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Once you have that message down pat, the recruit-
ing of partners becomes simpler. Do you hit this market
segment – yes or no? How many customers do you have
in this segment? Easy.
It is uncommon to have a written procedure to bring
a partner on-board a channel program; hence, why the
on-boarding doesn’t lead to a Fast 90 sale. There are a
number of elements that may be left out, including edu-
cation on the product portfolio, business outcomes and
sales triggers, where the provider fits in the partner’s
business, sales procedures for quoting and ordering,
and how the partner will drive sales or go to market
with the vendor’s products.
The Fast 90 needs to be as smooth as possible;
otherwise the partner may get a bad taste in his
mouth that never goes away. The channel manager
should have follow-up emails and calls with the part-
ner after on-boarding to stay in front of and work
the hottest prospects with the partner.
Many agent agreements get signed in order for the
partner to get paid on a single sale that is in the fun-
nel. You would like there to be more than one prospect,
but there you have it. The channel manager will want
to watch that first sale to see how and what the agent
does. The channel manager would like to be more in-
volved in the sale, but may not have the chance. To get
to the Fast 90, the channel manager should explain the
closing percentage when she is involved.
All of this is to drive the partner to a sale in the first
90 days. While capturing the immediate attention of the
partner, it will also establish the relationship and rap-
port between the agent and the manager and the agent
and the vendor. By closing a deal that fast, the agent
also gets to see the internal process of the order, as well
as what deployment looks like. Trust is an issue that will
crop up (as fear), but transparency about the process,
install, deployment may alleviate those fears.
Hopefully, the time from ink to customer billing isn’t
like a fiber construction project that can lag for 120
to 180 days. That will not help the Fast 90 effect from
taking hold, whereby the partner will put your prod-
ucts in front of more prospects. The real thrills are the
contract ink and the commission checks.
When the commissions are low because the aver-
age sale is low, the excitement wanes as well. Noth-
ing like jumping through hoops to sell a $310 cable
bundle to get a whopping $31 commission. Or worse,
selling a sub-$100 conferencing deal or similar that
will result in less than the cable deal. The ticket items
should have a frictionless sales process in order for
the partners to still feel some excitement.
It can’t always be frictionless, but as close as possi-
ble is nice. The Fast 90 can turn a partner into a brand
ambassador – someone spreading the word about
your product and program to other potential partners.
Word of mouth is gold. The on-boarding, the messag-
ing and the communication are key elements in taking
a partner from ink to commission in 90 days.
p
Peter Radizeski is President of RAD-INFO INC, a
telecom consulting firm in Tampa Fla.
Source: Cloud Technology Alliance
Source: Spiceworks
Perceived risk of network-connected endpoints in 2016
Lapt ps (Company-owned/BYOD)
Desktops
Smartphones (Company-owned/BYOD)
Servers/server rooms
loT devices
Wireless access points
Tablets (Company-owned/BYOD
Routers/switches
81%
73%
70%
49%
49%
47%
42%
38%
(Percentage of IT pros who selected “moderate” or “high” risk)
Source: Spiceworks
Top actions taken to protect against threats
0
20
40
60
80
100
0
20
40
60
80
Innovation technology
Strong market demand for their solution
The vendor only sells through the channel
The vendor makes its partners responsible for renewals and upsells
The vendor provides leads
The vendor offers good margins
The vendor has dedicated partner management resources
The vendor offers incentives for deal registration
The vendor’s sales team is paid on channel business
Availability of a “reseller console” to manage customers’ deployments
Lucrative add-on professional services
Rank how important the follwing aspects of a vendors’s channel program are when you evaluate a
potential partnership
Extremely
Very
Neutral
Not really
Not at all
25%
50%
75%
100%
Updating hardware / software
Enforcing end-user policies
Educating end users
Restricting or managing access to corporate resources
Learning about n w threa s / risks
Monitoring network activity / identifying patterns
Evaluating new / additional solutions
Restricting BYOD
76%
73%
72%
69%
66%
61%
60%
52%
It is uncommon
to have a written
procedure to bring
a partner on-board
a channel program;
hence, why the
on-boarding doesn’t
lead to a Fast 90 sale.
16
THE CHANNEL MANAGER’S
PLAYBOOK