The E-Ticket to Channel Success – Part 2
Tags channel partners, channel sales, it channel sales, ken beam, var channel, var productivity, var-city, varcity
EASE
The reseller’s sales people are the ones who make the magic happen – not the people you negotiated the reseller agreement with, they’ve moved on to running the business again and will monitor the progress from their high perch.
That front line sales person is very likely overburdened with other products and a hefty quota. The other products they already know, the relationships are in place and the daily working routine has settled into a weary 10 plus hours…not counting weekends.
At this moment in a new partnership you can be seen as someone who has come along to disrupt their processes and carefully managed drudgery; or, a beam of light to shine the way out of their security rut with a helping hand to lift them up.
And, always remember this – they had plenty to do before you came along and they don’t work for you. That doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t love working with you if it improved their lives in some job related way. Another way to look at it is they are one of your company’s best customers because they keep coming back and buying more and your job is to make it easy for them to do that.
Here are some things (a short list) you can do to win their minds and hearts:
Remember, yours is not the only product they sell and - they’re coin operated.
Summary - A VAR salesperson will almost always ‘lead’ with the product that makes their life easier! And, will always avoid recommending products that stretch the sales cycle or make their lives more difficult.
The reseller’s sales people are the ones who make the magic happen – not the people you negotiated the reseller agreement with, they’ve moved on to running the business again and will monitor the progress from their high perch.
That front line sales person is very likely overburdened with other products and a hefty quota. The other products they already know, the relationships are in place and the daily working routine has settled into a weary 10 plus hours…not counting weekends.
At this moment in a new partnership you can be seen as someone who has come along to disrupt their processes and carefully managed drudgery; or, a beam of light to shine the way out of their security rut with a helping hand to lift them up.
And, always remember this – they had plenty to do before you came along and they don’t work for you. That doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t love working with you if it improved their lives in some job related way. Another way to look at it is they are one of your company’s best customers because they keep coming back and buying more and your job is to make it easy for them to do that.
Here are some things (a short list) you can do to win their minds and hearts:
- Hand feed them their first deal – a “blue bird” to get them started and place their technical folks into a project to reinforce their certification training.
- This is an investment and a lever
- Sales and Marketing Business Plan that focuses on 5 pre-qualified customers and partner with them throughout the close and implementation – develop your team and mutual trust in a winning scenario
- Always be one phone call close and email responsive
- Show them that you will be the first responder when they have a choice of products they can recommend in a sales or RFP opportunity – Pretty soon they’ll default to you and your products
- The VAR salesperson will always lead (when asked for recommendation) with the product that is the easiest to sell – your nurturing support is one factor that figures highly in that perception
- Pick out the VARs weakest sales person and take them under your wing – they will welcome any opportunity to save their job. The #1 sales person won’t have time for you
- VAR Sales and Marketing Kit (Marketing campaigns In-a-box)
- Preprinted Co-brandable marketing collateral
- Leverage their expertise with your product’s matching case studies
- U.S.P.S. postcards with call to action
- New partnership Press Release and related “Introduction Special”
- List rental service and marketing call center (co-opt funds)
- Provide Newsletter ‘expert’ subject matter
- Well managed Channel Conflict resolution – better yet, avoid it all together
- Opportunity Registration for greater discount and protected account status
- This is a good management tool for you because it uses a carrot approach to get them to provide their pipeline activities and get you involved earlier in the cycle
- Rapid response pre/post sales support
- Simple process for Proof-of-Concept
- Aggressive competitive pricing consideration
- Another reseller (of your product) is not a competitor
- Corporately promoted “Demand Generation” marketing (P/R) programs
Remember, yours is not the only product they sell and - they’re coin operated.
Summary - A VAR salesperson will almost always ‘lead’ with the product that makes their life easier! And, will always avoid recommending products that stretch the sales cycle or make their lives more difficult.
Total Comments 1
Comments
-
Add-on to campaign in a box
To increase MDF/Coop utilization, try doing all of the "campaign in a box" legwork upfront and make it where all the sales rep has to do is say yes, I am ready to go with this campaign. This includes creating the campaign/campaign pieces, defining the list and identifying MDF/Coop funds that already exist that can be used.
Vaughn Aust
www.hawkeyechannel.comPosted 12-02-2009 at 04:10 PM by vaust 
LinkedIn
RSS