to Improve Your
Channel Program
W
ith the addition of more than 600 vendors
to the channel (yes, more than 600 vendors
in the last four years have launched a
channel program of some kind), it might be time to
tighten up your channel program.
By
Peter
Radizeski
Channel
Vision
|
May - June, 2017
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