What Channel Partners Want Most From Suppliers

[image error]In today’s increasingly complex and risk averse world of sales, capturing channel partner mindshare is not getting any easier. In fact, CEB Research shows that only 15% of channel partners are captive, making it paramount for suppliers to develop a differentiated value proposition that trumps those of their competitors’ should they want to leverage indirect distribution channels to expand their market reach and drive top-line growth.

But capturing partner mindshare is only one part of the indirect selling equation—research from one of SEC’s sister programs, the Enterprise Council for Small Business, shows that channel partners rank “ease of doing business” as the most important component of a supplier-channel relationship. So beyond understanding the channel partner’s business—incenting the right channel partners by measuring metrics that focus on long-term sustainable growth and ensuring that you have great channel managers—truly successful channel relationships are driven by how suppliers arm partners to make selling their products and services as easy as possible.

To do this, progressive organizations equip channel partners to challenge their end customers. By upskilling distributor reps to exhibit Challenger behavior, not only are channel partners better positioned to charge higher prices and make larger sales, but you are also more likely as a supplier to get the commercial results you need out of that relationship. At a high-level, arming channel partners to challenge has two main components:

Commercial Messaging: Before your partners can challenge end customers, you will need to teach them why they should care about your product or service, and why you are best positioned as a supplier to help them realize superior commercial outcomes. This teaching pitch should also highlight the value partners will realize from the Challenger upskilling and messaging you can provide their reps with as a supplier. Once you’ve developed the messaging for your channel managers to challenge partners with, develop Challenger messaging that your distributor reps can use to be more successful in selling to customers.
 Challenger Training and Certification: Equip your channel managers to train and coach distributor reps towards Challenging customers with your newly developed commercial messaging that conveys your product or solution’s differentiated value in a compelling way. Help ensure distributor reps exhibit Challenger behavior and can articulate your messaging in the long-term by certifying them on their newly-learned Challenger skills. 

SEC Members, to learn more about Challenger and channel sales, visit the Challenger Selling and Indirect Channel Sales topic centers. Also make sure to check out SEC’s exciting new research topic for 2013: Driving Effective Sales Transformation.