How to Prospect with Extraordinary Effectiveness!

Did you know that Q1 is the best time of the year to prospect for new partners?

New technologies and new product offerings are being evaluated against last year’s successes and failures in both solutions, and partnerships.  Whether the partner prospect is modifying their business model or jettisoning unproductive partnerships this means that a prospecting window of opportunity is now open to you.

You have 3-4 months when partners are making changes to their previous business model and partnerships; and they’re more open now than ever to hearing your pitch.  Later in the year they’re beyond making new partnership decisions and they should be well into wrapping up their new partnership certifications and engaged in sales and marketing activities with the new vendor.

Before listing a few of my favorite prospecting techniques we need to make sure that your head is in the right place for this endeavor.  What I mean to say is, do you know what prospective partners want to hear and do you know what turns them off?

If you’re thinking that they want to hear about the massive margin/discount you’re offering, or that the product is so easy to set-up and install anybody can do it, or you win most deals because you’re the cheapest solution, then Congratulations – you’ve just won the Clueless Channel Manager Trifecta!

Today’s Solution Providers are looking for 65/35 Services/Products revenue splits or better.  When you take away their services and minimize their product profits proudly proclaiming how cheap and simple your solution is – you’re talking to the wrong audience, save this language for end users.

At some point early on in the initial call you’ll need to address the enormous services opportunity your solution delivers.  That message is just as effective with consultants, developers and system integrators.

Or, it may be that you really do not have a product that is Channel viable; perhaps direct, online or retail sales is really where you want to be.  The VAR-City offers a self-evaluating Channels Readiness Quiz that can help you consider your positioning before investing your heart, money and resources in an unproductive pursuit.  Find out for yourself, take a look in our Downloads Locker.

10 Super Tips, Tricks and Techniques to Productive Prospecting:

1. Identify your ideal partner profile based on your offering and their business model.  Secure a list.  Look at your competitors’ partner program as one list source.
2. Complete your Business Value Proposition (BVP).  Why should they do business with you?  Save the feature/function presentation for the next phase unless asked.  Talk about profitability of the program.  5 key points in bullets and be sure to feature services opportunities.  To better illustrate this I like to use a spreadsheet I create for each vendor and call it the “Partner Profitability Calculator”.  It gives me a great excuse during my initial prospecting call to schedule a follow-up GoToMeeting with other prospect team members and show them how/where the profits come from.  I’ve closed more new partners at this point than the product demo.
3. Be prepared to reply with all necessary documents.  Before making your fist call be sure that you have everything you need to promptly follow on the prospects’ request for information.  Appropriate partner-facing marketing collateral or partner agreement.  Delays getting back to an enthusiastic or marginally interested prospect can kill your efforts – and it sets a bad precedent.
4. Set a goal for your calls to measure success.  Goal is to schedule demo, schedule follow-up call, deliver documentation and contract?  What is the next step?
5. Target Executive Leadership – Owner, President, CEO, VP Sales and/or Marketing.  They’re interested in the business value and growing their business around the partnership – features and functions are rarely of interest at this point.  NOTE:  This is the most common mistake vendors make when prospecting – tune your opening message to your audience.
6. Send personalized program invitation email.  If done right this business case email can solicit a call from prospect before making your follow-up  call.  Especially now, while that Q! window is open.  Add personalization by using their first name, reference to their location and other products they sell that make them the perfect partner.  Through this you let them know that this is not a mass mailing, but you have singled them out because of A, B and C.  If you have email addresses for other staff officers cc them on the email.
7. Make follow-up call (you already told them to expect it in the email) within 1 business day of sending. Conduct your initial prospecting calls from Tuesday through Thursday.  My rule is that with each prospecting call I have 20 seconds to convince the prospect that I deserve another 10 minutes to deliver my prospecting pitch.  Your prospect probably receives 5-10 such calls per month – work on differentiating yourself.  Surprisingly, by not showering them with a flood of feature and function marketing gibberish you’re already way ahead of the first 5 callers.
8. Engage them in the call – let them know that you want to hear what they are looking for in a partnership.  They will often tell you about how dissatisfied they are with current or previous vendors.  Leverage what you learn.
9. Tell them about your post signing quick-start program.  Let them know that you have a very specific on-boarding process for technical certification, sales training and sales &  marketing support.  It’s surprising how few vendors actually have the processes in place to rapidly advance new partners through their first couple of deals.  What?  You don’t have a formalized on-boarding process?  Time to rethink your position on that.
10. While they’re evaluating you and your program you should also be evaluating them as a future partner.  Here are “red flags” I watch out for -when any of these discussion points turn up during the prospecting phase they generally signal a thin ice partnership:

