Start seeing X improvement in your Y

A support statement of your value proposition. Entice your visitor to complete your cta.

Example CTA

Paul DeMore

Blog Feature

Categories: Partners  |  Sales Leadership  |  Sales Productivity  |  Scaling Sales

How to Increase Revenue with Channel Partners

A channel program is an effective way to increase your capacity and expand market share, helping you reach your growth goals faster. When executed well, your channel program will decrease the cost of a sale, improve reach into new markets, and grow overall seller capacity without increasing internal headcount. However, backing your program with the right resources will be critical to its success. To expand market share, you'll need Productivity x Capacity to drive growth. A robust channel partner program will take focus and attention to develop both sides of this equation. For today, we'll set aside the capacity piece of the formula and dig into the actions leaders can take to boost productivity from channel partners. Increasing Channel Partner Productivity When it comes to channel sales, your ability to control the sales process is limited. You have to accept that your partner controls the time frame, message to the customer, and, ultimately, your forecast. What you can control is the tools you provide to help that partner sell your solution. It's important to put time and resources into helping your channel sellers understand your company's value and differentiation as well as your internal revenue teams do. Successful channel execution starts with clearly defined practices that drive bottom-line impact. Five steps to secure channel partner success: 1. Ensure that your company's message and your partner’s message are consistent Driving consistency between your organization's message and your partner's message is critical to align with your customer's buying process. The amount of digital content available today means customers are educating themselves about your offerings prior to any conversation with an actual salesperson. If your partner's message is misaligned with your content, you could miss opportunities to move good deals forward. The best channel enablement programs equip their partners with the ability to communicate their value proposition and give them the ability to answer essential questions on their behalf: • What problems do we solve for our customers? • How do we specifically solve these problems with your solution? • How do we do it differently from the competition? • What is our proof? These questions are simple, but the answers typically are not. Most companies don’t have internal alignment on these questions. If you asked executive leaders in your company these four questions, how much would their answers differ? Align internally on the answers, and then make sure your partners are aligned in the same way. Does your message support the channel buyer’s journey? Can your partners execute that message? Do their marketing materials, sales tools, and presentation decks all have that same unified message? 2. Educate the partner community on the critical skills to be successful in today’s markets Your partners won’t be successful in selling your solutions if they can’t effectively execute in front of the customer. Secure a plan to make sure that every person selling your solution can execute these three critical sales skills: 1. Uncover customer needs by executing an effective discovery session 2. Articulate value and differentiation in a way that has meaning to the buyer 3. Position and negotiate value, preserving margin and avoiding price cuts 3. Implement and inspect what channel leadership adopts in the field Ensuring that your channel leaders are driving enablement and adoption in the field will help produce greater success rates. Just as you do with your internal managers, make sure you provide the how, not just the what. Give partners the tools and processes that help drive the right behaviors and coach them on the desired sales motion. Actions like pre-call planning, asking deep discovery questions and role playing all help increase transaction sizes across the board. 4. Arm partners with competitive intelligence to accelerate the sales process How does your solution differ from the competition? How is that differentiation tied to what drives value for your buyer? Provide partners with competitive information that outlines how your solution is: • UNIQUE — your competition doesn’t have the same features or capabilities • COMPARATIVELY DIFFERENT — features or capabilities that are similar, but are delivered in ways that are more valuable to the buyer • HOLISTICALLY BETTER — qualities about your company that would mitigate risk in the buying decision (e.g., years in business) 5. Provide the channel with proof points that demonstrate your success Customer testimonials are an asset to any sales conversation. Providing tangible and consumable points of reference on the results your solution provides will strengthen your message and put evidence behind your claims. If your solution saved another customer X% of revenue, then that’s valuable information for a channel partner to have. Develop a way for channel partners to easily tap into case studies, testimonial quotes, and proof points for use in their own sales conversations.

Read More

Blog Feature

Categories: Economic Change  |  Partners  |  Sales Leadership  |  Scaling Sales

3 Steps to Develop Your Channel Partner Program

Channel organizations are an often overlooked, but critical component to increasing market share for complex B2B sales organizations. During my time as VP of PTC’s Worldwide Channel Program, I leaned on a core formula: Productivity x Capacity = Growth. In this article, we will focus on capacity, but stay tuned for part two in this series for the other side of the equation: How to Increase Channel Partner Productivity.

Read More

Subscribe to Our Blog

Get the latest tips and advice delivered right to your inbox.

Blog Feature

Categories: Sales Messaging  |  Sales Transformation

Three Important Factors to Drive Measurable Results in Your Channel Organization

A channel program is an effective way to increase your capacity and expand market share. However, without putting resources behind enabling this avenue for revenue, you’ll likely do more harm than good. To garner the many benefits that come from a robust channel program, you need to put the time and resources into ensuring your channel sellers have the same understanding of your value and differentiation as your own field or inside sales teams.

Read More

Blog Feature

Categories:

How to Define a Success Profile for Your Channel Partners

The expression I like to use about partners is that they’re not like your children, they’re like your neighbor’s children. You don’t have the authority to discipline them or to hire or fire their sales reps. Instead you have to coach and develop them as best as you can to help them drive results that will move the needle. This reality is a challenge – why should your channel partners listen to you?

Read More

Blog Feature

Categories:

Five Best Practices That Increase Revenue Out of Indirect Sales

A channel program is an effective way to increase your capacity and expand market share. However, without putting resources behind enabling this avenue for revenue, you’ll likely do more harm than good. To garner the many benefits that come from a robust channel program, you need to put the time and resources into ensuring your channel sellers have the same understanding of your value and differentiation as your own field or inside sales teams.

Read More

Blog Feature

Categories:

The Critical Sales Skills Your Indirect Sales Organization Need

In complex sale organizations, the indirect sales team is often an afterthought. The Direct Sales organization is typically the focus of enablement dollars and training. However, the power of the channel comes from your ability to get the mindshare of the partners. They need to have the same understanding of your value and differentiation as your direct team. In addition, they need to be able to articulate those points in a way that's relevant to the buyer.

Read More
Sales Pro Central