Choose the Right Channel Sales Partner
Poor channel partner selection can spell disaster. The right approach includes realistic self-assessment and an effective partner evaluation framework to find complementary candidates.
RETIRED CONTENT
Please note that the content on this page is retired. This content is not maintained and may contain information or links that are out of date.Your channel partnership largely depends on what value you are building for your customers. For that, you need to identify and define the type of partners relevant to your business and choose the best among them and stop: lncreasing the number of partner relationships based on anecdotal evidence, guesswork, and biases to identify partner targets .
- Changing sales partners for short-term gain.
- Wasting significant resources on activities that don’t align with your strategic sales goals or your stakeholders’ expectations.
- An unstructured approach that can lead companies to under-investigate potential targets and result in missed sales opportunities.
To find the right channel sales partnership, your partner strategy must have an internal self-assessment and an external partner evaluation framework to verify that the business, its market environment, and its assets are in a state that is consistent with the financial and strategic value that the organization has put upon it.
- Essential to improving and maintaining elevated levels of revenue growth, and expansion of your sales organizations.
- Focused on delivering timely and quality partnerships for products, services, or sales to your customer’s business value.
- Understanding that partner value metrics vary by industry and SaaS/software solutions.
- Know that a channel partner is any company or organization that can help you deliver more value to your customer.
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Module 1: Align the Team, Identify and Document Channel Strategy
The Purpose
Self-assessment of your channel strategy.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Lay the foundation to implement a successful channel sales strategy with measurable results.
- Create a targeted channel sales partner and a measurable partner pilot.
| Activities: | Outputs: | |
|---|---|---|
| 1.1 | Identify team members, roles, and responsibilities. |
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| 1.2 | Establish timelines and project workflow. |
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| 1.3 | Modify and document your self-assessment questions and answers against your channel sales strategy. |
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| 1.4 | As a group, review your self-assessment questions and answers, and summarize and modify your partnership criteria. |
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Module 2: Validate Initial Insights, Identify Partnerships and Market View.
The Purpose
Learn to get better results from your channel sales strategy by assessing the maturity of your channel sales marketing organization.
Key Benefits Achieved
Increase the speed at which you evaluate and select channel sales partners that correctly fit your organization.
Reduce the risk of selecting the wrong indirect sales partners, and select the right set of channel sales partners who will help you scale sales and accelerate your growth.
| Activities: | Outputs: | |
|---|---|---|
| 2.1 | Identify potential partnership types by market segment, region, and industry based on your self-assessment and objectives. |
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| 2.2 | Hear from industry analysts their perspectives on the potential sales partnerships, their competitors, buyer expectations, and market trends. |
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| 2.3 | Establish channel partnership criteria and scoring attributes. |
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Module 3: Schedule and Hold Potential Partner Interviews.
The Purpose
Step-by-step research and interview guidance to interview your potential partners for your channel sales strategy.
Key Benefits Achieved
Reduce the risk of selecting the wrong indirect sales partners, and select the right set of channel sales partners who will help you scale sales and accelerate your growth.
| Activities: | Outputs: | |
|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | Hold partnership interviews and use scoring criteria as a guide (over four weeks). |
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| 3.2 | Hold a review session after initial three or four interviews to adjust the approach or criteria. |
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Module 4: Summarize Findings and Provide Actionable Guidance to Management.
The Purpose
Align stakeholders on an overall program of identifying target partners, building a shared understanding of what constitutes a qualified channel sales partner.
Key Benefits Achieved
Reduce the risk of selecting the wrong indirect sales partners, and select the right set of channel sales partners who will help you scale sales and accelerate your growth.
| Activities: | Outputs: | |
|---|---|---|
| 4.1 | Review all draft partnership findings against the scoring criteria to rank. |
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| 4.2 | Review to Finalize Channel Partner Strategy Plan with Management for approval view. |
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| 4.3 | Approach the final selected sales partnership with a proposal. |
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