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Reps and Channel Not Selling Your Product? Perhaps They Think Selling it Might Be Embarrassing”…
I’ve had this conversation so many times with clients, potential clients and friends – the question is:
Why are the Vendor Reps and Channel Not Selling a Particular Product?
Channel Partners
For channel partners, the answers usually track back to not connecting to how the partners are thinking about selling – and where the product fits This topic was covered in detail in my Channel Not Selling Your Product series of posts, and in particular
- What is the Value Proposition for partners to invest their time in selling your product?
- Is your product and go-to-market program “Channel-Ready”
- What is the Sales Process for selling your product and how does it fit into how your channel partners sell?
Vendor Reps
For Vendor Reps, the challenges have the same root causes, with some different nuances. The bottom line is that they have to sell their companies’ products. But they do have some choices on which products they sell.
Of course they will sell the products where they think they can be successful, but this decision is more nuanced than we might think. Some of the variables that drive this decision include:
- What products are customers asking about (so they can be reactive…)
- Where is competitive positioning the strongest (so they have a high win rate)
- What has the highest deal size (so they can win a few large deals and make money)
- What has the shortest sales cycle (so they can close business this quarter)
- What gets them into the key decision makers in the company (if their job is to sell deep at one or a few accounts)
- The Missing X Factor???
But one key factor is missing from this list. Can you identify it? HINT: Think about human nature and what you personally would do when you are faced with a decision on where to spend your time…
The additional factor I am talking about is:
Where are the Sales Reps (Vendor or Channel) Comfortable Selling?
What drove this home for me was a recent client conversation selling a new technology. I was talking with their Product Marketing folks and we were discussing, “What information does sales needed to be successful selling our product?”
1. The first question to ask is, “What is it they need to do to be successful?”
We quickly agreed that we wanted sales to at least be able to create new opportunities (and that later stages of validation and closing would need specialists anyway). As a context for what we want sales and channel to be able to do, let’s use a basic sales process as shown in Figure 1 below. I talked about this dynamic in detail in my post on the First Natural Law of Enablement –
- Enable Them to Do Something (not to know something)
Figure 1: The Basic Sales Process
2. The second question to ask is, “What information does sales need?” to be successful with Step #1?
I’ve found that that there is clearly a need to focus on the “Why” the product matters to Customers at the front end of the sales cycle, but (somewhat surprisingly) you also need to provide information on “How” a solution works, to serve as “proof” that the solution is real and proven.
But the client’s PMM made an additional point that made me stop and think, as he suggested another key “enablement” need…
3. The third question to ask, and the one this was the “aha moment” for me…
“What information do they need so that they will feel confident enough in their knowledge of the selling context to RISK BEING EMBARRASSED selling your product…”
That is an incredibly important point. How many times have we all seen salespeople steer conversations back to their area of expertise and that they know how to sell. It’s not just a proven track record of success and closed deals. The missing piece is human nature…
Vendor Reps and channel partners will not spend time selling your product if they are not comfortable enough about the customer context, the solution, the products and the overall market that they feel there is a low risk of being embarrassed (which is yet another reason why “Sales Engagement” is the last mile of channel enablement)
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Want to Sell Solutions, But at the Velocity of Transactions? Connect Your Sales Plays to Provide a “Path” to a “Destination” (Part 4 of a Series)
A common concern among sales executives is the “velocity” of their sales approach. As we’ve been talking about in this series, concern about “velocity” often keeps tech vendors from trying to sell “solutions”. In this series, I’ve been talking about the 4 Steps to “Sell Solutions at the Velocity of Transactions.”
- Step 1 Use “Vision-Quest Marketing” – to generate awareness and inbound inquires
- Step 2: Use “Destination-Based Selling” to provide a clear end-state and accelerate buying decisions
- Step 3: Provide a “Yellow-Brick Road”– to give customers a prescriptive “Path” for getting to this “Destination”
- Step 4: Use “Sales Plays” to create specific “Steps” on this “Path” that your marketing and sales teams can communicate and sell
Now that we’ve established a “Destination” and a “Path” for your customers, what should technology vendors do to get customers to adopt their Solutions and Products? If you looked at 10 sets of marketing materials and sales tools from across the industry for storage, networking, management, converged infrastructure, virtualization and cloud solutions, you would assume that the answer is – “build tools to sell your product/service”?
