According to research done by Aberdeen, one-third of companies use indirect sales strategies, remaining of them agree indirect sales have contributed to their annual revenue.
So, how about you? Are you able to generate additional revenue from your partners? Do you find your attempt paying off as expected?
It’s obvious, without a proper plan, you can easily fall that are not generating the revenue you desire. So, what’s the path to growth?
Following the six channel hacks, companies have found success. In this article, you will come to know how you can improve your sales efficiency, build a better brand identity, become the favoured product/service, and grow your sales.
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10 Tips to Help You Boost Your Channel Sales
1. Define the structure of your channel sales partnership
3 major structures channel sales can take –
- Sell via the channel partner :- for instance, an electronic store selling different brands of mobile phones can sell your mobile phone
- Sell with your channel partner :- when you package your products/services together, like a TV manufacturer partnering with a technician
- Channel partner selling on your behalf :- a scenario when an agency white-labels a software and adds their services to it
Define and implement this structure from the start and set the pattern and strategies for the partnership.
Do you want to sell your products/services through an existing channel partner that offers multiple products, in some cases even your competitor’s products/services? Do you want to sell and collaborate on deals? Or do you want them to do all the selling for you in a Whitelabel or limited sales capacity?
Thus, you can notice this sets the pattern for how you structure your channel partner program. Being transparent with this system from the beginning will help drive key decisions on how you go to market with partners.
We have noticed that companies that are not having a clear understanding often think about why they are not getting results from their efforts. When you do not have a clear understanding, you won’t be able to know what type of support to offer partners and how to set up your program.
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2. Create an attractive and compelling offer
It doesn’t matter how you are selling, you must have a compelling and attractive offer that your partners can bring to the market. You see, a sale is limited without an offer, cannot be made, or becomes more challenging.
The offer to your partners needs to be more attractive and compelling, but more importantly, the offer for the end customer must be tempting.
Buyers must see so much satisfaction and comfort that purchasing your product through your partner and from your brand is easygoing. Get this right, and your sales will accelerate and your revenue will grow!
What are you offering to your resellers, distributors, and other partners and is your offering important? Also, in return what are you expecting? Think about it and make provisions for flexibility in case anything changes in your industry or channel.
3. Routine Conversation with Channel Partner
When there is no clear and comprehensive interaction and if your channel partners rarely interact with you, this indicates that might not be as invested in the program. Chances are that they are also unaware of the latest news, product updates, and further strategic announcements. On your side, you might not figure out problems until they’ve waited for a while. In order to resolve such issues, try to maintain regular interaction with your partners. Try sending a periodic email, replying on social media platforms, and hosting meetings at your office whatever is required to do to stay in touch.
4. Utilize a Sales Channel Partnership Platform
Need to have a focus on scaling multi-channel businesses, it is necessary to keep data related to your partnerships organized can be a test. Utilizing a tool designed to maintain your channel data streamlined can be a supportive option. Such an option will not only allow you to maintain a track of revenue generated by your sales partners, but systematically increase your channel sales program.
A lot of time and energy needs to be invested to get a partner channel system up and operating. In any circumstance, if you require money sooner rather than later, try to focus on direct sales as for now.
5. Inspire Your Channel Sales Partner To Sell
In a crowded market, channel sales can be particularly challenging because you’re trying to motivate people over whom you have no direct control. If a regular salesperson falls short of their targets, you can work with them to improve or put them on a performance plan. However, if a partner isn’t selling your product, your options are limited, often leaving replacement as the last resort.
To encourage partners to sell effectively, it’s crucial to provide them with excellent resources that enable them to confidently promote your product. This support can make a significant difference in their ability to succeed in the market.
7. Set up channel sales
Your channel sales will increase if your partners have the resources and tools to effectively and smoothly tell your story and connect buyer pains to your product solution. This is your responsibility to provide these enablement resources. Without them, sales are not possible.
If your product’s selling process is too challenging and partners are finding it difficult to connect with the buyers’ problems to your products, sales will decline, and your competitors will take the majority of the market share.
To justify profits, would your channel sales partners choose your offer over your competitor’s? If you are not empowering them with prospecting tools, leads, marketing tools, sales intent data, and lead intelligence, partnering with you wouldn’t look attractive, compelling and promising.
8. Run an incentives program for channel partner
Even if you equip your channel partners with all resources they need to make sales, you still have to motivate them to make use of those resources. This will supercharge your channel sales efforts.
Provide exciting incentives to your channel partners if you want them to promote your campaigns and pursue sales goals with enthusiasm. For this purpose, there are different incentive types you can leverage. Go for what inspires top performance in your channel sales partners.
But this is not enough. Remember only a few partners drive the majority of your revenue. So, go to those top few partners and customize incentive plans that move the needle forward.
Be transparent and avoid creating a disconnect with your partners by making decisions behind closed doors. Connect with your partners, understand them well and what excites them, and use that to drive channel sales.
9. Enhance the resources of your product/service
Energy and time are the limited resource a partner dedicates to selling. The business a channel partner represents, each takes up a share of these limited resources. The goal should be to take a bigger slice of the resources to increase your channel sales.
We need to focus, on how we gain more resources. Make our product superior from other competing services/products that they may offer. We want to be connected fully with them, so how to do it?
Once you have frozen the incentives and sales enablement tools, the next step is to ensure that you have a connection cadence and good personal relationships to help your channel partners reach their targeted revenue. Absolutely, these are goals that finally align with your business goals.
Become their friend, ally, and supporter that provides strategic direction, and training and helps them overcome barriers to reach their goals while helping you reach yours. With more sales, get more market share.
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10. Set sales expectations
Zig Ziglar, an American author, salesman, and motivational speaker said, “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” Crisp and definite sales expectations, along with the KPIs to measure them, are important to the success of channel sales.
Whether you are aiming for a precise close rate or account growth percentage, establish that proper understanding so your channel partners can work jointly.
Normally, a common mistake that channel managers make is that they set goals but later on forget them. Due to this, they miss enforcing them and connecting those business goals to the buyers’ personal goals.
Therefore, to effectively win the game, along with setting the goals, we must also set the checkpoints and constantly support our partners through motivation, resources, and incentives to hit the mark.
