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Convey Micro-Cast Series

This is Carolyn Bradfield and you\u2019re listening to the Convey Micro-Cast audio series. \xa0

This week is our Halloween Micro-Cast series and we gave Freddy Krueger a shout out in our first episode, the Nightmare on Channel Street.\xa0 We identified nightmares in the channel that keep you up at night, can ruin your channel program and destroy your revenue.\xa0 Today we\u2019re going to focus on the \u201cInvasion of the Sales Partner Snatchers.

You used to go to Channel Partners in Vegas and there were thousands of partners wandering through the exhibit hall or attended regional meetings.\xa0 Then, all of a sudden, the invasion of the partner snatchers descended on the channel and one by one those partners started disappearing snatched away and gone forever.

If pods from outer space didn\u2019t spirit partners away, then where did they go?\xa0 The answer is complicated.\xa0 People became agents years ago because they may have been in a company\u2019s telecom department, then decided to branch out and start their own business.\xa0 Many of these partners are now aging out, retiring, or just not active and they are being replaced by new partner models that may not be so obvious to you.\xa0 So, what are vendors and master agents to do so they don\u2019t experience the nightmare of the disappearing partner on Channel Street?\xa0 Here are some thoughts:

Diversify your partner base.

If the only type of sales partner you have focused on is the telecommunications agent, you are missing a variety of other partner types that have the right customer base not only for network services, but for cloud and business as a service.\xa0 And you may be putting your channel program at risk as your traditional partner base shrinks. Think about including managed services providers, value added resellers and IT service providers. \xa0 After you do that, look around and consider less traditional partners that are calling on accounts with non-technology-based services.

Here is an example. The other day I ate lunch with an insurance agent who is building a practice around commercial insurance for assisted living facilities.\xa0 That person would make a great referral partner because those facilities need to upgrade their phone system, move applications to the cloud, use technology to make their buildings smarter, and network their locations together.\xa0 He\u2019s non-traditional but he\u2019s calling on the right customers in a high-value target market.\xa0

Once you diversify it\u2019s important to understand the different type of partner models and how they function.

Let\u2019s take the managed services provider as an example whose business model is different than a telecommunications agent.\xa0 An MSP owns the customer relationship because they not only manage their IT and network, they also invoice the customer for services rendered.\xa0 MSPs will often step aside and let the vendor take the lead when it comes to selling services that they don\u2019t have native expertise in, making them an ideal partner who wants a trusted relationship with a master agent or vendor and is willing to make the referral.

It\u2019s also important to learn where the new partner types hang out and plan to go where those partners congregate.

If you expect these different partner types such as an MSP or VAR to haunt the hallways of Channel Partners in Vegas or other telecommunications-oriented events, think again.\xa0 They will likely be elsewhere.\xa0 Expand your presence at organizations like ASCII or shows like IT Expo to find other technology-oriented partners.

And think about where other referral partners might be who are not technology sellers.\xa0 If you sell to healthcare, there are numerous industry tradeshows where you might form relationships with vendors who are selling to the multi-location assisted living facility or