In the last couple of months, I’ve done a series of posts about challenges technology vendors face in “enabling” their partners to sell their products.  Below are the posts so far.

Channel Not Ready to Sell?

• Part 1 – Perhaps You are Violating One of the “5 Natural Laws of Channel Enablement”? Outlines these 5 laws and focuses on Law #1 regarding enabling partners to do something
• Part 2 – 2 Simple Steps to Enable Channel Revenue focuses on Law #2 and the need to go beyond channel training, to training and tools
• Part 3 – Maybe You Are Training Partners Too Much Like Your Own Sales Reps… – focuses on Law #3 and the differences between channel training and vendor rep training

This week we will focus on Natural Law #4

• Enablement must be “Packaged” within a Channel Program, To Drive Adoption and Channel revenue…

The first question you may be asking yourself regarding this Law is, “What on earth is “Packaging” (and why is it a Law?)

That is exactly the question one veteran Sales Training/Sales Readiness executive that I worked with asked when he added Channel Enablement to his group’s charter. The first meeting he attended included someone from partner programs, the channel sales executive for the region and a person whose team managed the marketing relationships with key partners.

The new Channel Enablement leader launched into an outline of his vision for a training curriculum – and the rest of the team sat silently. Finally one of the attendees spoke up – “Why would the partners want to take this training and how does it help them get started selling today?”  The new channel enablement guy answered with some platitudes on how it would help the partners sell “better”, but it was clear that he did not really get the #1 different between enablement for channels and the sales training program vendors provide for their Reps:

• Vendor Reps MUST sell your products (or they are not around very long) and your sales executives can tell them they MUST do certain things (like take a particular training) 

• Channel Partners have other options – and are governed by “Why should I care” If a channel partner, and in particular an individual Rep, SE or Consultant does not see value to them TODAY for your training, you can be assured that they will spend their time somewhere else…

This principle was discussed in detail in my post, “Channel Not Selling Your Products? 3 Questions You Can Ask to Diagnose the Problem.

• Question #1 is “What is the Value Proposition for Partners to Sell your Product?
  • And how can they get started making money today…

They key is to get partners to participate in enablement is to think of the situation from their perspective, and use the 2 motivational tools that we humans respond to, “the Carrot and the Stick”. In the language of technology vendor channel programs, the Carrot and Stick translate to

• “What are the Benefits associated with participating in the channel enablement activity/taking provided by the vendor that incent partners to the training?”
• What are the Requirements from the vendor that provide a compelling “stick” to participate in partner enablement?

Let’s illustrate “Packaging” with a specific example

In the period 2008-2012 NetApp created the FlexPod architecture to sell their products with Cisco and VMware – but channel enablement was difficult. The challenge was that the products cut across compute, storage, network and virtualization and was therefore difficult for partners to market, sell and deliver. One partner I talked to during that period said that selling FlexPod was a “6-legged sales call”, because the partner’s staff were siloed with different individuals focused on VMware, Cisco and NetApp technologies, and only a few Reps, SEs and Consultants with sufficient skills to sell and deliver, cross-silo.

Clearly the partners would need to be “enabled”, But creating great training would not be enough – How could Cisco, NetApp and VMware “Package” the enablement, so that partners would participate, and eventually sell more of their solution/products?

A good way to get started on “Packaging” your enablement is to conduct an exercise where your team brainstorms potential “Packaging” options. I’ve found that this exercise gets the item on the agenda and sometimes creates some surprising and successful “Packaging”

• Have a baseline discussion on the partner business model (multiple products, relatively low product margins, need to control costs and maximize selling time)
• Brainstorm potential “Carrots” and the “Sticks” that could have be used to drive participation in enablement (and more sales of your product…)

Then you and your team are in a good position to evaluate the feasibility of these options, and to create the appropriate “Packaging” for channel enablement.

• The Carrot – Potential Incremental Benefits could include things like:
  • Exclusivity / Fewer Authorized partners – could limit sale of a product to only the partners that have met enablement requirement.
    • Vendors are often hesitant to take this step, but it is a powerful incentive to partners to participate in a program (and often has limited downside because untrained partners will often sell very little of complex solutions anyway and may cause customer sat issues, when they do…
  • An incremental margin to partners that complete enablement requirements
    • Provide additional discount at Distribution on every sale for partners who meet the requirement
    • Provide rebates on qualifying sales, for partners who meet the requirement
  • Access to vendor staff that can help the partner sell, such as SEs, Specialists and other staff, for on-site training and sales engagement
    • Access to staff can often be the most valuable benefit of all, particularly when it leads to account planning and joint customer engagement.
    • However, this benefit can be hard to quantify because vendors often provide vague benefits like named account manager – and partners later find that they are one of 30 partners on their contacts partner list…
  • Other benefits – get creative!
    • By looking at what it takes to sell your product, you can often find hidden gems that are very important to partners and are relatively easy and beneficial to you as well – but you have to look

• The Stick – Potential Requirements to Drive Participation in the Enablement could include things like:
  • Require partners to complete the enablement to get access to product/solution-specific benefits.
    • In the FlexPod example that could mean some number of trained or accredited staff Reps, SEs and Consultants) – to be eligible for the incremental benefits above (discount, access to sell product, etc…)
  • Require partners to complete enablement to gain additional program benefits from earning a higher tier in the partner program
    • Many vendors have a tiered program, where partners earn “Gold” status based on meeting requirements – and one of the most common requirements is to have a certain number of technical certifications or sales accredited staff
  • Require partners to complete enablement to gain the benefits of a specialization or badge in the partner program
  • Other Requirements – what do partners really need to do to be successful?
    • I often find tech vendors end up listing a series of generic benefits and requirements that are not enforceable, and would have little impact if they were met.
    • Ask your team, “what is really needed to be successful” and build this into the Requirements. Maybe it’s a demo center, customer references, certifications in related technologies or even marketing skills – but make the requirements meaningful!

I’m amazed by how often I see major product launches and detailed enablement plans created by vendors – without really grappling with these questions (and the WIFM for partners). Not surprisingly, vendors don’t get the participation or the revenue impact they expected (and they leave partners muttering to themselves once again that “vendors just don’t understand my business…”)

I welcome any comments below — And make sure you “Follow” our blog (look for the “Follow” link on the upper left) and have your say. I’m also available as a public speaker, to support local and global events in Silicon Valley, or the rest of the flattening world…

For more details, and to stay in touch with this community, contact me or Subscribe to our “Climbing Out of the Box” Newsletter via the form below.