Navigating the Channel – “All Aboard!” or is that “On-Board…”?
Tags channel partners, channel sales, it channel sales, ken beam, var channel, var productivity, var-city, varcity
Talk about missing the boat – a weak or entirely overlooked on-boarding process is close to an ironclad guarantee that your Channel will be a Titanic failure. Aaaarg!
On-boarding a new partner is not unlike ramping-up a new employee or salesperson. When someone joins your corporate team they’re expected to quickly get up to speed on everything from your product offerings to your culture and email etiquette. Yet many hours, resources and dollars are spent on finding and signing new reseller partners and little thought is given to getting THEM up to speed!?
You may be asking yourself – Ok, how is on-boarding different from ramping-up? You ramp-up an individual, you on-board an organization or group. Every member of the group (your new VAR partner) has a different skill set and is evaluated on a variety of performance metrics that are not necessarily aligned with your organization’s mission and goals.
Don't assume that because they have joined your partner community that they're ecstatic about a new set of tasks and responsibilities foisted on them by the executive management team - very likely they didn't know about their new duties until just before your call.
For your on-boarding process to be effective you need to address the job specific motivators of each of the key individuals who make up the new partner’s business development troika:
Study after study has shown that new partners are going to have their first success with an existing customer – someone easier to approach, someone who has business issues that the reseller is well aware of and someone who knows and trusts your new partner. Many of the common sales obstacles are instantly removed; their sales cycles will be less complicated and – most importantly, shortened.
What you will find with many SMB focused VAR organizations is a marketing team consisting of 1 very hard working but relatively inexperienced individual eager for your direction and assistance. When you approach them with your VAR Marketing Kit that includes virtually everything they need to deliver your message in several co-branded formats, announce the new partnership in a joint press release and initiate any number of ‘canned’ marketing campaigns, you have secured a trusted ally and champion.
New partners must be engaged within 1 week of signing the contract – any longer and all that was accomplished in the preceding weeks or months could be lost in disinterest and a return to their old daily habits – you need to insert yourself to be the habit breaker and keep their attention!
Now you need to bring the sales team/manager back into the picture to develop a mutually agreed upon Sales & Marketing Business Plan. This will be a collaborative effort that includes your new marketing ally, the VAR’s sales decision maker (or primary sales contact) and your Channel Manager.
A one year plan is good in theory, but rarely meaningful after the first 6-months. Take it in 2 quarterly bite size chunks and start off with your partner identifying each of their key personnel for training – isolate a date and reinforce how important it is that they not let these dates slip. The Channel Mangers’ MBO will not be compensated if the timeline is not met. MBO? Keep reading.
It’s helpful to establish Management by Objectives (MBOs) that compensate your Channel Manager for completing (based on strict time lines) the intermediate steps making up the on-boarding process. In the early stages of building a new partner channel there is little commission paid since sales will be slow without the targeted number of partners – MBOs encourage your Channel Manager to take the actions they need to take to create a profit generating partner ecosystem.
Lastly, have your partner list their Top 10 Targets in the Sales and Marketing Business Plan – 10 existing customers who are most likely to benefit from your product. Work through your opportunity strategy and list the next steps' tactics to engage immediately.
That’s systemized on-boarding!
In future pieces I plan to introduce my “E-Ticket to Channel Success” – the 4 essential characteristics found in every successful reseller program and result of a 25 year study, “Having fun with Channel Conflict” and “Partner Prospecting – Tips and Tricks”. Or, offer up some of your own.
All Aboard!
On-boarding a new partner is not unlike ramping-up a new employee or salesperson. When someone joins your corporate team they’re expected to quickly get up to speed on everything from your product offerings to your culture and email etiquette. Yet many hours, resources and dollars are spent on finding and signing new reseller partners and little thought is given to getting THEM up to speed!?
You may be asking yourself – Ok, how is on-boarding different from ramping-up? You ramp-up an individual, you on-board an organization or group. Every member of the group (your new VAR partner) has a different skill set and is evaluated on a variety of performance metrics that are not necessarily aligned with your organization’s mission and goals.
Don't assume that because they have joined your partner community that they're ecstatic about a new set of tasks and responsibilities foisted on them by the executive management team - very likely they didn't know about their new duties until just before your call.
For your on-boarding process to be effective you need to address the job specific motivators of each of the key individuals who make up the new partner’s business development troika:
- The marketing team
- The sales team
- The technical team
Study after study has shown that new partners are going to have their first success with an existing customer – someone easier to approach, someone who has business issues that the reseller is well aware of and someone who knows and trusts your new partner. Many of the common sales obstacles are instantly removed; their sales cycles will be less complicated and – most importantly, shortened.
What you will find with many SMB focused VAR organizations is a marketing team consisting of 1 very hard working but relatively inexperienced individual eager for your direction and assistance. When you approach them with your VAR Marketing Kit that includes virtually everything they need to deliver your message in several co-branded formats, announce the new partnership in a joint press release and initiate any number of ‘canned’ marketing campaigns, you have secured a trusted ally and champion.
New partners must be engaged within 1 week of signing the contract – any longer and all that was accomplished in the preceding weeks or months could be lost in disinterest and a return to their old daily habits – you need to insert yourself to be the habit breaker and keep their attention!
Now you need to bring the sales team/manager back into the picture to develop a mutually agreed upon Sales & Marketing Business Plan. This will be a collaborative effort that includes your new marketing ally, the VAR’s sales decision maker (or primary sales contact) and your Channel Manager.
A one year plan is good in theory, but rarely meaningful after the first 6-months. Take it in 2 quarterly bite size chunks and start off with your partner identifying each of their key personnel for training – isolate a date and reinforce how important it is that they not let these dates slip. The Channel Mangers’ MBO will not be compensated if the timeline is not met. MBO? Keep reading.
It’s helpful to establish Management by Objectives (MBOs) that compensate your Channel Manager for completing (based on strict time lines) the intermediate steps making up the on-boarding process. In the early stages of building a new partner channel there is little commission paid since sales will be slow without the targeted number of partners – MBOs encourage your Channel Manager to take the actions they need to take to create a profit generating partner ecosystem.
Lastly, have your partner list their Top 10 Targets in the Sales and Marketing Business Plan – 10 existing customers who are most likely to benefit from your product. Work through your opportunity strategy and list the next steps' tactics to engage immediately.
That’s systemized on-boarding!
In future pieces I plan to introduce my “E-Ticket to Channel Success” – the 4 essential characteristics found in every successful reseller program and result of a 25 year study, “Having fun with Channel Conflict” and “Partner Prospecting – Tips and Tricks”. Or, offer up some of your own.
All Aboard!
Total Comments 2
Comments
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Curious about "E-Ticket to Channel Success".
Will keep an eye on this.
Delia Ene
Avangate
http://www.avangate.comPosted 03-25-2009 at 05:44 AM by delia_ene 
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And, Yes Delia - we do take requests...
The first 3 parts of the "E-Ticket" have been posted and the remaining (4-5) sections will appear next week.
Thank you for reading my blog! KenPosted 03-26-2009 at 04:57 PM by Ken Beam
LinkedIn
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