Now that you are fully committed to looking for ways to improve your partner channel overall performance, one of the areas you may be considering is relying more on your channel distributor, but beware.  This is a particularly popular approach for companies that want to cut costs and improve the efficiency of their coverage of SMB.   Here is a common scenario I run across: 

“For years I’ve been leveraging my own resources to support my channel partners.  It’s how we’ve always done it, but this year I decided to do something different and take the SMB end of my product segment and rely exclusively on my distributor to support the business partners. It all seemed to make sense –it was a way of reducing my support cost while continuing to drive the same revenue performance. 

è However, my sales almost immediately began to go down. What went wrong?

Here is what happened.  Distributors do an amazing job in technology distribution channels. In a business model fraught with risk, year in and year out they get it done on thin margins. While they run programs for vendors and may provide segmented sales teams for larger companies – at the end of the day their teams are there to facilitate the orders of resellers.  In other words, they are predominately brand agnostic–they are focused and motivated on moving products.  They satisfy brand preference and do not drive brand preference in the market. 

Instead, properly recruited and developed channel partners have a short and long term vision about what they are trying to accomplish for your product or service, within a specific market, and for the relationship they have with you.  They have skin in the game, they understand the nuances necessary to anchor into a market, and they ultimately serve as your best brand ambassadors.  Channel partners are an extension of your sales organization and, without your direct engagement, how would you expect your interests and your brand to be properly represented?

Main piece of advice:  Fight the temptation of quick fixes and focus on what is more effective.

While the move to a distributor supported partner channel model may seem like a quick fix, at the end of the day it is not effective and will ultimately be the most costly choice. A move like this will not only cost you in sales, but you’ll then have to pay the expense of reestablishing your channel partner relationships and rebuilding the loyalty you’ve worked so hard to develop over years. 

I hope this article helps shed some light on what to avoid during your channel partner improvement efforts, and look forward to your comments.  Also, if there a specific aspect of channel partner improvement you’d like me to blog about, please don’t hesitate to contact me.