Bringing Collaboration Back Into Your Channel Sales Ecosystem
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There is one word in the English language that so simply, elegantly and accurately describes the essence of indirect (or partner, or channel) sales alliances, and that’s collaboration. Collaboration is a process that involves multiple people or organizations working together to realize a shared goal. Collaboration is the cornerstone of any successful partnership, and yet in modern sales ecosystems, it often falls to the wayside, despite our best intentions. Join Allbound's Jen Spencer and Lucas Gerler for this 30-minute, fast-paced, highly tactical webinar to learn how to bring collaboration back into your channel sales ecosystem and start better engaging with and empowering your channel partners.
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Bringing Collaboration Back Into Your Channel Sales Ecosystem
- 1. WEBINAR Bringing Collaboration Back Into Your Channel Sales Ecosystem @goallbound #NeverSellAlone
- 2. Jen Spencer Director of Sales & Marketing jspencer@allbound.com @jenspencer Hey! It’s nice to meet you. • Former Educator • Likes the Color Pink • Travelin’ Fool (# I💙SWA)
- 3. Hey! It’s nice to meet you. Lucas Gerler Strategic Partner Sales Exec lgerler@allbound.com @TheeLucas • Struck by Lightning … Twice • Pets = Kids • Lifelong Student
- 4. Today’s Agenda • Knowing Your Channel Sales Reps • Delivery • Channel Advisory Boards • Partner Connection • Q&A
- 5. #NeverSellAlone Many existing partnerships don’t work because suppliers and resellers aren’t finding ways to work together.
- 6. Are you collaborating with your partners? #NeverSellAlone
- 8. Poor culture fit can cost an organization between 50-60% of the person’s annual salary #NeverSellAlone
- 9. #NeverSellAlone How do you keep channel partners engaged, motivated and productive?
- 10. Ask “this or that” questions during a new rep’s profile setup. #NeverSellAlone 1.
- 11. #NeverSellAlone Collect data throughout an individual rep’s usage to learn more about what matters to her. 2.
- 12. Set up quick polls and one- question surveys #NeverSellAlone 3.
- 13. #NeverSellAlone
- 14. #NeverSellAlone
- 16. #NeverSellAlone
- 17. Reaching satisfaction and advocacy can feel light years away. #NeverSellAlone
- 18. Partners are the personnel who make sure your product solutions are applied and implemented as ordered. #NeverSellAlone
- 19. #NeverSellAlone • Accuracy • Fewer surprises • Less friction • Accelerated FTV • Higher profits
- 20. Keeping buyers moving through your pipeline requires careful planning and collaboration. #NeverSellAlone
- 21. Diminish the chaos with a clear roadmap that includes consensus between marketing, sales and delivery. #NeverSellAlone
- 23. #NeverSellAlone Your partners have access to unique insights into sales
- 24. CABs are focus groups for your channel marketing efforts #NeverSellAlone
- 25. #NeverSellAlone • Relevant executives are present • Keep it manageable • Rotate membership • Meet regularly • Keep meetings focused
- 26. #NeverSellAlone
- 28. #NeverSellAlone Why is connection so important to the human condition?
- 29. #NeverSellAlone Why does connection influence relationships as we get older?
- 30. #NeverSellAlone In business, any injury that results in disconnection results in broken trust.
- 31. #NeverSellAlone Effective partnerships require openness to connect.
- 32. #NeverSellAlone
- 34. Partners aren’t just an income line on your sales report #NeverSellAlone
- 35. #NeverSellAlone When people are part of something, they are more invested.
- 38. For information about Allbound, visit www.allbound.com or call us at 480.685.5474
Hinweis der Redaktion
- JEN Thanks for joining Allbound for our webinar, “Bringing Collaboration Back Into Your Channel Sales Ecosystem.” We’re excited to share some great content with you over the next 30 minutes, but first let’s take care of some quick housekeeping. We are recording this webinar, so if you need to step away, or during the webinar you think of a friend or colleague who might also enjoy this content, you’ll have a recording delivered right to your inbox tomorrow. Our marketing team will also be live tweeting throughout the webinar, so you can contribute to the conversation by following @goallbound on Twitter.
