Manage Partners? Then Use PowerPoint Better

Over the last 12 months, the training course I have delivered most often has been our Dynamic Sales Presentations workshop. This has been incredibly gratifying for me personally, as I have long been an advocate of the importance of presentation skills for Channel Account Managers, particularly when dealing with partners/MSPs, where the challenge is not … Continued

Achieving Win/Win Outcomes With Partners

How often do you hear channel account managers or sales reps talking about wanting a Win/Win outcome with partners? But have you ever stopped to think what that actually means? A Win/Win means that the rep wins (ie. gets what they wanted) but also the partner gets what they wanted. The problem is that, not … Continued

Are You Selling Benefits or Advantages

Whether you are a partner (ie. VAR, MSP, SI, etc) selling to end-users, or a vendor promoting your technology to the channel, are you selling genuine benefits or simply selling advantages? More importantly, do you know the difference, and the enormous impact this has in helping you close business? In this article, we look at … Continued

The Four Traits of a Trusted Advisor

If I had to pick my most annoying phrase right now, it would be “Trusted Advisor”. Greatly overused, often misrepresented, and largely misunderstood, those two words are now well and truly entrenched in the “Meeting Bingo” category – they seem to get bandied about without any particular definition or consideration. But while I may hate … Continued

Improve Profit Through Operational Efficiency

Most channel firms today acknowledge that transforming their business from hardware-centric reselling to a business model that embraces services and recurring revenue is not only the future, but should at this point be the present. There are however, many moving parts involved in the transformation process, notably anything to do with business operations and process … Continued

Use Customer Segmentation to Enable Partners

I often ask Channel Account Managers (working for vendors or distributors) why they think their partners buy products from them. And I’ll get a range of answers from “we have the best technology” to “great service” to “a strong relationship”. But at least one person will respond with the correct answer, namely, “to sell it … Continued

Forget About Disrupting and Just Get on with it

If “Cloud” was the most overused word in 2016, then “Disruption” would be my pick for this year’s winner. It seems that the mantra for the new breed of workplace warriors is “disrupt, or be disrupted”, and anyone who isn’t turning their business on its head is surely going to end up in the dictionary … Continued

Don’t Trust Your Partners? Trade Places

I’ve been in more than a few meetings with vendors where the question of trust has come up. Typically it sounds like this… “I’ve got an opportunity, and I want to give it to a partner, but I’m concerned they’ll make a mess of it or sell something else, so I’ll hold on to it … Continued

Maybe It’s YOU That’s Not Adding Value!

It’s funny how things come in waves. In the last month, I’ve had four conversations with four different vendors, concerned that their sales team is not engaging the channel because their reps believe partners add no value. And while I agree that there are certainly partners who add no value, we obviously wouldn’t be in … Continued

Ten Lessons From Trump For Channel Managers

On the 20th January 2017, Donald J. Trump, an American businessman and television personality with no prior government experience, became the 45th President of the United States, in what many consider to be one of the biggest upsets in American political history. Since then, he has gone on to lead what many consider to be … Continued