Channel Management Excellence
Drive and grow thru-channel (direct or in-direct) revenue.Driving revenue directly or indirectly through a partner channel is hard. Whether your channel strategy includes resellers, system integrators, ISVs, distributors or any combination, effectively “managing” that channel requires operational execution excellence and a motivated team.
Traditional sales operations do not easily “transfer” into channel management operations, and traditional sales people are rarely effective as Thru Channel resources. As a result, careful planning, hiring and execution is required.
Our Channel Management Excellence (CME) solution includes helping you properly define your Thru Channel roles, develop or refine the required operational execution processes and metrics, raise the behavioral skill sets of your Thru Channel team, and develop the selling skills of resell partners.
Are your Thru-Channel resources – those responsible for driving revenue through a partner portfolio – clear on their role functions and accountabilities? Is their consistency in role understanding both deep and wide in the organization? Too often, valuable time and money are wasted on process and training projects that map to a disconnected, inaccurate, or ineffective perception of role accountabilities. In our experience, this is almost always the place to start a successful path toward channel management excellence.
Do your operational processes, tools, and organization structure support both the organizational goals and the functional realities of your Thru-Channel role accountabilities? Too often channel organization’s operational processes, tools, and organizational structure are designed and implemented by resources who don’t have a full appreciation for the nuances and complexities of the channel management role. The end result is a set of processes that are only loosely followed, a set of tools that are rarely used, and an organizational structure that breeds inefficiency. Channel management excellence requires an honest and holistic review of the channel’s processes, tools, and organization structure.
Are your Thru-Channel resources growing their respective channel businesses? Are they increasing mindshare and wallet-share in their portfolio while at the same time growing total revenues? Channel management excellence means shifting your Thru-Channel resource skills from account management and forecast collection to business development and growth advisor.
Are your partners selling and managing their own sales organization as effectively as they should? Is their pipeline coverage growing, their win rate rising, and their forecast accuracy improving? Are your Thru-Channel resources equipped to coach and mentor their partner sales people to higher performance? Channel management excellence requires that Thru-Channel resources drive and coach partner sales organizations to the next level of performance.
Is your team suffering from channel fatigue? Do they need a boost in morale, a vision of success to strive for, or some encouragement from someone who knows just how tough channel management can be? Every channel management excellence journey requires some level of outside team motivation to keep everyone excited and heading in the right direction.
Does your team need some third-party assistance on your largest or most complex or most challenging partner accounts? Channel Management Excellence requires that Thru-Channel resources know when to call in a third-party resource to help both vendor and partner arrive at a more effective business plan.
A Customer Success Story
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