Ways to make it easier for your Partners to sell Faster

It is said that one of the good way to succeed in channel sales is to arm your?partners?with the right set of tools, resources, and skills to be able to sell your products easily and quickly and increase their productivity. But the point is how to do this? Here I am listing down few ways by which you can make your channel partner more effective, and these will ensure that your channel partners have all that what they need to succeed and grow their sales of your products primarily and in turn help in growing your business:

The Value Proposition

Understand the business model of the partner and align your value proposition in such a way that it adds upto the business value for the channel partner as well. If you wish your?channel partners?should sell your product or service successfully and with full devoted mind-set, they need to have a good understanding of your value proposition. Often the partners will ask you what is in it for them you need to be prepared with detailed responses to these types of queries with full clarity because at least what matter is how their—and your businesses—can truly benefit. Always avoid a one-size-fits-all approach, because channel partners are intelligent and can easily see through it. Pass on the message in such a way that you are able to deliver the right set of product features and functions which stands out from the rest, this will make the partnership valuable for all whoever is involved. Find below few pointers:

• Keep it as simple as possible “What your product or service does?” it is better to keep it very simpler, small messages delivered in a meaningful way. Avoid industry jargons. Clearly explain what your product or service is and does—don’t use buzzwords or industry jargon.
• Build the messages in such a way that it deliver the messages on the core problems your product or service solves, your competitors, your advantages over your competition.?
• Give them an insight of your future product plans & market expansion strategies, keep them updated so they feel like an extended arm of your internal team.?Let them feel comfortable to share their inputs and suggestions, for this you can have a dedicated sections in the partner portal or area in the CRM.
• Now once this is done provide them with a resource or dedicate an Account Manager to take the proposition to the end user.?

?Training and Tools – Offer it right

Devise a good partner on-boarding program, the moment your channels team onwards a new partners, the aim shall be to give the partner all that they need to sell your product effectively and succeed, because to a larger extent your success in the channel network penetration and customer acquisitions depends on their success. You must deliver dynamic self learning training, access to?CRM (with exclusive partner logins), keep your CRM updated with latest collaterals and resources, access to the tools that will help them drive lead management, content distribution, and many more You can adopt a good CRM tool with major focus on partner enablement and equipping the partner. Provide the partner a calculator type of tool which can help them to understand the cost and also can calculate their ROI with you. Devise a detailed plan with them which can be mapped to the potential of business in the designated area. It is always advisable to draft a Business Plan with the partner and keep on reviewing the plan on regular intervals (Monthly, Quarterly, half yearly).

?The Collaterals

It is said that you’re branding makes a lot of difference in the market and the same applies to your success in the channel partner network. Provide your channel partners with the required set of marketing collaterals for both – internal & external. Consider providing the following, and review the same from time to time if in case anything needs to be added:

• Documented Sales Processes
• White Papers
• Case Studies
• Standard Sales Proposal formats

?For cobranding and marketing collateral, consider providing:

• Brochures
• Product Literatures
• Sales Templates
• Fact sheets

Giving these collaterals will ensure that they are properly marketing your product or service. For maintaining a sense of control in the sales process and for creating consistency it is quite important, so that the right message goes across, and this shall be irrespective of who the channel partner is.

Incentives are good encouragement

Incentivizing your partners can motivate them to work faster and more intelligently. With a good CRM tool in place, you can determine, measure, and evaluate their sales performance indicators in order to reward your channel partners.

Keep the Partner updated always

Make sure you evaluate on a regular basis what is and what is not working for the partners in a best possible way to promote your product and services. This will help you to review your partners and coach them on whenever necessary, tune your partner training materials and collaterals accordingly. Implement a good CRM solution for partners, with an easy to use access that I swell connected to all the stakeholders in your company.??