Partnering with the Channel Only for Sales? You’re Doing It Wrong.
Occasionally Allbound invites guest bloggers to contribute to our Partner Sales Acceleration conversation, and today’s blog post is from Brian Jambor, Director of the Certified Partner Program at Yodle. Does the phrase “What have you done for me lately” sound familiar? Many sales executives, channel managers and even partners reference sales they brought in last month, last quarter, or last year as a reason you should provide them with preferred pricing, include them in a higher performance tier, or approve their marketing development fund (MDF) proposal. This mentality also creeps into partner account manager (PAM) conversations where your PAMs are continually asking more out of each partner with little (sometimes no) additional investment back into the partnership. Your channel then turns from partnership to dictatorship where you’re demanding performance with little incentive outside of the margins you provide back to the channel. In business, you should never compete on price alone. The same can be said of the channel, you should never motivate on margins alone. Here are several ways you can partner with your channel to increase the value you mutually receive: Content Creation Your marketing department craves new content. Your channel wants to get in front of your customers. Have your content team create a content submission process and give your channel the opportunity to provide blog posts, ebooks, white papers, videos, and more. Customer Retention You likely have a retention or customer loyalty team. If they’re offering additional customer support or consulting for free to keep the customer,…
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