- JEN Hi my name’s Jen Spencer, and I’m the Director of Sales and Marketing here at Allbound. Since we’re going to spend the next 30 or so minutes together, I figure you might want to know a little bit about me. First fun fact about me, I started my career as a high school English teacher. I actually did my student teaching in a middle school, and without a doubt I think if you can teach 7th grade boys about Shakespeare, you can do just about anything. Second fact about me, I like the color pink (and most other bright colors, actually). I have a wide array of pink shirts … it’s my thing. I’m actually starting to throw people off when I’m at a conference and I wear a less vibrant color. Finally, I’ve taken 19 flights in the last 5 months and that rate doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. So, if you see me on a Southwest Airlines flight, say hey.
- LUCAS
- JEN Now, for our agenda. Today we’re talking about the best ways to bring collaboration back into your channel sales ecosystem, to really empower your partners and strengthen your relationship. There are 5 in particular we’ll address. The importance of: Really knowing your channel sales reps, and what motivates them A continually well executed delivery (so, top-notch implementation, installation, technical or customer success teams) Having a channel advisory board And having a true relationship with your channel partners Also, as time allows, we’ll close with Q&A, so jot those questions down, or plug them right into the question portal of your control panel. We’ll tackle as many as we can live during the session, and we’ll be sure to answer each and every question directly should we hit our 30 minute mark.
- JEN Something we believe strongly here is that suppliers experience underperforming channel sales because they are suffering from a partnering problem. Many existing partnerships simply don’t work because suppliers and resellers aren’t finding ways to work together. Technology can be used to restore the pillars of partnership, but it has to address the underlying issues in order for it to be effective.
- JEN So, I need to ask you a really important question. Are you collaborating with your partners? Allow me to clarify. When I say “collaborating,” here’s what I don’t mean: Emailing back and forth on revenue goals every month Participating in triage-type calls when customers are unhappy or when technology is hiccupping Dinner with the execs once a year, strategically scheduled prior to contract renewal I’m asking you about real-time collaboration where you and your partners — and their sales reps — are in total lock-step with each other. Where you have your finger on the pulse of their business and they on yours. Where you and your partners are so, well, partnered, united, connected, that their sales teams feel like natural extensions of your own. If your answer is yes, then you’re awesome. I want to hear all about it. Seriously – message me in the chat panel and I’ll connect with you after the webinar. If your answer is no, never fear. You’ve got to start somewhere, right? And by being on this webinar, you’re in the right place. Let’s get into the meat of how you can bring that fresh collaboration back into your channel sales, and strengthen your mutually beneficial channel partner relationships.
- JEN Much is made these days regarding the alignment between a team member’s motivation and his or her role within the company. It’s an area of business many of us refer to as cultural fit, a pretty hot topic in the HR space right now.
- JEN The Society for Human Resource Management cites that the result of poor culture fit can cost an organization between 50-60% of the person’s annual salary. Ouch.
- JEN Let’s take this culture fit idea into your partner channel. Perhaps THE most popular topic among suppliers is how to keep channel partners engaged, motivated and productive — not an easy task when you consider that one channel partner might be represented by hundreds of individual sales representatives, each of whom is a unique individual with his or her own motivating factors, company goals AND personal goals. To hone in on how to identify those motivating factors and personal goals, let’s look at a few quick, easy ways to build personal profiles of all of your reps.
- JEN Ask “this or that” questions during a new rep’s profile setup. For example. “If you took part in a contest, would you rather earn a free trip for you and your family, or would you prefer to receive a cash award?”
- JEN Collect data throughout an individual rep’s usage to learn more about what matters to her. Does she click on the incentive announcements that have to do with public recognition, or does her mouse consistently gravitate toward the dollar signs?
- JEN Set up quick polls and one-question surveys throughout the system that contextually make sense based on the content a rep is consuming at that time. How does he vote? And, is that vote consistent with other feedback he’s provided throughout his lifetime with you as a rep? BONUS: Quick polls and one-question interactive surveys provide relevant and anonymous data that you can expose to your entire partner channel. There’s power in transparency, and almost any partner will tell you that one of their top desires from suppliers is to feel heard.
