Relationship, Relationship, & Relationship – It’s all in the “Channel”

Channel sales is an interesting topic.  Having been in “The Channel” in various sales & senior management roles for more than 23 years, I’ve seen a lot. 

The same trade shows years after year, some changing names, several times.  Same cities, same hotels.  How many times have you been to Caesar’s in Vegas?  Or the Venetian?  Remember Jay Leno performing at Comptel?  Magic Johnson speaking at Embarq?  (one of my favorites) How about all the logo changes you see on the polo shirts of our Channel peers?  

Seems like every year we’re saying:

 “Hey John, I didn’t know you left Company xxx?”.

   

“Dave, I’ve been with Company yyy now for 6 months.  Greatest place I’ve ever worked!  Here’s my new card”

All too familiar, right?

But one thing never changes in the “Channel”.  The simple fact that agent partners buy on relationships - not product, price, commission, or bonus.  (OK, maybe a few buy on commission & bonus).  That’s the main reason we work in the “Channel” vs working in “Direct Sales”.  Relationship is what wins business in the Channel.

My partners have customers they’ve worked with for more than 20 years.  A direct sales rep stands no chance of penetrating that customer because the partner has the relationship.  It’s just another example of people buying from people.  It takes a different kind of sales professional to understand how Channel sales works and then thrive at it. 

The days of convincing a partner to use your product simply because it’s a great product are mostly gone.  Too many companies these days have the same products.  Now if the partner (or often times, a friend or master agent of that partner) has known the Channel Manager for years, the odds of the partner listening to the new product pitch are greatly enhanced.  One thing I’ve learned over my 2+ decades working in the “Channel” is that I’ve made a lot of good friends all over the country at a lot of companies.  I do most of my business with the people I’ve had the longest relationships with.  I learned a long time ago from a gentleman I owe most of my success to, that the only way to be successful in the “Channel” and last your entire career, is to build a solid reputation as an honest & responsive sales resource for your partner.  I’ve done my best to follow that advice.

If someone calls, answer the phone.  If you miss their call, call them back.  Not “within 24 hours because that’s your company rule” but rather call them as soon as you’re free.  Maybe it’s on your commute home or before you run out to dinner.  If you see their email on Sunday, return it.  Trust me, it goes a long way in building the relationship.  Channel sales is 24 x 7 x 365.  Or as close to that as you can come.

I recently sat through a seminar with one of the nation’s largest Masters, reviewing some Q&A they had done with their partners.  You know what their #1 issue is in a Channel Manager?

             #1.       RESPONSIVENESS

Not price, not commission, not SPIFF but Responsiveness.  That says a lot about what a partner thinks is important and I agree.

And remember, you may not always have the ideal product for a customer, so if your product doesn’t fit and you know it, tell your partner.  If you’re my partner and you know my product isn’t the best fit, tell me.  I’d rather hear “No, doesn’t work on this one Dave.  We’ll try again on the next one” than spend cycles on something I’ll never sign

It’s all relationship in the Channel.  The more we all work on it and understand it, the more money we’ll all make.  And along with all the friends and the Vegas trips, money plays a little role in it too!

Happy Selling…

Learned Something Today…Keep it Short!

While working on my prospecting today, I decided to take advantage of a training perk my company offers and signed up for a 30 minute 1 on 1 with our sales coach, Lori Richardson.  

Considering myself a pretty polished sales professional, I thought it would be worthwhile to exchange ideas with Lori and see if I could tweak some of my intro emails.  I had been getting some pretty good results, receiving responses on about 1 out of 10 intro emails.  10% response isn’t bad…….

I had sent my templates to Lori prior to our discussion and awaited my feedback.  We talked back and forth about certain verbiage, much of it surrounding our individual styles.  I have always felt that if you can walk away from a training session or seminar with one concept or technique to help improve your skills, it was a worthwhile expenditure of your time.

Lori gave me a great suggestion.  After I expressed my concern over the length of my emails, Lori pointed out that today’s buyers are typically getting the first view of my emails on a mobile device.  In order for me to gauge the effectiveness and impression my emails were making on my prospects, she  suggested I send them to myself and see what the message looks like on my own mobile device.

I followed her advice, sent myself the message, and was I surprised!  While I thought my messages may have been a little long, when I saw them on my mobile device, I almost deleted it myself it was so long.  I immediately began revising the messages and by day’s end I had crafted a new, condensed message, with far less substance about my own company, and left more anticipation about my company’s “Story” that I couldn’t wait to share.

I sent out about 15 of the new version this afternoon and the results were wonderful.  I received almost instant replies on 6 of the 15.  A response rate of 40%, compared to the 10% I was getting with the longer message.  

My next 2 days are already booked with intro calls with qualified prospects.  I have ample time blocked off to send another 20-30 “feeler” messages tomorrow, hopefully filling up my calendar for the following week.

If you want to improve your prospecting results, try this simple exercise and send yourself your message and review it on your mobile device.  You might be surprised what you find……

If your company offers a similar benefit and make a sales coach available, use it.  No matter how good you think you are in sales, you can always learn something new.  I did.  You will too.

Lori Richardson is a professional sales coach and the President of Score More Sales.  She can be reached at lori@scoremoresales.com