Channel Management Blog
Our blog features channel management tips, best practices and expert insights to help you get the most out of your PRM and create a successful partner program.
How Do Your Partners Rate?
Let’s say you’re a VP of Sales and Marketing, and your CEO has asked you to come up with a list of your company’s top go-to-market partners within your indirect sales channel. How would you go about it? You can do it old-school: pick up the phone, set up an Excel spreadsheet to keep track […]
Joint Business Planning: A Myth or Necessity?
I bet you’re hoping I’m going to say “myth.” No one likes planning, right? But we might as well face facts: joint planning with partners is a critical best practice, and vendors that make the effort are much better positioned to have a successful channel. Joint planning keeps your partnerships from going dormant. Vendors usually […]
FAQs About Partner Relationship Management (PRM)
Launching an indirect channel sales program is exciting, but I can tell by the questions I get from customers that this is an area that’s regularly underestimated in terms of planning and resources required. Here are some of the most common questions we hear as people embark on their partner relationship management journey and answers […]
How to Minimize Indirect Sales Channel Conflict
Notice the title isn’t “How to Prevent Indirect Sales Channel Conflict.” That’s because, unfortunately, conflict within a partner program is pretty much unavoidable. But accepting that on the front end makes it a lot easier to mitigate the negative effects. So the question then becomes, “How will you manage and minimize conflict within your channel […]
Three Keys to Partner Engagement
I was recently asked by a new customer if we had any documentation or training materials for partners that would get them more engaged and keep their new Partner Portal top of mind. I thought about it, and responded, “No,” not because Channeltivity doesn’t have documentation and training materials—we do. I answered “no” because I […]
The Beauty of the “Ready, Aim, Fire” Approach to Building Your Channel
This bounces off the post we wrote last week, where we explained the three things to consider before shopping for a channel solution. Not getting ready before moving to the “aim” and “fire” phases may be the most common reason for the failure of an indirect channel marketing strategy. You can invest the time now […]
Three Things to Consider Before Shopping for a Channel Management Solution
Partner relationship management software can’t build your indirect sales channel by itself. It is, however, a very powerful tool to include in your detailed and thorough plan. So before you go looking for a channel solution, make sure you’re investing your resources wisely. Here are three key questions to ask yourself before you begin shopping: […]
Building the Partner Relationship: It’s a Lot Like Dating
For the sake of this post, let’s assume you’ve already looked carefully at your company’s situation and determined it is, in fact, the right time to start selling through the channel (or you might want to read my previous post, “Are You Ready to Dive into the Channel?”). Now it’s time to find the right […]
Which Comes First – Lead Generation or Partner Recruitment?
“I want to be working with a channel, but which should I be doing first?” This question comes up regularly on LinkedIn groups. It may sound like a chicken and egg question: How do you service leads without partners, and how do you engage your partners without leads? The fact is you need to be […]
Are You Ready to Dive Into the Channel?
Using the channel model as part of an overall sales and growth strategy is a hot topic—unfortunately in a lot of cases for the wrong reasons. I’d like to clear up a few misconceptions: It’s Not a Field of Dreams In case you don’t remember the Kevin Costner movie, my point is that if you […]