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Why Channel Partners Won’t Prioritize Your Product

Daniel Kroepfl |


Specific channel setup aside, often enough suppliers get upset with lacking channel partner engagement. Now one may think:

"Well...that’s up to the sales channel partner, they are not performing although they have the best discounts and all the product training they need! What a waste of my time."

 

STOP. RIGHT. THERE.

Lacking channel partner engagement comes a long way and often is a result of mis-positioning brand intentions. Speaking from my experience with European manufacturers, I see an often recurring theme.

One looks for an “export partner”, which may be a variation of channel partners setup, to cover a whole geographical area.

No more questions asked.

A product onboarding, tech training and a stack of catalogs, perhaps even samples were shipped to the channel partner.

Might sound great but now that’s exactly where the disconnect happens.


 

Ask yourself:

What am are my strengths as manufacturer or supplier?

Correct, you are the market leader (or strive to be) with your technology offering or product. This is simply where all the focus should lie to fulfil your duties as a manufacturer. Making sure the latest tech trends are fulfilled, standards are met, applications are scoped out and new product hits the market when it should.

It is a manufacturer’s bread and butter to:

  • Maintain existing product lifecycles
  • Ensure product compliance
  • Explore new windows of opportunity for existing and new products
  • Develop and manufacture new technologies
  • Position the brand strategy in existing and new territories
  • Satisfy and exceed customer expectations
  • Shine through organizational excellence
  • Make your customers happy

But there surely is one thing that the channel partner has that the vendor is lacking. Customer trust in the respective vertical market, geographical area or niche industries.

Now let’s reverse roles:

Put yourself in the distributor’s shoes.

Why are you distributing product rather than making it?

Because you want to offer a wide array of product from different vendors to your customer base. All of the lines you offer compliment each other and bring enhanced value to the customers. The customer base you have built over the last few years or even decades of being in business builds the foundation of your business. Channel partners leave the product compliance and product specifics to the vendors of trust.

 

"Therefore, by definition, the channel partner shines through strong, reliable customer relationships that allow vendor partners to tap into a field of prospects that would have been unheard of without the channel partner."

 

The following factors make a channel partner the key to success:

  • Array of profitable lines to deliver a holistic offering to customers
  • The customer base
  • The right relationship with such customers
  • Market insights, such as policies and regulations
  • Shine through organizational excellence
  • Make customers happy

Now when working with established channel partners, think logically.

What is the fastest way for the channel partner to gain traction and create results with a new product line?

Introducing the new product to an existing customer base, rather than having to go the extra mile to find new leads will be the first go to.

This is the main reason why channel partners have a particular say in the holistic product offerings they may want to place in their respective responsibilities.


I recently read a book by Software Sales Guru Hans Peter Bech where the following graphic caught my attention. It factors three main bullet points into the vendor vs channel partner characteristics:

  • Operational Excellence
  • Product & Technology Leadership
  • Customer Intimacy

The below graphic shows the share of attention and importance of such factors per business.

 

"Vendors have product leadership as part of their customer value proposition while channel partners have customer intimacy as a driving pillar of their customer value proposition."

 

Check out this recent blog post to learn more about how to position the brand of your company through a powerful Value Proposition

As you can see, the channel partner is big about customer relationships and getting paid by placing new product in front of existing customers. The vendor on the other hand, is (hopefully) generating proper margins and profits by developing, manufacturing and maintaining product.

This is why giving a channel partner a deadly boring, tech stuffed, over complicated feature presentation about the product you manufacture doesn’t work.

Channel partners are keen to get to know, Value Proposition USPs, market positioning, skills you can offer to get them up to speed and the toolkit they need to embed your product into their framework.

Similar to booking a vacation:

You know where you want to go to put your feet in the sand, you may consider how to get there but surely only a small percentage of travelers care about the tire brand of the aircraft they are about to take.

Stay in the know and explore how you can build a powerful value proposition and get your ultimate tool kit ready for channel sales partner growth and enablement.

The customers, channel partners and your boss will thank you for it later.

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