But as one of my professors in college used to say, “If you put that answer on your paper come Q day, you’ll get a BIG RED X, (Heh, Heh, Heh).” (more…)
Want to Sell Solutions, But at the Velocity of Transactions: What is Your “Yellow-Brick Road?” (Part 3 of a Series)
In last week’s post we talked about Two Key Changes to your marketing and sales process that allow you Sell Solutions, But at the Velocity of Transactions:
- Use “Vision-Quest Marketing” – to generate awareness and inbound inquires – to generate awareness and inbound inquires (Series Part 1)
- Use “Destination-Based Selling” – to enable sales to create transactional sales within a Solution family (Series Part 2)
- Element 1: Position a destination that can be achieved by leveraging your products broadly (Series Part 2)
We talked specifically about what we mean by “Destination-Based Selling” and talked in detail about setting a “Destination” for customers to accelerate sales of your products. But a Destination is not very helpful if customers don’t know HOW to get there. This week we will talk about the element 2 of “Destination-Based Selling” – “Providing a Path”
3 Key Elements of “Destination-Based Selling”
- Position a “Destination” – that can be achieved by leveraging your products broadly, as a platform
- Provide a “Path” – to the destination with specific sales plays
- Provide Marketing and Sales Tools that define the “Destination” and the “Path” (= the Solution and Sales Plays) – to enable generalist sales and your channel to qualify and position opportunities for complex solutions
Want to Sell Solutions, but at the Velocity of Transactions? Try “Destination-Based Selling” (Part 2 of a Series)
A common concern among sales executives is the “velocity” of their sales approach. In other words, how rapidly can the sales team engage with customers and close opportunities? The way many Tech vendors approach this problem is to focus on selling “transactions”, and they generally try to steer clear of adding complexity to the sales process. Why? Because it could slow “velocity” and reduce the Rep’s ability to control the sales outcome and timing.
For many Tech organizations, complexity is often equated to selling “Solutions” that often include products from other vendors and professional services (which they may not get sales credit for, take a long time to “deliver” and equal more complexity). But as we’ve talked about in many posts, selling solutions is often what is needed to be successful selling a particular product. Particularly if it falls to the right of the diagram shown in Figure 1 below. I shared these 3 indicators in my post, “What 3 Questions Indicate Whether You Need to Sell “Solutions”? (and when does selling “Product” work better?…)”
Figure 1: The 3 Indicators for “Solution Selling”
You can find more information on how and when to sell solutions in the “Solutions” section of the “GTM Best Practices page” on my blog.
What I am finding is that fewer and fewer products fit on the left side of the diagram. In today’s world, software and services drive customer value, and hardware is often not the lead message in the solution. But this situation leaves the organizations with a difficult choice –which one of these paths should they follow?
- Market and sell products as part of a “Solution”, to connect with customers and create more long-term revenue
OR
- Sell “Transactions” at a higher velocity, to meet their sales goals (and keep their job)
These two choices seem incompatible – or are they? (more…)
Channel Not Ready to Sell? Maybe You Are Training Them Too Much Like Your Own Sales Reps… (Part 3 of Series)
The last 2 weeks, we’ve been talking about channel partner enablement and the gaps in industry practices that limit technology vendors’ success in creating revenue through their channels.
Channel Not Ready to Sell?
- Perhaps You are Violating One of the “5 Natural Laws of Channel Enablement”? (Part 1) discusses these laws and the Law #1 regarding enabling partners to do something
- 2 Simple Steps to Enable Channel Revenue (Part 2) focuses on Law #2 and the formula for success in Channel Enablement that goes beyond just training, to tools
This week we will focus on Natural Law #3 – Channel Sales Training ≠ Vendor Rep Sales Training
Stop and think about that statement for a minute. Do you think it is true? I’d wager if you asked 10 colleagues in the tech industry this question over lunch, you would get nearly universal disagreement. However, what I’ve seen working with tech vendors and their channels over the past 20 years is that,
while the sales training needs for your channel partners and vendor reps sales are similar, they are different in some important ways that require tech vendors to train their channels’ sales team differently than how they train their own sales reps…
Channel Not Ready to Sell? 2 Simple Steps to Enable Channel Revenue (Part 2 of Series)
In last weeks’ post I talked about the “5 Natural Laws of Channel Enablement”, and how following these approaches can help technology vendors “Climb out of the Box™” and drive more revenue through their channels. We also talked in detail about Natural Law #1 – the importance of enabling your partners to do something specific – not just know more about your product.
The 5 Natural Laws of Channel Enablement
- Enable Your Channel to Do something (not Know something)
- Enablement ≠ Training – Training and Tools must go “hand-in-hand”
- Channel Sales Training ≠ Vendor Rep Sales Training – Enable Channel partners based on how they sell
- Enablement must be “Packaged” within a Channel Program, to drive adoption and channel revenue…
- Sales Engagement: How channel enablement becomes revenue $
This week I will talk about talk about Natural Law #2 and difference between enabling your channel and training your channel…
Channel Not Ready to Sell? Perhaps You are Violating One of the “5 Natural Laws of Channel Enablement”? (Part 1 of a Series)
Channel Not Ready to Sell? First of a 5-Part Series
- Part 1 – Perhaps You are Violating One of the “5 Natural Laws of Channel Enablement”?
