ChannelVision September - October 2016

87 / 92

The expiring contract discussion
can be used to jump into a discussion
about other customers coming out of
contract that are not currently in your
CRM. One way to help the customer
when the carrier will not write down
the contract recast revenue is to
move them to another carrier. Not ev-
eryone agrees with bouncing around
carriers, but if it is in the customers’
best interests, it’s what an agent
should be looking to do.
Part of that business review with
a carrier would include this issue of
revenue right down at recast or, in the
event that it had to be done, carrier
switching. I have had to have that dis-
cussion a couple of times. Never fun,
but if you can’t have an open dialog
about these business matters, what
kind of relationship do you have?
For newer partners, another ques-
tion to ask is: How do you want to com-
municate? We have so many avenues
of communications: email, phone,
video, text, IM, Slack, Skype, etc. What
is the partner comfortable with?
Further along that path is how
much interaction do you want to have
– or how do you want to be man-
aged? Partners aren’t employees, but
there are responsibilities around quot-
ing, training, co-selling, order status
and even bill collection.
After all of that, you need to flip
the conversation around to the part-
ner’s business. What certifications
do they have? Who do they sell to
primarily? How do they sell? What is
their primary business (especially for
VARs who may have a business mod-
el wrapped around Cisco or Dell or
someone)? The more you know about
your partner, the more you can do.
For example, a fine question would
be on how can I help you fill out your
security solution? Do you offer data
storage or backup?
There are so many products and
services available to sell from a vari-
ety of vendors that it is hard to keep
abreast of it all. That is part of the
review process. That is part of the
channel manager’s duty to introduce
new services that can complement a
partner’s business model. It is how you
get more mindshare.
“Mindshare before market share,”
says Beth Comstock.
Peter Radizeski,
President of RAD-INFO
INC, started as a VAR,
then became an Agent.
Now he writes about the
channel and the tele-
com space while consulting to service
providers and occasionally still selling
some circuits.
channel
management
netcarrier™
telecom
EARN UP TO 3X MRC!*
AIM FOR THE TARGET
nCloud PBX:
MRC <$500 = 200% MRC
MRC >$500 = 300% MRC
$100.00 VISA debit for every qualified demo
nCloud PBX Equipment Bonus
Lease or Purchase = 5%
VOICE PRODUCTS:
(PRI/Digital/SIP/Analog
access not included)
MRC <$500 = 100% MRC
MRC >$500 = 200% MRC
855-NCLOUD4
*Contact your channel manager for terms and conditions
DATA PRODUCTS:
Internet Port = 100% MRC
nCloud Ethernet over Copper Access = 100% MRC
nCloud Ethernet over Fiber Access =100% MRC
nCloud xStream (Fiber Optic Broadband) = 100% MRC
87
September - October, 2016 | ChannelVision