- JEN While the concept of gathering relevant data to better understand your partners’ sales reps’ motivational drivers can seem a bit daunting, a simple and straightforward approach is actually quite manageable. When you make an effort to learn more about the people who are working hand in hand with your customers, they’ll appreciate those efforts. I mean let’s face it, No one wants to be seen as just a number on a spreadsheet or a dot on a massive revenue chart.
- JEN The littlest things you do to better understand the human beings that are working with you and for you, ultimately make for a more profitable, culturally harmonious sales ecosystem.
- LUCAS Most of what you hear and read about sales and marketing today is about reaching a finish line. Attract – Nurture – Engage – Close. Getting to more yeses and signed contracts has become the focus of our processes, our metrics and, of course, our sales teams. Partner sales and marketing is no different. Suppliers provide training support so channel reps can become better hunters. Manufacturers enable distributor reps with sales and marketing resources so they've got the sales aides they need to manage interactions with prospects. Some of those opportunities circle back into nurturing and some will fall into that coveted 'Closed-Won' status.
- LUCAS But closing a deal isn't the finish line. For the supplier, it's not even the halfway point. For the customer, it's only the beginning.
- LUCAS Once a deal is signed and handed off to implementation, installation, technical or customer success teams, the revenue is only starting to get earned. For your 'delivery' teams, there are potential hurdles and land mines that exist on the way to customers reaching their First Time To Value. Reaching satisfaction and advocacy can feel light years away.
- LUCAS Often times, partners are part of the delivery team. They are the personnel who make sure your product solutions are applied and implemented as ordered. That’s part of the reason that coordination between marketing, sales and partner teams is essential to properly map the revenue optimization activities of both businesses
- LUCAS Having agreement and alignment that includes the supplier and partner teams will lead to the following benefits: Accuracy of the final agreement that gets made with customers Fewer surprises in the delivery process Less friction between teams Accelerated First Time to Value for customers and higher profits for both the supplier and partner organizations
- LUCAS Selling today is a strategic endeavor. Buyer personas, the buyer's journey and the content it takes to get and keep buyers moving through your pipeline requires careful planning and collaboration. As important, is making sure your revenue roadmap, and the agreed upon scope of work that marks the close of the transaction takes into account the post-transaction delivery process.
- LUCAS Acquiring customers is a critical part of business. But, if you don't have carefully coordinated efforts between what gets promoted, sold AND delivered, you're opening up your revenue strategy to chaos. That chaos has negative impacts on profitability, customer satisfaction and morale of the post-sale teams who feel the friction of that misalignment. Work to diminish the chaos with a clear roadmap that includes consensus between marketing, sales and delivery, and you'll create an environment that leads to long-term stability, profitability and growth of your business.
- JEN So, we've been looking at the role collaboration plays in the channel. It's easy to view such a relationship from the top down as a supplier. However, innovation thrives on diversity. Having more voices at the table can often help you avoid the echo chamber and adopt new and more successful marketing strategies. Channel Advisory Boards bring together suppliers and partners to drive improvements in your channel marketing efforts, often in ways that would be impossible without input from both parties.
- JEN You can gauge how well your channel marketing efforts are doing by looking at facts and figures. How are revenues this quarter? How are end users responding to your new product line? These will be reflected in partner sales data. More important is the why. Namely, why your strategies are or aren't working, and whether your channel marketing efforts are paying off. Your partners will have access to unique insights into sales, and will no doubt have their own opinions on how well the channel is structured.
- JEN When B2C companies want to know how their products are perceived, they run focus groups. Think of CABs as focus groups for your channel marketing efforts, with your partners as the group participants. Except in the case of CABs, you're not simply grilling them for more information, but actively courting their feedback and suggestions. After all, they form a significant component of your sales funnel, and just as you'd collaborate with your in-house sales teams to improve the sales process, you should work tirelessly to set your partners up for success.
