Leading your Channel Partners to Success

A true and good leader is not always the strongest one but the one who has the capability of leading the weak to become strong. Successful business companies are on top of the game because of the cooperation of everyone within the organization and of course the leadership of the head of the company. Production companies rely on both direct and indirect sales for their success. However many of them neglect the importance of managing their channel partners and this could spell profit loss for the company. That is why as a Channel manager it is your sole duty to maximize your indirect selling team and release their potential. So how does one effectively manage their indirect sales channel?

Since indirect sales grow immensely as a company expands their market, the more difficult it is to monitor and manage their indirect sales. Channel Management is the answer to properly managing the company’s resellers and distributors. Aside from this application software there are things, which you can do to help improve the company’s distributors and resellers’ performance and increase revenue. Here are a couple of tips on how to lead your team to success and victory.

Know your partners
Sadly most leaders do not know their resellers and distributors. They could not answer the following questions such as: Who they are? What do they do? How do they work? It is vital to know the units composing the reselling and distribution unit. Study their track record and performance from the time they become part of the company. In this way you will be able to sort out the inactive ones from those who are assets to the organization. Like what Sun Tzu’s Art of War says: “If you know yourself and know your enemy you need not to fear the result of a thousand battles”.

Communicate and Support
Channel conflicts and other problems occur when there is no bidirectional communication between the resellers and their manufacturing companies. Creating a good communication relationship between your company and your reselling and distribution units is a good way to see all aspect of the indirect sales; this will grant the company to see how each works. Through the same way you will be able to monitor what they need. Support them by providing the information they need to perform better. Information like 24-7 Inventory access, Marketing Campaigns and vendor agreement could make a positive impact on their performance.

Select and Improve
Choosing the right units for the company is also the key in market expansion and increase of revenue. Know which of your partners are inactive and which can be asset. Devising an incentive or commission program in which participants that completed the training or acquire the skills the training was meant to teach will be rewarded. This could improve your reselling team’s performance and motivate them.

Managing the business organization’s indirect sales is a very complex task, which is why Channel Management is highly recommended. By applying this application software companies will be able to cut down production costs and increase revenue.