• Exclusivity – Unless you’re talking with an ISV and they serve a very niche marketplace do not entertain any exclusivity discussions.
• Leads – If a partner asks me about how generous we are with leads I tell them that they should not plan on building their business around those expectations.  Partners should be the source of incremental (non-cannibalized) revenue and understand that we don’t need then for the purposes of taking or fulfilling orders.
• Too Eager – I get nervous when a partner is too eager, I expect a little reasonable push-back from worthy partners.  Unless you’re getting a ton of favorable press and the world is standing at your door with P.O.s in hand, a good partner should be a little wary and cautious.  Too available means that they don’t have enough business already and that makes me nervous.

We’re always happy to talk with our reader’s about how we can help make 2013 a year to celebrate with a successful reseller community.

Happy New Year from The VAR-City!

Taking my introspective adventure deeper into the times that I feel frustrated I discover that it only occurs when I’m trying to be helpful – when I’m doing all I can to turn an unsuccessful reseller program around and overcome artificial obstacles – easily dismantled obstacles built on reseller motivational misunderstandings.  It’s easier to remove them than constantly work around them.

Then it hits me, I have to be the contrarian, the concerned counterpoint.  What good purpose is served reinforcing the bad habits and misconceptions held by the leaders of failing Channel efforts.  I’m also reminded that in the first couple of months in a Channel development or turn-around effort that teaching the Vendor new behaviors and overcoming bad habits rooted in their beliefs can be more difficult than on-boarding a new partner.

Since Channel partners behave in many ways like children, Channel mangers already know this, another aspect of the experienced Channel Manger’s job is to teach the Channel hopeful vendor good parenting skills along with establishing reasonable partner development expectations.

This is where I could take the usual path and list the Top 10 of this or 5 most important of that; but in reality if the most common mistakes continue to be made on top of all the right things – the turnaround can not occur. 2 steps forward – 3 steps back…cha-cha-cha.

So, let’s take a look at some of the most common and costly mistakes made by vendors with struggling Channels; and, if your reseller program is not being all that it can be perhaps you’ll recognize something here that your organization can sweep up and and dispose of.

Top 5 Don’ts

1. Don’t assume that your product(s) are Channel viable.  Not every product or service is suitable for partner sales, regardless of how hard you try.  If you haven’t made the commitment yet, take our Channels Readiness Quiz located in The VAR-City Downloads Locker – it’s self evaluating and full of useful information.
2. Fail to Prepare – Before making your first prospecting call be sure to have all of your partner resources in place and ready to deliver – delays will kill you as the new partner’s enthusiasm wanes and the momentum slips away.  Absolute minimum requirements are sales and technical training (Certification process), partner sales and marketing kit to jump start their efforts, program tiering/segmentation and partner contracts.
3. Fail to Commit – Expect a minimum of 6 months (that’s optimistic) before you begin seeing a positive trend.  Channels are not a short term fix to your revenue goals.  Set your goals on # of partners certified within 2 weeks of contract signing – if it’s a new Channel compensate your Channel Manager on achieving that goal (MBO).
4. Underestimate your Partners – They probably know your industry and competitors (good chance they sell them) better than you do.  Can the smugness and listen…they’re close to your target user base and can help you.  Take the time to learn and understand the differences between customers and resellers – it’s big, and in many ways counter intuitive!
5. Don’t Poach – Direct Channel Conflict was a serious problem for years but fortunately that trend has lessened in recent years.  Deal or Opportunity Registration has become a good way to reduce the problem.  It can still be an unintended consequence of web based sales and you’ll want to consider how your corporate initiatives will impact your resellers.

“The vendor called me everyday and night until I signed their partner agreement, and I haven’t heard from them since”

15 to 20 years ago, when new signed-partner quotas were the #1 objective on most Channel Manger’s MBO list and there was a virtual bounty on mirror-foggers, it was common to hear this abandonment lament; then, as the overwhelming numbers of unproductive partners began to clog the vendor’s sales and support systems there was a culling of the revenue weaklings from the channel herd with increased focus on the “20″ of the 80-20 rule.

Soon, partner quality and manageable productivity over quantity became the goal…again.  But, the pendulum swings.

