An article by Ben Wong
https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminwongvt/
Some of you may find this question rather rudimentary but I kid you not when I say that a friend of mine called me up last week to ask me, “Do channel organisations have plans that they need to create and execute so that the leadership team knows what is happening?"
https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminwongvt/
Some of you may find this question rather rudimentary but I kid you not when I say that a friend of mine called me up last week to ask me, “Do channel organisations have plans that they need to create and execute so that the leadership team knows what is happening?"
He asked me this question because his channel team did not seem to have any plans and were merely supporting the sales teams by maintaining a pool of implementation and support partners with the occasional opportunistic sale. This is a sad but true fact in many organisations.When business leaders are tasked with chasing numbers and meeting forecast commitments quarter on quarter, tactical sales is a method of choice. No wrong there, but without a scalable workforce, a business is not able to meet the growth demands that are in line with company objectives.
In developing and refining a framework that I have been using over the past decade, it has dawned upon me that a channel plan must have the following 3 basic steps.
Excitement - A channel leader must be able to excite a partner to want to know more about or continue selling products / services provided.
Enablement - A channel leader must be able to enable a partner (sales / technical) enough to know how and where to continually sell products / services in a solution where situations could be either complementary or competitive.
Engagement - A channel leader must be able to continually engage a partner to go-to-market, build a pipeline, work it through and win projects together.
This high level view of a channel plan has many consideration and action points under each of the steps above, and when coupled with a strict timeline / deliberate measurement / effective management, your channel organisation is set to be in a growth mode!
What does your channel plan look like? I sincerely hope that it is not a blank sheet of paper randomly stained with coffee!
The only way to scale is through leverage which lies within the realm of channel partners. In Asia, a customer’s relationship very often lies with the partners, therefore, it is critical that these partners are engaged beyond just a casual meeting over coffee, if one hopes to succeed. A concrete business plan that both parties work on together and commit to is a must!
If you fail to plan, you plan to fail!
In developing and refining a framework that I have been using over the past decade, it has dawned upon me that a channel plan must have the following 3 basic steps.
Excitement - A channel leader must be able to excite a partner to want to know more about or continue selling products / services provided.
Enablement - A channel leader must be able to enable a partner (sales / technical) enough to know how and where to continually sell products / services in a solution where situations could be either complementary or competitive.
Engagement - A channel leader must be able to continually engage a partner to go-to-market, build a pipeline, work it through and win projects together.
Go forth, multiply and grow!
This high level view of a channel plan has many consideration and action points under each of the steps above, and when coupled with a strict timeline / deliberate measurement / effective management, your channel organisation is set to be in a growth mode!
What does your channel plan look like? I sincerely hope that it is not a blank sheet of paper randomly stained with coffee!
Comments
Post a Comment