Companies could have the best of offerings and an amazing sales team, but that will all hit a productivity limit because there are only so many hours in a day. While expanding the current sales team may seem logical, it can be expensive and takes up a lot of time. However, companies have another alternative – channel partners.
Having a channel sales partner within your business strategy can increase your revenue exponentially. More than 63% of companies claim that channel partners have contributed to their annual revenue, as per CSO Insights. A channel partner with access to the right resources and knowledge can elevate sales performance.
In this blog post, we will explore how you can give your sales numbers a big boost through channel partners through proven tips and best practices.
Significance of Channel Partners for Sales Growth
Channel partners are a standard sales strategy where a company assigns a third-party entity to sell its products and services on its behalf. These partners can also be referred to as distributors, sales associations, and affiliates. Depending on the business they bring in, channel partners receive incentives, which could be sales commissions, bonuses, or other rewards.
Channel sales partners can add a competitive edge to your organization and offer below benefits:
- Through channel partners, you can expand your brand into newer markets, reaching new audiences and establishing new relationships.
- Channel partners offer unique expertise in terms of market environment, customer expectations, and regional targeting for better growth.
- Increasing sales numbers through channel partners is a cost-effective strategy when compared to direct sales teams. You can do away with infrastructure, maintenance, and marketing costs.
- You can enhance your customer experience significantly with channel partners offering localized customer service and support.
Tips to Increase Sales with Channel Partners
Define proper channel partner categories and tiers
The first thing to understand about channel partner programs is that no two partners will be the same. The kind of sales, volume, and frequency that each one brings will vary significantly. Therefore, instead of having one program that every partner must fit into, you must have different plans to accommodate their capabilities. For this, you can create multiple channel partner categories and tier their commissions or rewards accordingly.
Determine motivating rewards and incentive programs
Channel partners work for rewards and incentives they get after making a successful sale. That is to say that incentives are their sole motivation. So, if that doesn’t excite them or encourage them, your channel partner program will fail to bring desired results. One good practice is to match the value of your rewards with how big or challenging the sales target is.
Keep channel partners engaged and satisfied
It is easy to assume that sales targets and associated incentives are all the mandates that channel partners require to get going, but that isn’t the case. As an organization, you must remember that these sales associates are promoting and selling your products or services. It means they will require your support from time to time. A good strategy is to keep them engaged every week, if not daily, to get an update and check if they need your help.
Review partner performance through the right KPIs
Evaluating the performance of channel partners can be tricky. If you don’t have the right metrics and KPIs to track and measure, your review might get skewed. Additionally, you can’t measure all your sales partners with the same yardstick. Some partners may focus on getting one big order size, while others on multiple orders or smaller sizes. The overall revenue may end up being almost the same.
Gamify channel partner performance improvement
Although money or incentives are the ultimate motivator for your channel partner to improve performance, sometimes it may take a little push. For this, you can engage them in activities that will create friendly competition between the partners. With gamification, you can add an exciting twist to the program. You can set up small rewards to achieve milestones like sales numbers, certifications, or client logos.
Seek partner feedback regularly
For a channel partner program to be successful, there should be two-way communication. It essentially means that your partners must have as much say in the arrangement as possible. You can do this by actively seeking their feedback or suggestions and trying to incorporate them. When partners realize that you value their opinions, they feel more appreciated.
Use digital channel partner management solution, Zaggle Propel
Channel partner program is a powerful sales tool that can seem pretty simple, but might quickly get complicated. The success of this program centers on channel partner experience. Being actively connected with them, reviewing their performance, disbursing incentives quickly, and offering all the support they need without delay ensures that the program gives you the desired result. However, managing all these activities manually can be impractical. This is especially true when you have multiple channel partners. For this, you must pick a digital platform like Zaggle Propel.
Zaggle Propel is an automated channel partner incentives solution that is designed to improve channel partner engagement to drive business revenue. It helps businesses run their partner programs on auto-mode. Once they configure their rules and workflows, Propel will manage end-to-end processes right from partner onboarding to claims management, and from report generation to incentive computation.Learn more about Zaggle Propel here.