What’s happening now is that the marketplace is saturated with new ISVs popping up like mushrooms following a rain storm; and they’re eager to bring new partners on board without any idea how to help them be productive.  The thinking seems to be, if 10 partners are good – 100 are 10 times better.  Or, we’ve been successful  bringing on new customers, we can just translate that success to resellers – won’t need to change anything.

Whether abandoned or poorly on-boarded, the results will always be the same – poor performance, loss momentum and eventually, product apathy leading to channel frustration and failure.

95% of a new partners’ first sales will come from their existing customer base.  That’s where we’ll focus our initial sales efforts.  Fold your sales activities into the on-boarding process so that you’re combining the academic pursuit with the closed first deal pursuit.

NOTE:  The techniques described below represent only one thin slice from the larger On-Boarding pie.  For more slices with all the toppings check out our “Downloads Locker“.

5 Techniques to On-board for Success -

• Before signing let your new partner know what your expectations and next steps are.  Prepare them to hit the ground running and schedule the first required activity to occur within 48-business hours of signing.  Keep them occupied and busy with productive activities that usher them through accelerated sales and technical training.

• Sales and Marketing Kit – an assortment of marketing documents and collateral, videos, product images/logos, success stories, quotes…everything they’ll need to deliver your message.  Place in your Partner Portal so the information will be consistent, fresh and accurate.  If you don’t have a portal you can deliver via zipped folders, but updating all your partners will be a grueling cumbersome process with no guarantees they’ll use the latest revisions.

• Write and distribute (business wire or other Google indexing option) a Press Release announcing the new partnership.  Post to your site and theirs for an SEO kicker and new partner attractant.  Be sure to add a line about how to join your program to bottom of PR.  Tweet it.

• Meet with each of the new VARs’ sales person and secure a list (from each) of their Top 10 customers (prospects/targets) who are good candidates for your product.

• Review each target with them, strategize and discuss closing offers.  This is where you connect with the new partner for sales and product training, understanding your product’s differentiators and establish the bond of trust that is your catalyst for success.

You can add your own variations, embellishments and rewards; but remember, the key to this technique is that you’re combining the training (on-boarding) with real-time sales activities and not treating them as separate and unrelated serial activities.

If you’re having trouble getting your partners on the path to productivity, call or email The VAR-City, because that’s a great idea.

To clarify, they usually do not have a reseller relationship and their rewards for participation come from commissions or fees paid on closed sales.  They enjoy greater recognition through affiliation, access to SDK and/or NFR and now.. open participation in a lead rich community.

Today I plan to show you why these nuggets of pure gold should play a greater role in your diversified partner portfolio and share some tips with you on best ways to find and manage them.  I should also point out that while this methodology works in hardware centric channels; because of the expertise and services laden opportunities, it’s far more effective in the software and services industry.

How they add value to your channel:

1. Trusted advisory position – Often asked to evaluate options and recommend products to their customers.  Decision makers.
2. Low demand on sales and marketing resources – Independent lead generators and easier to manage.
3. Self serving motivation – Driven by services opportunities resulting from implementation, training, integration and support of your product.
4. Fast and easy on-boarding – Just need to know how to spot opportunities and initiate sales process with vendor assistance.
5. Broad and deep industry reach.
6. Margin based discounts do not exist – No VAR discounts for greater profitability
7. Can align with Direct Sales Force or Partners to add unique skill set and niche or compliancy expertise.
8. Open doors and penetrate targeted strategic markets.
9. Expansion of product presence with SDK integration and OEM consideration.

These types of partners tend to be more gregarious and less suspicious of one another than highly competitive VARs.  They generally flock to larger groups or associations where they can share their expertise and meet with other knowledge experts.  Find them at their watering-hole.

For example, a recent successful effort involved establishing an Expert Advisory Council and placing an ad on another well known industry expert’s blog page seeking council members to participate in our open community of customers, vendor support staff, partners, 3rd party vendors, advisory council experts and prospects.  Dozens of qualified experts entered our community weekly and quickly joined in on discussions and product Q&A while completing the minimal on-boarding requirements to receive $1,000′s in NFR software and gain access to our project/jobs posting forums where our customers could seek and acquire project specific expertise from our qualified and approved partners.  In the future there are plans to add a rating system similar to eBay reviews along with expanded Bios and an online store for SDK developed products and phone apps.

Access to our partner portal gave them a place to complete the required opportunity registration forms (the only way to cash in on their referrals) and download marketing material.

This level of vendor/partner/customer interaction was unachievable before social media, and other collaboration software; and frankly, much effort was made to keep our partners and customers separated for fear of account poaching or unfavorable comments.

