“So…why are you talking to my customer?”
Have you ever gotten that from an account rep? Or their boss? Or their boss’s boss?
Aren’t we all trying to sell the customer the same thing? It makes us wonder what happened to this account rep that made them feel so threatened.
According to the State of Partner Led Growth Report 2023, “Partners drive a tremendous amount of revenue for organizations, but they have always been secondary in the go-to-market strategy.”
Maybe this has something to do with it?
Selling in the Channel
Companies conduct business through resellers, partners, distributors, and any avenue that helps to grow their business. The points of differentiation across managed service providers (MSPs), network service providers (NSPs), global systems integrators (GSIs), and regional systems integrators (RSIs) and how they impact buyers can be nuanced. However, by working in the channel, a vendor “can tap into a [partner’s] existing customer base and reach new markets they might not have been able to access on their own. [Partners] also have the ability to localize sales and marketing efforts better to match the needs of their specific customer base.” 1
Any company doing business in the channel should understand this and provide focused training and enablement, legal agreements, pricing with margin, service agreements, programs that drive revenue, and strategic alliances.
But where does trust come in?
Actions Speak Louder Than Words
Every year at annual sales kickoffs, sales leaders deliver rousing speeches about all the ways that they’ll support their teams and partners. But then what? Their following actions should inspire those in attendance to think, “Wow, I really trust that these people have my back!”
Unfortunately, next steps are often inconsistent, and chances are, someone in the audience brought an account to the manufacturer to sell direct, and they are only attending out of duty.
To avoid such losses, it’s essential to set expectations for engagement. Easier said than done, right? There are steps a company can take to build a foundation of business principles within the channel.
Action 1 | Set Clear Rules of Engagement
Set the stage. For example: Here is where we play, and here is where we expect you to play. This approach may go beyond the typical alignment strategy of partner and target accounts, but it lays the groundwork for trust.
Rules of engagement address channel notions of resell vs. direct sell, services strategy (does the business need to contract services work to partners to scale), and field engagement (remember the why are you calling my account scenario?).
Specify requirements and incentives upfront.
While having a sales certification training requirement for sales reps and channel partners can lead to a reputation for being hard to work with, knowledge is power.
- Consider offering self-paced training with a curriculum that includes how to quote, how to identify opportunities, and request for proposal (RFP) training and support
- Deploy a sales support chatbot
- Offer incentives to partners who attain and maintain certifications
- Automate renewal notifications for certified reps
Action 2 | Make Programs Profitable + Simple
Everyone is in it for the money, so a five percent margin to the partner is not going to cut it. Yet, a pricing model that has wider partner margins but is complicated and prone to error is a lose-lose. A company can have the best margins for partners across the industry, but when a product is complex to quote, reputation suffers. Sales slow.
Deal registration with explicitly outlined terms and conditions can provide the transparency and trust a company needs to grow its partner relationships. There should be nothing to hide when the goal is to get revenue in the door.
- Has to be X in licensing / consumption
- Verified by account/territory rep
- Has to close in X days
- Can be renewed with approval request and validation
- If it goes to RFP, can qualify for additional discounts/rebates contingent on meeting licensing/consumption threshold
- Company brought in to initial meetings/demo
- Renewals are not eligible
- Must meet contingent licensing/consumption X amount more than greenfield requirements
- Renewals
- Any deal with an existing direct customer
- Existing RFP that is already out for bid
Action 3 | Build Trust with TIME (Tactical Investments in Meaningful Engagements)
Once partners are onboarded, the leaders should continue to work to build a solid and successful partnership. This requires time from all stakeholders (executives, account reps, technical resources)—both time for knowledge sharing and meeting milestones.
Outline clear and actionable steps for moving ahead. Establish structured benchmarks to ensure everyone understands the resources and support available and foster mutual accountability and progress.
Does this path include a metric to qualify for allocated marketing funds? How can partners forecast their pipeline, resources, and marketing efforts to hit certain milestones? Trust comes from when companies invest in joint business planning, establishing and agreeing on sales and marketing goals, and mapping out support and escalation paths.
- Relationship getting another layer deep with exec meetings + networking
- Sales teams meet and account map
- Pricing review and partner set up for quoting (if buying directly)
- Coordinate and schedule all training for first 90 days
- Tech orientation (help desk, escalation paths)
- Press release announcement of partnership (if that is your thing)
- Partner Marketing plan created and shared
- Both company and partner introduces the new relationship internally
- Enablement sessions begin – both technical and sales resources begin interacting, teaching, idea sharing
- Account mapping stage 2 of joint calls/meetings/pursuits
Develop joint KPI tracking for marketing initiatives
- Initial joint QBR to align on overall performance and keep leaderships on both sides engaged (and schedule the next one too)
- Partner pursues company’s time
- Company cheerleads partners efforts
- Road shows
- Lunch and learns
- Workshops
Ongoing Action
Any business should always prioritize creating value for customers and its channel partners.
Revenue will come—and grow—by maintaining these priorities. And building trust through clear rules of engagement, transparency and simplicity, and time spent supporting partners will lead to valuable long-term alliances, not just reseller transactions.
- Hub Spot, The State of Partner Led Growth, 2023
