In today’s business environment, one of the biggest challenges is to generate revenue by growing sales. Your salespeople only have so much time. Even if you hire the most focused people, invest in tools that boost their efficiency, and remove all distractions, there’s a limited number of selling hours in the day.
- What is a Channel Partner Program?
A Channel Partner is basically anyone who doesn’t work directly for your organization. Channel partners may be distributors, vendors, retailers, consultants, ETC. The Channel Partner is part of the vendor’s indirect sales force, meaning that they sell the products and services on behalf of the vendor but they are an independent company. Channel Partner Program is a strategy to motivate and engage channel partners to create more value for customers.
- Channel Partner as a Marketing System
Channel Partners are a great addition in your Marketing system. It refers to the methods used to promote your services sold by channel partners. Using them as a marketing system you increase your sales and benefits your company, your partners, and your customers. Creating a brand standard guide for your partners will help you boost sales.
- Channel Partner Model Development
- Stage 1 — Partnership: The highest level of interorganizational collaboration is a partnership. At this stage, both partners work together to develop common and joint business opportunities in areas that are new to both companies.
- Stage 2 — Collaborative: If two partners have collaborated successfully on a particular product or service, they may conclude that working together in the future would be efficient and profitable.
- Stage 3 — Enhanced: One partner recognizes it can generate more profit and client/customer interest by “enhancing” the base product or service from the other partner.
- Stage 4 — Transactional: This is a “buy from” and “sell to” relationship. One partner has an attractive product or service, and the other partner wants to buy it from them and resell it as part of their offerings.
- Responsibilities & Expectations
- Focus on customer experience and define all activities and categorize them.
- And here are a few things that you may expect from your partners:
- a) Channel partners will help you grow your business through sales and marketing activities.
- b) They must focus on the customer and deliver excellent solutions that deliver true value to the customer.
- c) They must be knowledgeable and constantly evolve with the market.
- Here are a few things that your partners can expect from you.
- a) Deliver pre-qualified leads
- b) Deliver professional & knowledgeable support during pre- and post-sales process.
- c) Deliver education programs that help the partner to understand the possibilities.
- Customer-Centric Channel Partner Process
Customers now know about your solution. So now what? Enforcing a customer-centric strategy can be the answer for you. But in order for it to be your ace in the hole, Partners need to be aligned, cooperative, and transparent. You need to understand the entire buyer journey for the customer and design a sales process.
- The Benefits of a Channel Sales Model for Organization
Creating a Channel Partner Model is like organizing your partner relationships. It is an alternative to the direct sales model in which you work with various third parties. It is one of several ways to accelerate growth by increasing sales and productivity. Advantages of a channel relationship is the administrative support it offers.
- Building A Partner Road-Map
Manage a capacity planning model and use partner scoring to maintain the right mix of partners. Road-map lays out the path and measures for all your activities. Roadmap is a practical guide to help you navigate the creation of your plan. It will lay out the steps required to build a solid foundation for a successful partner program. Help you on what to prioritize to achieve the greatest gains for you and your partners
- Do you need help?
Do you also want to make your business successful by having Channel Partner model? Do you need our help? You too can take a step forward. Contact us for more information.
