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.
Member Challenge
- Channel/routes to market goals are undefined.
- No accurate self-assessment of internal partnership go-to-market capabilities.
- Lack of a channel sales partner evaluation tool/framework.
- Lack of buyer channel preference and unknown requirements for channel partnerships.
- Channel marketing, sales, and customer service programs lack clear metrics to assess channel partnership success/failure.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- As a software company leader, choosing the right channel partner or partners may be one of the most important decisions you make to drive growth, scale, and future success.
- However, that success is not guaranteed. The competition for channel partner mindshare has never been higher, as leading providers such as Salesforce and Microsoft actively recruit thousands of new partners each year.
Impact and Result
Requires a self-assessment of your company to identify what is needed to select a qualified channel partner against business goals.
- Uses a channel partner evaluation framework to assess channel partners’ strengths and challenges.
- Delivers prioritized good-fit channel partnership candidates for products, services, or sales.
- Enhances your skills using modern processes and data science to shift your knowledge from guessing to fact-based partner decisions.
Research & Tools
| Name | Actions |
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1. Choose the Right Channel Sales Partner Storyboard – Through a self-assessment process, determine what types of channel sales partners are suitable for your company’s needs.
Using a nimble approach to evaluate partnerships, you can select the kind of partner(s) that best enables your sales strategy.
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|---|---|
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Choose the Right Channel Sales Partner Storyboard
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2. Choose the Right Channel Sales Presentation Template – This template will help you understnad the process, milestones, and research to determine the right channel sales partner.
A best-of-breed template to help you build a clear, concise, and compelling strategy document.
| Name | Actions |
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Choose the Right Channel Sales Presentation Template
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3. Choose the Right Channel Sales Partner Workbook – An efficient and easy-to-use diagnostic interview guide of your channel sales capabilities and your goals that identifies foundational gaps.
An efficient and easy-to-use diagnostic interview guide of your channel sales capabilities and your goals that identifies foundational gaps.
This workbook helps you research and prioritize which partnerships will be the right fit for your company’s goals and capabilities.
| Name | Actions |
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Choose the Right Channel Sales Partner Workbook
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Onsite Workshop: Choose the Right Channel Sales Partner
Onsite workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost onsite delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Do-It-Yourself Implementation
The slides in this Best Practice Blueprint will walk you step-by-step through every phase of your project with supporting tools and templates ready for you to use.
Project Accelerator Workshop
You can also use this Best Practice Blueprint to facilitate your own project accelerator workshop within your organization using the workshop slides and facilitation instructions provided in the Appendix.
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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