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.
Structuring a Partner Program to Get the Partner Behaviors You Want Part 1
If you’ve ever had a spiff program not work the way you’d hoped, you already know that partners can behave in completely unexpected ways… Or are they really that unexpected? With a little forethought, if you consider what an incentive program is actually enticing, you will see pretty quickly that the partners’ behavior is completely […]
Channel Sales Visibility Helps You Beat the Competition
The law of the jungle is survival of the fittest, and few jungles are as competitive as indirect channel sales. Someone else will eat your lunch if you’re not operating at peak performance. To ensure you are optimizing your channel, it’s important to get full visibility into your channel performance. On top of losing deals […]
How to Increase Deal Registration
Deal registrations are the key to channel visibility and, therefore, to accurate channel sales projections. The first key to getting partners to register their deals is to acknowledge this value proposition for yourself. Obviously, the better you can see what’s in your sales pipeline, the better you can forecast your partner channel revenue, and the […]
The Channel as Search Engine Optimizer
Five Steps for Dominating SEO Using Your Channel Lets face it: The reason you build a reseller channel is to accelerate your company’s sales ten times faster than you could by building a direct sales force. Historically, Partner Relationship Management has focused on providing static marketing materials, funds for marketing campaigns, and distribution of leads […]
More MPG: Three Things You Can Do to Make Your Channel Program More Efficient
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that launching an indirect channel sales program is a significant undertaking requiring a major investment of time and budget. How do you make sure you’re maximizing your chances this investment pays off? One key to success is always fine-tuning your channel program to make […]
The Truth about the Magic Hockey Stick
It looks so nice on the channel partner revenue graph — a line inclines gradually for a year or so, and then makes a sharp upward turn, the shape of a hockey stick. Everyone thinks their indirect sales program is different, that wild success is inevitable—just get some partners and launch. But the fact is, […]
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 […]
