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to add Ricoh to their lines. Why aren’t Ford dealers sell-
ing new Chevrolets?
But let’s back up a little. Whenever I start a proj-
ect in channel sales, the first thing I do is determine
the value proposition of the service provider. What
differentiates this service provider from the compe-
tition? I ask that internally and externally – from
partners, customers and employees. It is a valuable
exercise. It is the foundation for the program: Why
this service provider?
The why or the value prop is significant. It works
out that organizations with a strong culture have the
why baked in. Simon Sinek and Jim Collins have written
about this extensively. The CEO of Zappos, Tony Hsieh,
built a billion dollar business around his customer ser-
vice culture. So the value prop, culture or the why is an
important ingredient.
Next, I examine the existing partners. I create a part-
ner profile of the best producers. Or, at the least, I create
a set of criteria for potential partners. With the criteria, I
have a checklist to use to determine who to look for – and
who to decline.
While upper management may agree with a criteria
(as a good idea), in actual practice, upper management
will want to see signed partner agreements (plural, many).
When asked why so few agreements were signed, the re-
sponse that most did not fit the criteria is often met with
sour looks.
Upper management wants to believe that everyone
should sell their stuff, that everyone should want to
and be able to. This is the crux of the problem. Most
service providers are not Cisco or Microsoft with a ser-
vice offering that is a good fit for everyone. Most com-
panies deliver a service that has a good fit in a specific
company and size (despite the crazed concept of being
all things to all people).
Recently on a panel about “Why unified communica-
tion deployments go bad,” all the panelists agreed that
a majority of the issues with UC deployments were that
the customer was sold the wrong service. The panelists
also admitted that they would never say “No” to a sale,
any sale. Why? They just want to book revenue – even
bad revenue. They really don’t care if the customer is
a good fit (or if the customer is happy) as long as the
customer is paying the bill. It is why many customers
bounce at the end of contracts.
Then there is the flip side of the coin. The channel
executives will wonder why the partners aren’t selling.
What they should be asking is: Why did we sign them
up in the first place? Well, because you have a quota for
new agreements – not new partners, new signed part-
ner agreements.
Signing a partner agreement does not make anyone
a partner. It is just one piece of the puzzle. It is a case of
measuring the wrong metric.
In the VAR world of hardware and software, while any-
one can sign an agreement, committed quota determines
your discount and your support level.
If upper management decides that they need as many
partners as can ink an agreement, well, you just have to
go along. But be warned – programs that involve fog-
ging a mirror as the chief requirement tend to falter. It
is expensive to hire enough partner managers, sales en-
gineers and support staff to manage 500 partners. And
channel managers only can interact with a finite number
of partners per month. They can only provide a finite
number of quotes each day. There is a point when having
too many partners generating activity or needing atten-
tion will impact results.
One partner can generate a lot of work – quotes,
questions, conference calls – but never generate a sale
for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that he
doesn’t trust you or he likes another service provider
better. And let’s not forget the golden oldie: he just
needed three quotes.
The key to recruitment is a Red Velvet Rope Policy. It
is a concept from Michael Port – and any trendy night-
club. A velvet rope only lets in the “cool” people, the
people on the list. Not everyone can get in. It creates
demand and peaks interest. Outback Steakhouse used
to artificially create a line in order to spark demand.
The RBOCs used to do this with exclusivity clauses,
tests and hurdles to joining their program. Today, most
programs just look for the ability to sign the agreement.
If you can keep the pen in your hand long enough to
sign, you are in. But does signing a partner agreement
itself constitute a partnership?
The master agency model is kind of a red velvet
rope policy. Over the years, a few carriers shifted to
a master agency model, whereby only masters were
partners; everyone else would have to go through a
master. It formed a kind of velvet rope. Exclusivity is
the velvet rope. If anyone can get in, it is about as spe-
cial as McDonalds.
One way that channel managers see interest from
a prospective partner is when there is a suspected hot
deal. The potential partner wants to sign up in case this
hot deal closes. I suggest you start asking some perti-
nent questions.
“Is this a one-time deal or do you see us working to-
gether with many of your customers?”
“How do you see us working together? How do you
see our services fitting into your portfolio?”
In 15 years, only one channel manager has ever
asked me these questions! Ask it and you will stand
out, too.
Learn to say “No.” It is liberating. It can morph into
the take-away close – or it frees up your time to work
with partners that will produce results. At the end of the
month, we all have quotas to hit. In sales today, time
management is one of the keys of selling. So any time
that you can save and not waste will be a plus. In other
words, learn to value your time like money.
The success of any program starts with recruitment.
On-boarding is key, but without the proper partners to on-
board, the program’s success will be limited.
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THE CHANNEL MANAGER’S
PLAYBOOK