Article
5 Best Practices for Channel Partner Sales Enablement
gilroyassociates.com
Quoted on this wiki
Every place a page here uses this source, in the order the words come in it.
4. Make your enablement resources easy to find and use. “Many vendors offer partner portals as a repository for all information the partner could ever want. The obvious upside of this approach is that all of your collateral is in one place, easily accessible.” The potential downside is that there can be too much information to wade through, and it can be challenging to keep the material up to date.
They realize the need to enable their channel partners as effectively as they enable their direct sales teams. After all, channel partner sellers are the company’s “off payroll sales team” and they need the same information and resources that are provided to the direct sales reps in order to represent and sell the vendor’s solutions. “When your partners know how to position your solutions, how to overcome objections, how to present the value to a certain buyer or industry, or how to easily generate a quote, everyone wins.” But, how do you do it? Here are five best practices.
There are a few ways a vendor can make the training “real.” Perhaps the most effective strategy is to work through an actual sale with a partner. By giving them a lead, and offering to work it with them, they can get hands-on training on a real opportunity. “They’ll learn firsthand how to present the value proposition, how to use sales collateral, how to handle objections, how to configure and price, and more.” If following along an actual sales cycle isn’t possible, we’ve found that Solution Playbooks are effective. The concept of a playbook is to take a given solution and create an e-book with everything in one place.
The vendor has the responsibility to make the training realistic to ensure it is most likely to be useful. When a partner sales person learns about a solution, then puts the material on the shelf until they need it, there is a high fade factor. “Perhaps the most effective strategy is to work through an actual sale with a partner.” Walking a partner through a sales cycle from end to end with a real customer who has a real need cements the concepts since they are actively participating and learning for themselves as opposed to being told or reading about how to run a sales cycle. They’ll learn firsthand how to present the value proposition, how to use sales collateral, how to handle objections, how to configure and price, and more.
The vendor has the responsibility to make the training realistic to ensure it is most likely to be useful. When a partner sales person learns about a solution, then puts the material on the shelf until they need it, there is a high fade factor. “By giving them a lead, and offering to work it with them, they can get hands-on training on a real opportunity.” Walking a partner through a sales cycle from end to end with a real customer who has a real need cements the concepts since they are actively participating and learning for themselves as opposed to being told or reading about how to run a sales cycle. They’ll learn firsthand how to present the value proposition, how to use sales collateral, how to handle objections, how to configure and price, and more.