Channel sales can give some great benefits – if it’s done right. To make it easier for you to succeed, we’ve gathered 5 easy steps to drive channel sales results.
Having a strong channel-sales strategy is absolutely vital for reaching results with an indirect sales model. It can help you tap into new markets, expand your customer base and increase revenue substantially. The question is how to create a strategy that gets results, and make sure that your channel partners can and will sell your product successfully.
5 steps to great channel sales
1. Build strong partner relationships
A successful channel-sales strategy starts with strong relationships. It is not about having the most channel partners, but choosing those that you think will work well – and whose values resonate with yours. This can give you a solid starting point for a successful collaboration where mutual trust and understanding grows by the day.
Of course, to nurture this trust and build a mutual partnership, it is super-important to communicate continuously and set goals together. Remember, you and your partners are in it to win it – together. Something that requires a constant dialogue and shared visions.
2. Offer substantial training and support
Empower your channel partners with the knowledge and tools they need to effectively sell your products. Here, you’ll need to give them substantial training sessions that cover things like product features, benefits and unique selling points. On top of that it’s important to provide marketing materials, product guides and sales collateral that make their job easier.
If you can also find a good way to share this material – and keep it updated – you can have an easier time enabling and empowering your channel partners. Where SP_CE could help by giving you a digital room to share with your channel partners. A digital room that you can fill with training, marketing and sales content, and where you can automatically keep all content updated.
3. Have incentives for channel-sales partners
Incentives are important to maintain channel-partner engagement. Design an incentive structure that rewards them for their efforts and achievements. This could be commission-based compensation, performance-based bonuses or even recognition programs. When partners see a direct connection between all their hard work and the rewards they get, they are more likely to prioritize promoting your products over others.
That said, it is vital to remember that incentives are not the only way to engage channel partners. By keeping the dialogue open, continuously sharing more material, having frequent interactions and making it easy to work with your product, you can drive channel-partner engagement to another level. Something that our own SP_CE platform can actually help with, too.
4. Use the available tech
In our digital age, tech tools will obviously play a large role in your channel-sales success. By finding the tech tools that will help you share training, marketing and sals material, tools to engage and drive a strong relation and tools that can help you track results, you will have an easier time getting your channel strategy to perform. Whatever tools you ultimately choose, be it SP_CE or something else, it is crucial that they allow you to both enable and engage your partners – and continuously check your traction on different markets.
5. Regularly Evaluate and Adapt
Speaking of, if you can find a tool that lets you track how channel partners are doing, you will be able to make truly data-driven decisions. Which, in turn, will make it much easier to evaluate your channel partners and adapt accordingly. Perhaps you see that your product performs better on a certain market, that end customers are more thrilled about one part of your product offering or that a certain partner type delivers the most value. Facts that you can use to make better decisions and adjust your strategy as you go along.
Oh, and before we forget, this is another thing that you can do with SP_CE.
With SP_CE you can control partner interactions and maintain your message and compliancy at each step of the way. Our platform gives you
- 1 central, digital room that your partner can share with customers – filled with the right product message and material. Material that you can keep automatically updated through a robust version control.
- 1 room to collaborate with your partner and keep them active with regular updates. Making sure your partner isn’t just enabled but also engaged.
That way, you and your partners get the ultimate conditions to succeed. Read more about SP_CE for partner enablement here, find more information in our Channel Sales FAQ – or contact us to see how SP_CE can boost your partner sales.
