While many companies are looking to third-party distribution channels to grow their market reach in 2012, lack of partner mindshare could be a road block to fully taking advantage of this growth opportunity.

We know that selecting the best-fit partners is paramount in starting an indirect selling relationship off on the right foot. But even with the right partners, companies often fail to achieve long term success…because they focus only on their needs rather than those of the channel partner and end-customer.

One area where this is especially evident is the creation of new sales messaging, collateral, and support tools for partners.

While most of us have shifted our sales message and support tools for direct reps to focus on customer needs instead of product features and benefits, many have not taken the final step to fully incorporate this new messaging into partner support resources.

If we’re providing our partners with only product-focused collateral, we’re leading them into missed opportunities, lower margins, and as a result, lower mindshare.

So, why is the sales support and tool creation process breaking down as your sales message moves closer to the end-customer? Read More »

For companies that sell indirectly, mitigating risk in today’s environment is a key concern. One way organizations can do this is to ensure that company resources are only being invested in the right channel partners who exhibit long-term, relationship, and growth-focused behaviors.

But how do you properly incent these behaviors and determine who the right partners are to reward?

Companies often evaluate partner performance by simply measuring volume-based metrics. But as popular as this approach may be, it fails to capture how the partner is producing business and ultimately fails to provide insight on the nature of the relationship with that partner. As a result, companies may find themselves wasting resources on channel partners that do not warrant them. Read More »

By Kirsten Robinson

Indirect selling can be a great source of growth and additional revenue for organizations. But, most companies are still uncertain about how to do a better job of driving the right channel partner behaviors in a way that aligns partners’ sales abilities and incentives with their own long-term strategies.

And, given an unsteady economy, it comes as no surprise that channel partner organizations are risk adverse when it comes to making investments in rep development that don’t provide immediate positive results.

The good news is, with proper support and management, you can forge a better partnership…one that drives the right channel partner behaviors and increases partners’ emphasis on rep development.

At SEC, we’ve found that there are four key principles important to effective indirect channel management: Read More »

Whenever I speak with companies that sell through the indirect channel, one of the questions I’m most often asked is about the channel manager role. Because it’s undoubtedly become one of the more complex roles in a sales organization, Council members are always curious to discuss the job description, key competencies, and main activities of the individual who manages your channel partner relationships.

And though there’s not one magic, all-encompassing channel manager job profile I’m able share, a member in the High Tech industry recently summed up the role with this quote, which I thought was right on point:

“Channel managers are the inflection point. You can have the best channel partner program in the world, but at the end of the day, your channel managers are where the rubber meets the road.”

In fact, channel managers’ ever-expanding responsibility set requires them to act like “mini-General Managers.” They have to navigate their own organization, the channel partner’s organization, and at times the end-customer’s organization. And within each of these groups, the channel manager must interact with multiple stakeholders from sales support, marketing, finance, procurement…the list goes on.

Given the importance (and complexity) of the role, here are some of the trends that have begun to emerge about the indirect channel manager:  Read More »

Show of hands… How many of you see your good channel partners (you know, those who achieve certification and continually invest in your partnership) receive the same rewards as your not-so-hot channel partners (those who never complete training and constantly strain your supply chain with inaccurate forecasts)?

As much time and effort as companies spend on selecting the right channel partners, few have managed to establish a performance measurement and incentive process that actually reinforces desired channel partner behaviors.

Why is this?

Well, chances are, what you ideally want out of your channel partners is directly at odds with what your channel partners want from you. So then, how do you actually motivate channel partners to act in accordance with your – the supplier’s – strategy?

Companies often make the mistake of evaluating partners’ performance using primarily volume-based metrics. While simple to track, these metrics do not provide much insight into the quality and profitability of deals closed or partners’ dedication to your company.

Instead, performance measurement programs should incorporate both volume- and behavior-focused metrics so that you can track how partners are producing business, not just how much.

You should aim to have objective, uniform metrics that measure the performance of both yourselves and your channel partners against the strategies and plans you both previously agreed upon. Both suppliers and partners need to clearly understand the other side’s expectations of their performance.   Read More »