Sept/Oct 19 - ChannelVision Magazine

Your Main Role is Enrollment By Peter Radizeski Enrollment consists of commitment, alignment and, yes, even partnering. One definition of enrollment is “matricula- tion,” the process of initiating attendance to a school. When recruiting partners, the act is similar to matriculation. You want to enroll them in your program – not just ink an agreement but join with purpose. There needs to be investment on both sides. During the on-boarding pro- cess, both the partner and vendor should be following an on-boarding process. How does that work? On the partner side, there should be a plan to add the vendor’s services to the portfolio; edu- cate the employees about the vendor’s services and value proposition; and pub- licize the compensation model for sales. This seems like a lot – and it is. It re- quires planning, time and effort from the partner to not just ink an agreement and file it but to think through what customers the new vendor will fit, how employees with learn about it and if the compensa- tion model will change any to reflect the new vendor agreement. This is enroll- ment and on-boarding at a high level. On the vendor side, the on-boarding is an educational exercise to not only explain the services and value proposition but also to determine what type of customers to target and how to position the services in the market. Vendors usually do a good job with the services description but do little in terms of positioning and targets. Vendors shouldn’t forget the sales process either. What does the process look like? Is there deal registration? Who performs the demo? When does a C hannel managers have big quotas and a host of responsibilities. Today, let’s tackle recruiting. Ultimately, recruiting boils down to enrollment. Are you enrolling your partners? Or are you signing them up? There is a difference. channel management 26 Channel Vision | September - October, 2019