The most often asked question I get prior to a channel consulting engagement is “what do you think are the keys to growing channel sales?” The long answer requires a dive into the channel business which I’ll come back to at the end of this post. The short answer follows with these three keys to growing channel sales.
1) Increase velocity out of the gate: A common miss in the partner journey is not connecting the learnings from recruitment to partner sales. When a recruiter has profiled a prospect (partner profiling is a best practice) - they should not only deliver a wealth of knowledge about the prospect but should increase the velocity of partner productivity by fast tracking revenue opportunities through the partner via the partner sales team. The long held best practice in channel sales is getting partners productive out of the gate because they are much more likely to increase sales velocity and grow channel revenues.
2) Play the long game: Incentivizing your partners should be based on the behaviors you have already agreed to during your JBP sessions. Offering spur of the moment extra incentives or spiffs to reward partners for closing business at the end of a month to hit quota can jeopardize your relationships with your most consistent and top producers. A top partner may feel penalized if another partner who sucks most of the time happens to have great timing once and earns a spiff while the top producer misses out because they had one poor month. Focus on the long game and you will endear loyalty from your most valued partners.
3) Relationships do matter: Your PAMs and CAMs should be doing everything they possibly can to nurture their relationships with their portfolio partners. Do they know their birthdays? Do they know their favorite sports teams? What’s their favorite food? Have they documented all of this in your CRM? How often do they make in-person visits with their top producers – once a month/quarter? As I’ve stated in the key to driving channel resiliency partners do business with people and companies they trust which is why relationships matter and is the most resolute key to growing channel sales.
If you would like to dig deeper into understanding your keys to growing channel sales than please reach out to me for a free consultation and/or take this free channel health assessment TODAY and I'll provide you with the results in the next two business days.
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