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Do you do a business review with
your partners? If you answered “no,”
you are in the majority. “What is a
partner business review?” might be
your next thought. A partner business
review is when the channel manager
has a discussion with the partner
about business – theirs, hers, ours.
The channel manager would
need data on the following: num-
ber of quotes, percentage closed,
top vendors, contracts expiring
and such. This data will lend itself
to conversations on: How can we
improve the closing ratio? Who are
you primarily using for VoIP, coloca-
tion, etc.?
Of course, the question that this
leads to is: How can we get more
of your business? This could be
coached better with wording such
as: How can you and I do more
business together? To be fair, this
might stump a partner.
Or it may lead to discomfort be-
cause the partner could be unhappy
with you. Another way to put it is as
follows: Is there anything preventing
us from doing more business? That
leaves it open to discuss any past
wrongs or even anything that bothers
the partner. But it begs many ques-
tions: Is the channel manager ready
to hear it? What response should the
channel manager give? How much of
that conversation should be shared
up the chain of command?
Most companies would welcome
the feedback and dialog. How much
of that feedback channel executives
could act on is another story. There
are a number of areas that partners
would find troublesome, including
poor status communications for or-
ders, commission mistakes, horrible
installations, migration troubles and
unresolved billing errors.
I have even heard of agents
who won’t do more business with
a master agency because they felt
underappreciated. No red carpet,
not enough hugs, I guess. No way to
know without an honest dialog, when
all parties are being upfront and
working through hurdles.
The channel is a relationship
business. Having at least an annual
review could be a way to build on
that. The channel also is the sole
source of revenue for many agents.
What partner wouldn’t want some
data on his carrier interactions?
What you can measure, you can
manage, said Peter Drucker.
Giving an agent data on expiring
contracts (along with contract recast
provisions) is a chance to reduce
churn. It also can be an upsell op-
portunity. Some recast moments are
blocked by the revenue decline of In-
ternet pipe pricing. Today, you have
to head into those discussions trying
to either increase the size of the
pipe, so that the contract revenue
remains the same, or layer managed
services (such as DDoS blocking or
DRaaS) on top of it. This can all be
discussed during a review call.
By
Peter
Radizeski
channel
management
Key Communications
The importance of partner business reviews
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Channel
Vision
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September - October, 2016