You can nurture your channel partner relationships by finding those partners who fit best with your organization and providing them with the content they need to showcase your solution. But it’s important to be aware of the pitfalls and structure your strategy to account for them.
Avoid a Hit-or-Miss Approach to Channel Partner Recruitment
Too many companies send mass requests to anyone and everyone when looking for channel partners. But that’s a waste of money, time and effort. Why seek partners that aren’t a good fit with what you have to offer? It’s this kind of hit-or-miss approach that often stymies the process of channel partner recruitment.
The number of channel partners you have is not as important as how well your organizations and services dovetail. To determine your best prospects, we suggest that you start with what we call a channel identity assessment.
Identify Strengths with a Channel Identity Assessment
Your organization is unique, and so is the solution you’re offering. Think about where and how your solution might fit into a channel partner’s organization. What is the average selling price of your solution? Is it a platform like Google or AWS? Or is a plug-in that integrates with something larger, such as Aavaz or the Sugar CRM? What is your target market, taking into account company size and vertical segment? What technology and business challenges does your solution solve? How can your solution help channel partners drive sales?
Many tech companies want to improve their access to the channel. If you have a large organization, you have a large portfolio that appeals to a broad spectrum of network and security resellers. But if you have a smaller solution and you want to be in the channel you can’t approach it with the same expectations. You need to become a margin maker.
Margin Makers: Small Solutions, Big Results
As a smaller OEM, you can reap results by fine-tuning your messaging about your value proposition. It’s all about the way you represent your solution and your organization. You may not have the big portfolio like your larger competitors, but what you do have is a solution that will help your customers realize margins that they won’t get from platform products that tend to be more commoditized. Your specialized solution can achieve what no one else’s can. Emphasize that, and you’re on your way to success.
Stand Out From the Crowd With First-Class Content
Channel partners want content that is customized and compelling. 75% of partners view content as important, but 53% find that the quality of existing content from vendors and manufacturers is mediocre at best. Worse, 69% of partners can’t tell the difference between similar offerings from competition or status quo. But content itself is not enough. Channel partners find customization of assets is their most important criterion, over one and a half times more important than the content itself. By simplifying your content and making it distinctive, you’ll catch the eyes of decision-makers.
Let TSRM Reinvigorate Your Channel Partner Recruitment Strategy
TSRM’s channel partner recruitment program can help you build a fruitful channel. Our program helped one tech company gain 110 new partners and $4.2 million in new business quotes in just six months. Learn more in our partner recruitment solution brief, or contact us to find out what we can do for you.
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