Life in the First 30 Days as a Channel Sales Expert
It is absolutely important to know exactly what to do in the first 30 days when you become a Channel Sales Manager. There are several steps that no matter what is your product or service, you want to make sure that you can deliver on those expectations and build a strong foundation for your career.
Congratulations. You nailed your interview as a Channel Sales Manager and today is day one on the job. The question is what to do next. If you are working on vendor side, or even distribution, there is a high chance that the business model and go to market model is in-direct sales and going through channel to generate revenue for the business. This is very common in tech industry which many vendors (no matter of the size), they choose to go through channel to sell their product and services.
There are many reasons for that which I will talk about in another blog. However, the main driver is the scalability of this model and building on your partners relationship with their end users. The vendor is incentivise the partner and distribution for these relationships to drive growth.
This put you in the centre of all these interactions as a Channel Sales Manager, to build the business from the ground and drive growth on the top line. To be able to have a solid impact on the business, it is important to have a defined plan of action for the first 30 day on the job and to execute on the plan.
Here is what I do when moving to a new role as a Channel Sales Strategist:
Draft a business plan
This is by far the most important step that you need to take to build a strong foundation on your success. Drafting a business plan for the year or even first 6 months on the job, is a rare opportunity for Channel Sales Manager to be strategic on his/her job and take a step back and truly understand what they want to achieve.
Business plan should consist of the business overview, target numbers for the year and quarter, targeted accounts and industry, messaging, opportunity and strengths, challenges and at last action items on what to do on a daily basis to hit the target.
Of course, I am making this super simple. However, I will write a blog post on this subject separately as it is one of the most important steps when it comes to channel sales.
Interview with top 3 partners
If you want to get a better understanding on challenges and ways to improve sales, just go and ask your partners. Top 3 partners can help you understand what is actually working for them in the market place and how things are sitting next to each other. What are the best practices and the important learnings when working with channel. Interview with leadership team, sales and tech people at partner side to get a holistic view on needs and requirements. When this happens, you are in a good position to know what is working and what perhaps not working. And you are ready to talk with the rest of the partners as well with suggestions etc.
Interview with top 3 end users
As partners are very important for your business, end users are actually pays for your business. So, even your focus is channel business, it will be very important to get a sense on what the end users are thinking about your business and how using your products and services.
Plus, you can use these stories when talking to other partners to get more credibility in the market place and so that they know what they can deliver for their own end users.
Interview distribution
Disty is your extended team in helping grow your channel business. No matter where are you with your business strategy and performance, there are always room for growth. Ask your distributor what they need and how you can help them improve their life. Either through enablement, or building more deeper relationship, they need your help.
Ask colleagues
Ask the rest of the company, channel or non channel, what you should do to improve the sales performance. Normally there are some stories and challenges ahead which your team mates know and they ask you to address them.
About Author:
Houman Asefi is world authority and visionary and B2B technology channel sales strategist, award finalist blogger, focusing on building and scaling sales strategy and making sure companies achieve their targeted revenue.
Contact Info: Houman Asefi
Phone Number: +61 452 219 022
Email: houman.asefi@gmail.com