- JEN Let’s walk through a few key considerations when setting up a channel advisory board: It’s important to ensure that your relevant executives are present: Having your important playmakers present provides a gesture of goodwill and shows your partners that you're invested in improving the channel. Keep the board manageable: Choose up to 10 partners to be represented, and ensure they span a range of experiences (duration of partnership, position/role in partner company, etc). Rotate the board’s membership: Bring in a new set of reps every 12 to 18 months to keep fresh perspectives coming in, and discouraging stagnation. Meet regularly: It'll be easiest to meet three to four times a year via Webinar, but meeting in person around industry events can deepen collaboration and fit into everyone's schedules. Keep your meetings focused: By keeping meetings on track and discussing a single topic, the channel improvement process will be much more efficient.
- JEN Channel Advisory Boards not only offer the opportunity to improve your channel marketing process, they earn you the trust and admiration of your partners. If CABs aren't already an essential component of your channel marketing process, it's high time you began collaborating.
- LUCAS As we had touched on earlier talking about delivery, Technology can be used to restore the pillars of partnership, but it has to address the underlying issues in order for it to be effective. Those underlying issues go far deeper than sales skills, content marketing or MDF programs. They’re actually rooted in neuroscience and the intricacies of the human condition that allow people to form and build collaborative, trusting relationships.
- LUCAS Why is connection so important to the human condition? So without getting way too technical … From the point of birth, we’re wired neurologically for connection. In our brains there are different hormones and neurotransmitters that get released when we are connecting with other people. That release sends signals to the brain that essentially create positive feelings. Connection is very important to us as humans from the second we are born.
- LUCAS How does connection influence relationships as we get older? The early need for connection and attachment doesn’t go away as we get older. To thrive, humans need to possess a sense of belonging among others. As children we get that from caregivers. As adults, we can get that from friendships, partners, our community and having interactions within personal and professional groups. That sort of connection gives us a sense of purpose and belonging. We feel like we can contribute, we feel seen and noticed.
- LUCAS So how does all of this apply back to partner sales acceleration? In business, any injury that results in disconnection results in broken trust. For example, if you provided a product and there was an issue that you didn’t communicate about in a vulnerable, open and accountable way, there is immediate disconnection. That can be difficult to rebuild and repair unless there is an environment that represents a safe and open place to reconnect. When we have honest, empathic connections, collaboration in business and personal relationships will thrive with an extra bonus of feeling good, too.
- LUCAS Effective partnerships require openness to connect. There are clear aspects of being human that support the formation of healthy relationships, which in-turn allow us to work with others in an open and effective way. Collaborative interactions that support connection, belonging and purpose can solidify those relationships. Technology can play a role, but it has to provide a means for you to be present to your partners in a way that allows them to be supported, heard and helped.
- LUCAS Collaboration, connection and trust create relationships. Without a relationship you can’t have a worthwhile partnership.
- JEN We get that partner collaboration is not easy. There’s no silver bullet, no magic wand to transform your partner program overnight. But, there are simple things you can do to increase collaboration with your partners by using some of the resources you already have at your fingertips.
- JEN By adopting a mindset of collaborating with partners, rather than merely marketing and selling to and through them, imagine how you might be able to leverage many of your existing resources. This mindset costs you nothing more, except your intentional focus on truly partnering and collaborating with your partners, instead of seeing them as an income line on your sales report.
- JEN Spoiler Alert: When people are part of something — when they have buy-in and realize they play an integral role in a greater purpose — they are more invested. And that investment naturally results in greater loyalty and more revenue for your organization.
- JEN Now we’d like to open the webinar up to questions from our attendees. If you have a question, please go ahead and enter it in the question field of the webinar control panel.
- We’re hosting a conference that’s the first and only event focused 100% on digital innovation and disruption in channel sales and marketing. AND, it’s both for vendors AND their partners. It’s called CO:LLABORATE, and we’ve got an amazing lineup of speakers secured for this 2-day event in November. You can check it out online via the link here on screen, and when we email you the webinar recording and slide deck I’m also going to include a special discount code just for our webinar attendees – you’ll definitely want to check it out.