- Part 2 – 2 Simple Steps to Enable Channel Revenue
- Part 3 – Maybe You Are Training Them Too Much Like Your Own Sales Reps…
- Part 4 – Perhaps You are Not “Packaging” Your Enablement Within Your Channel Program
- Part 5 – Do You Make Your Training Real with “On-the Job” Training?
One of the critical success factors in GTM Program is how well a technology vendor engages with the channel to jointly sell. The channel enablement team must face a broad set of challenges, ranging from how to onboard new partners, assure that partner sales teams, their SEs, and often their consultants have the information they need to be successful. And these tasks need to be supported in introductory and advanced versions, for multiple products and solutions. As if this wide-ranging charter is not enough of a challenge, “enablement” teams must deal with the inevitable tension between Sales Organizations and Field Readiness teams that train sales reps and SEs and feel that Channel is never “enabled enough” and don’t factor in that partners are not required to take vendor training (or to sell their products…).
In my experience, many of the common approaches to channel “enablement” are ineffective, and part of the many outdated, “Boxed” set of practices in the tech industry that have evolved over the years, based on the old world of hardware-centric selling. These practices limit vendor success and revenue. Providing proven alternatives to these types of practices is a big part of the Andrews Consulting Group focus, to help technology vendors “Climb Out of the Box”, and accelerate revenue for their products and partnerships. Check out my post, “Are You Executing Outside of the Box? – The Checklist”, to see see how your organization compares to these practices.
So how can technology vendors address these challenges, and drive more revenue through their channel?
A good way to think of best practices for channel enablement is in terms of the 5 Natural Laws of Channel Enablement below. In today’s post I will talk about overall needs for channel enablement, and Natural Law #1 in more detail. (more…)
2 Alignment Problems that Destroy the “GTM Bridge” (and limit Revenue)
The challenge appears quite simple – How can a Tech organization set up and run their organization so that they drive revenue from their products and partnerships? But think about your experiences with partnerships – like Bus Dev agreements, with Alliances, and with Indirect Channels (such as resellers and integrators), and I bet you can think of more examples of performance issues than of realized potential. As I’ve talked about in many of my posts, many Tech vendors are set up to market and sell as if they were a direct sales organization – although many, even most, are heavily reliant on their partners to drive revenue.
The root cause seems to be “boxed” strategy and execution that results from organizations pursuing approaches that were developed in a different era, but no longer directly apply to today’s complex IT world of architectures, software-defined data centers and Hybrid Clouds. (more…)
Want to Sell Solutions, But at the Velocity of Transactions: Are You Using a “Hook” to Create “Pull”? (Part 1 of a Series)
“Sales Process “is a dirty word to many technology vendors, because they interpret it to mean a slow sales approach that delays the sale of your product, and causes Reps and Sales leaders to miss their number…
As I discussed in my post, “What 3 Questions Indicate Whether You Need to Sell Solutions”, and “Are you Jumping to the Product Sale too Early (and missing revenue…), product selling works best in a few situations early in the sales cycle, and is required late in the sales cycle in nearly all tech business– but in most situations, tech vendors market and sell based on product too early in the sales cycle – causing vendors to miss revenue opportunities.
So what are proven approaches to market and sell in situations where Solutions Selling is required? That is the topic of my post today. (more…)
Marketing and Sales Messages Not Aligned? Tie Your “Message Map” to a “Solution Blueprint” (Part 5 of a Series)
Over the past year, I’ve done a continuing series on what it means to market and sell “Solutions” Today’s post is Part 5 of the Series
- What 3 Questions Indicate Whether You Need to Sell “Solutions”? (and when does selling “Product” work better?…) (Part 1_
- Do Your Product Business Units Lead to (Product) “Push” Marketing (and Missed Revenue)? (Part 2)
- The Three Types of “Solutions”: Which One Do You Use to Market and Sell? (Part 3)
- The Solution Blueprint: A Visual Tool for Connecting with Your Customers (and accelerating product revenue…) (Part 4)
- Today’s Post – What are the Steps to Create Solution Messaging? (Part 5)
I’ve talked a lot about the advantages of using “Solution” (rather than “Product” messaging to connect to customers, and drive more revenue for your products, but the question I often get sounds something like this:
“OK, I see the advantages of using Solution Messaging – What do I do now?”
That question is the focus of my post today.
The key to messaging Solutions is a tool that I call “The Solution Blueprint”, a visual tool that helps technology vendors communicate the value of their offerings in terms of “Solutions” to customer problems – and accelerate revenue. I talked about this tool in more detail in my Solution Blueprint post. In Figure 1 below, you can see an diagram that describes the key elements of the Solution Blueprint. (more…)
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