Social Media provides us with a venue for reaching and managing 100s of referral partners in real-time and interactive ways that a monthly newsletter or mass emails could never achieve.

Think of the last time that you made dozens of prospecting calls a day to finally speak with one VAR.  Weeks of demos and discussions to sign that VAR.  Months to train and on-board that VAR.  Hours of meetings to complete a business plan and marketing initiative.  Repeated calls to the VAR to check status of efforts and then close their first deal at 20-30% discount.

What are your 2012 plans for partner recruiting and management?  How does your social media strategy help you grow and manage your partner community?

The new “Channel Society” group at Linkedin is an exciting forum open to all IT Sales, Marketing and Channel stake holders.

Whether you’re a veteran social media expert with wisdom to share, a channel manger looking for new ways to capture and hold your partner’s mind-share or a social-curious newcomer seeking an inspirational and bubbling fountain of knowledge – we’re eager to meet you and learn together.

Get a jump start on your 2012 business plans with a virtual room full of experts and industry peers who all share your passion for getting the most out of all that Social Media can do today and help us map the road to tomorrow at The Channel Society.

“The vendor called me everyday and night until I signed their partner agreement, and I haven’t heard from them since”

15 to 20 years ago, when new signed-partner quotas were the #1 objective on most Channel Manger’s MBO’s list and there was a virtual bounty on mirror-foggers, it was common to hear this abandonment lament; then, as the overwhelming numbers of unproductive partners began to clog the vendor’s sales and support systems there was a culling of the channel herd with increased focus on the “20″ of the 80-20 rule.  Partner quality and manageable productivity over quantity remains the goal of most of the larger and maturer vendors today

But not all of today’s vendors meet these legacy standards and we’re seeing a modified return of this behavior that does not necessarily involve actual abandonment, but the results are the same.  What’s happening now is that the marketplace is saturated with new ISVs popping up like mushrooms following a rain storm; and they’re eager to bring new partners on board without any idea how to help them be productive.   Whether abandoned or poorly on-boarded, the results are the same – poor performance, loss momentum and eventually, product apathy.

95% of a new partners’ first sales will come from their existing customer base.  That’s where we’ll focus our initial sales efforts.  Fold your sales activities into the on-boarding process so that you’re combining the academic pursuit with the closed first deal pursuit.

5 Techniques to On-board for Success -

1. Before signing let your new partner know what your expectations and next steps are.  Schedule the first required activity to occur within 48 business hours of signing.  Orientation, sales training or whatever you have defined as your on-boarding process.
2. Write and distribute a Press Release announcing the new partnership.  Post to your site and theirs for an SEO kicker and new partner attractant.  Be sure to add a line about how to join your program to bottom of PR.  Tweet it.
3. Send new partnership notifications with time-sensitive promo code to the partners entire customer base.
4. Meet with each sales person and secure a list (from each) of their 10 customers who are good candidates for your product.
5. Review each target with them, strategize and discuss closing offers.  This is where you connect with the new partner for sales and product training, understanding your product’s differentiators and establish the bond of trust that is your catalyst for success.

You can add your own variations, embellishments and rewards; but remember, the key to this technique is that you’re combining the training (on-boarding) with real-time sales activities and not treating them as separate serial activities.

Get Channel Smart - Dress Channel Smart!

The VAR-Kit is a flexible Channel entry offering designed for budget sensitive software vendors with plans of establishing a North American Reseller Program and the keen vision to seek out expert assistance to avoid the common and hidden obstacles.

Power through the most difficult and crucial Channel development times with the confidence that your expectations are valid and your goals can be reached.

This collaborative two-week high energy channel experience customized to your business, products, culture, staffing and budget is our number one requested and most recommended professional services offering.  Read our reviews – here

• Learn how to identify your ideal partner types and the benefits of a multi-segmented channel to craft an entire channel eco-system that fits your product, budget and culture.
• Identify your product and programs “Business Value Proposition” and how to succinctly deliver this critical information during the difficult recruiting process.
• Write and deliver (.doc & .pdf) your new partner prospecting message for each identified partner type
• Establish an accelerated on-boarding process that increases partner success and reduces time to revenue. .
• Partner Program Guide and tactical VAR business plan template (20 pages +) w/sample data.
• VAR Sales and Marketing Bus. Plan – Channel Manager’s version w/sample data (3 pages).

