How the West Was Won: A Look at Improving Channel Performance from the Vendor's Perspective - Communicate Across the Channel
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Opportunity No. 3: Communicate Across the Channel
What’s the one piece of advice for people in a relationship? Communicate,
communicate, communicate.
Although you’d like to think otherwise, the truth is your best partners
often aren’t completely engaged in your programs. One of the primary reasons
for this disengagement may be your reps. Partners don’t want someone to update
sales forecasts; they want allies who understand their business. They want to
build relationships with vendors that go beyond product and transactions.
Partners want vendors to more fully understand their organization’s goals and
aspirations and be willing to collaborate. Make sure your reps have the
knowledge and skills to be a true ally to your partners.
Reps can then demonstrate this skill by co-creating written plans that help
partners reach their business goals and are mutually beneficial and
market-sensitive for you. These plans may contain sales and marketing goals and
strategies, customer satisfaction benchmarks, attachment rates for hardware and
services, and more. Better prepared reps become true partner allies and ensure
that lines of communication remain open.
Help emerging partners define and inspire their own success. Communicate by
packaging and sharing by segment the best practices that have worked for your
best partners. Include tips on sales development, lead generation, and
attachment strategies for hardware and services. Emerging partners will begin
to view you as a vendor interested in helping them find the next mother lode.
Another case in point: Facing declining sales and declining customer
satisfaction, a luxury automotive manufacturer wanted to improve the dealership
experience at thousands of retail locations across the country. We suggested
they look at four key components: customer satisfaction metrics; co-creation of
plans that addressed localized research findings in both sales and service
delivery; training offerings; and rewards and recognition.
The results: During 12 years of operation, the program has elevated the
brand from the bottom 50 percent to consistent No. 1 or No. 2 rankings in both
sales and service satisfaction. The client was also ranked No. 3 overall in a
cross-industry service study by BusinessWeek, ahead of all other auto manufacturers.
Based on this success, the program has now been deployed across eight car
brands.
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