YES, channel strategies start with the company.
Margins. Tiers. Rebates. MDF. Targets.
Important?
Absolutely.
But there is something more important.
A real person is selling your product!
Not a logo. Not a partner account. A human being.
Someone who already has 50 products in their portfolio. Someone who has quarterly targets. Someone who gets calls from vendors every day claiming they are different.
That person decides whether you get attention or not.
The mistake many vendors make is treating the channel partner as a distribution route.
The best vendors treat them like an extension of the sales team.
Before your partner can sell your solution, they need to buy it themselves. Not financially. Mentally.
They need to understand it quickly. Explain it confidently. Remember it without opening a slide deck.
If they are scratching their head trying to work out where your product fits, they are not taking it to customers.
Once they believe in it, your job is not finished.
Now you need to make them look smart.
Give them the ammunition.
A battle card that actually helps.
A comparison sheet they can forward.
A whitepaper that makes them sound informed.
A discovery guide that helps them ask better questions.
A demo environment that works the first time.
Every asset should answer one question:
“Will this make my partner more confident in front of their customer?”
Because your partner has the same fear your customer has.
Looking unprepared.
The vendors that win in the channel are rarely the ones with the biggest discounts.
They are the ones that make life easy.
Easy to understand.
Easy to position.
Easy to demo.
Easy to justify.
Easy to sell.
The channel program is the framework.
The relationship with the people inside it is where the revenue comes from.
Leave a Reply