During our Fall Special you will receive our official VAR-City Jacket (what our staff wears) with your name or company scroll stitched on the front – a $250.00 retail value included at no extra charge during this limited time offer!

Contact us at 972.240.8793 or info@thevarcity.com.  If you’re not sure that selling through a partner channel is for you, download our self-assessment “Channels Readiness Quiz” located at our web site in the downloads locker.

We look forward to being all the Channel you need – ask us about our Virtual Channel Manager program – a great value and service with costs offset by product sales.

Nothing serious, just some things that will help explain how two, or more, self proclaimed and so-called experts can have such differing points of view – when, in fact we usually don’t.

For us Channel purists who reflexively cringe at the casual unintended abuse of terms like “VAR”, “Distributor”, or one of my recent favorites,“OEM” – yeah, I see you smiling and nodding knowingly out there – these words really do have meaning and fairly strict definitions that can be harmlessly glossed over in general conversation; but, when we get to the point of building a ground up Channel Program we want to be a little more specific.  And, in mixed company we want to be careful not to refer to an established Systems Integrator as a VAR for fear of a full-on stink eye attack and instant loss of Channel credibility.  You can also kiss that promising new partner contract you’ve been chasing bye-bye.

Now, the irony of the fact that the biggest and most frequent abuse is, in fact, the word “Channel”.  What does that mean, really?  We already lazily say Channel instead of Indirect Channel…and, when I say Channel do you really know what I mean, or do you associate it with your view of a Channel?  Hardware Channel, Telco Channel, Distribution Channel, Software Channel…where do you work and what do YOU do?

And finally, I come to the point of my post.  When you read blogs, forums and other posting from now on and you see two Channel knowledgeable pros going at it, you can bet good money that one is talking about “their” hardware, or retail experience while the other may be saying “…phooy on that – SPIFFS and MDF never work – NFRs are the way to go!”

Now you know – words have meaning and so do big letters.

Historically, reseller programs have a better than 60% failure rate – measured against self-sustaining profitability in the first year.

In more than half of the failed cases the effort was doomed from the beginning and no amount of preparation or experience would have delivered a different outcome.

There was zero Channel viability based on a variety of product aspects; and, all of the time they invested, resources and revenue became non-recoverable costs.  If only they had known that before they let the Channel siren-song lure them into cash flow dead zone.

Our 21-question Channel Readiness Quiz would have stopped them before they started and listed the respective weaknesses with a full explanation.  The quiz comes with an answer card (.xls) and totals the quiz takers responses to measure and report on their level of Channel viability and preparedness.

We invite you to retrieve the two-part Channels Readiness Quiz from our download locker at The VAR-City and send us your completed score card for a free one-on-one analysis of your product(s) and program.

I think of all the fun we’re going to have together chasing cars and digging in the neighbors’ new flower garden…boy, we’re going to be so Mayberry happy, little Kong and me.  Then, real memories of my last puppy come flooding back, chewed shoes, law suits, vet bills and all.

A new Channel program can be just as appealing.  The thought of other people selling your stuff, making you money and growing your user base…how bad can it be, right?

Well, while the big dog is always shovel-ready, your new channel will come with it’s own kind of mess and clean up duties.  Are you sure your’re ready to make the commitment to this long term responsibility?

Here are 5 tips to keep you out of the dog house with your partners:

1. Partners are like kids and they will push the boundaries to see how stretchy they are.  This is not a good time for “time-outs” or a rolled newspaper across the nose, as good as that might sound sometimes.  Be firm and clear in your expectations and don’t hesitate to make an example if necessary – the other partners are watching and learning.
2. Partners have a short attention span.  Be prepared to immediately begin training once the agreement is signed.  Focus their sales training on their existing accounts – get a list of Top 10 targets and work with them to close those first.  Once the pump is primed the revenue stream will begin flowing without your immediate assistance.
3. Partners don’t need your products or services, they were doing fine before you came along.  Don’t be another product that they have been instructed to insert into their already too-busy schedule and demanding quota – be the partner who can help them hit their numbers.
4. Never, ever use your reseller channel as an incubator for house accounts – no poaching your partner’s accounts under any circumstances.  That’s the worse kind of Channel Conflict.
5. Treat every call from your partners like they just dialed 911!  Be there when they call out and they will not be afraid to go out on a limb for you in the future.
6. BONUS TIP – Partners will be more demanding than any customer because when they recommend your solution their reputation is on the line – when their customers yell at them they yell louder at you and their bark can be heard around the world at blog-light speed!