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Transcript

Automating and Upgrading Your Channel Program

Sales partners expect more from their providers these days but as we all know there many complexities to building a successful channel strategy. Providers that are winning the channel game have adopted agile and innovative solutions to control their message, push their sales strategy, and provide the right tools, all while responding to constant change in their business and in the marketplace.\\xa0

Because Convey lives in the world of automation and digital experiences, we are going to overview several key areas that providers and master agents can execute in an efficient and automated way to distinguish their channel programs in order to attract more partners and keep them engaged.\\xa0 \\xa0 In subsequent microcast sessions, we\\u2019ll take each individual segment and devote our podcast to the steps you can take to turn one of these concepts into reality using technology as the backbone to execute the strategy.

Technology companies should use technology to make it convenient for partners to get product information, to learn how to sell services, to see real life examples of success, and to understand how they fit into your strategy.\\xa0 If partners find it hard to get information or think it\\u2019s difficult to sell your solutions, they will switch to selling other solutions that are easier.\\xa0

Digital strategy #1 is to automate how you find, deliver and manage sales leads for partners.

Ask any master agent what partners would like most and most of them will answer, \\u201ca good old-fashioned sales lead\\u201d.\\xa0 But providers struggle with the time and expense of finding the lead, the best way to distribute those leads to partners, and how to make sure that the leads they deliver are not wasted.\\xa0 \\xa0

When it comes to finding the lead, you have many options rooted in technology.\\xa0 Your organization can engage in content marketing, social media outreach, or an activity called data scraping.\\xa0 Freelancers have technology that scours the web to generate leads based on your criteria that will generate a custom lead list that is at a fraction of the cost and much higher quality than most lead lists you might purchase.

When it comes to distributing and managing those leads, Convey has options inside its partner relationship management system to add prospects to a sales partner\\u2019s dashboard, set the rules around how they accept the lead and a feedback loop to ensure they are following up.

Digital strategy number 2 is to use technology to stay top of mindshare by continually engaging partners.

Nowhere is the old phrase, \\u201cout of sight, out of mind\\u201d more true than in the channel.\\xa0 So many channel programs rely too heavily on face to face encounters at trade shows, regional events or sponsorships, but forget the fact that when the event is over and the partner is on the way home, most of the information they learned is already on its way out the window.\\xa0 Having a digital strategy to reinforce the message and stay in front of partners even when you are not with them is essential to staying top of mindshare.

You might still print those 4-color marketing slicks, but partners would rather get your information online.\\xa0 If you don\\u2019t have a LinkedIn page or up-to-date profiles for your people, you look unprofessional and disorganized.\\xa0 And if you\\u2019re using your corporate website to distribute information to both partners and customers, then partners are missing valuable things they need to do business.

Digital strategy number 3 is provide tools for your partners that automate how they engage and market to their prospects and customers.

One of the biggest challenges in providing tools to your partners is that partners have all levels of marketing expertise. Some partners may be better at marketing than their vendors, but most have limited capabilities, and some&