Sept/Oct 19 - ChannelVision Magazine

vendor sales engineer get involved? Frankly, what vendor would want to go through all of this if the partner wasn’t matriculated or enrolled? One way to understand if there is actually “enrollment” is to ask pointed question about working together. What services will you add to your portfolio? Are we replacing a vendor? Is this a new line of business? What customers of yours are seeking these services? Do you have a few customers in mind that we could call together? With enrollment you want to do a Fast 90. Fast 90 means in 90 days you want a deal inked, so that in- cludes sign the agreement, on-board, co-sell, get deal on books and cel- ebrate. There are hurdles to Fast 90 such as legal entanglements, sched- uling snafus and the sales animal itself, to name a few. Furthermore, if the partner com- pany does take on-boarding seriously, then there is a time factor in dedicating the employees to the training and pre- paring their own documentation. This likely will require a smaller on-boarding with key executives, who will then take it to the next phase. Channel manag- ers would want to know this phase in schedule. Vendor resources have to be allocated for this. On-boarding a partner correctly is a time consuming effort. Maybe the reason many half-ass the exercise is due to the lack of enrollment. Enroll- ment means they are with the pro- gram; they see the value. Many channel programs ignore things such as alignment and enroll- ment with partners for a number of reasons including the belief that the more the merrier. As the saying goes, even a blind squirrel can find a nut sometimes. That thinking works for network – or any replacement service – but not for complex services. With complex services – such as SD-WAN – the education is vital to success. The education only works if the part- ner’s team is interested (bought in). Listing features is boring and worth- less. Tie features to why people buy or how it differentiates your services from a competitor. Reiterating the value proposition is a way to stick into the minds of the partner employees. When partners are enrolled, ven- dors have a partner with a plan ready to get down to the business of selling. Enrolling partners means they are matriculating into the on-boarding program. It is harder to enroll than to sign up. There also are fewer part- ners willing to enroll, but if a channel manager can identify them, that’s where the gold is. o Peter Radiz- eski is president of RAD-INFO INC., a telecom strategy and marketing con- sulting agency. He is also author of five books and available to speak at your events on channel, market- ing, strategy or sales. His next book on the channel will be out by Christmas. channel management 27 September - October, 2019 | Channel Vision