How to grow Channel Market

The way I see it, there are two areas that we can focus on in growing any channel business: the resellers and the disti sales.  In a nutshell, our goal is to make the resellers want to buy from us, and the disti sales want to sell our product. And the key to all of that is “focus”. Not only because a focused partner would be more willing to put effort of building the partnership when they feel they are being prioritized; it also makes the evaluation process a lot easier and cleaner.

Step #1: Finding the right partner

- Gather all POS reports from channel partners and other direct customers;
- Figure out who the company’s value-add customers as well as the popular models are.
- Compare those with competitor’s data.
- Pick the right disti.  I believe that if we start doing well in one, there is a good chance that others will look to follow.

I am sure you are already fully aware of the strengths and weaknesses of each disti. If not, do a little research and study them.

Find someone who is flexible enough, and would appreciate the focused partnership.

Step #2: Getting the sales force onboard

Regardless of which distis we choose to work with, the first thing we do once we are setup is to get their sales on our side.  The way to do that is by offering incentives for selling the company’s products:

- Focus Week: Sales will be eligible to earn SPIFFs and/or gift cards during the focus week on certain product(s). Sales training and floor day will be conducted on the first day of the focus week. Give a warm up prize to generate some excitement and buzz.  At end of each focus week, on top of SPIFFs, prizes are handed out for things such as: most new customers acquired, most qty sold and most # of customer sold.

- Sales Contest: We could also consider hosting monthly and/or quarterly sales contests.  Prizes may vary.  Depending on what our goal is, the terms also may vary.  Things to consider: most new customers acquired, most revenue, most units and most number of customers sold.  We will monitor the contests every week and make announcements on topics such as who is winning.

- All Star Team: It will be difficult for us to be at all the branches all the time, and our PM usually only stays at one branch.  Once we have some data on who is making the best effort in selling our products, we can pick out our “all star team”.  One sales in every branch will be responsible to help us push, and if the whole branch reaches their target for the month, he or she will be rewarded.

- The Surprise Element: In order to get people starting to talk about us, we will need to surprise them from time to time.  Randomly, we could pick out the top sales for a day, a week, or a month, and send him or her some thing nice.  No prior announcements, just do it.

Step #3: Reseller Advantage Program(RAP)

Even though the Channel is mainly B2B, the buyers are still people.  While they are buying from our channel partners, it would be very helpful for us to create some programs just for them.  The goal is to establish direct connections between us and the customers to show that we care.  I think this is a great way to boost our brand awareness in the Channel.

The resellers who sign up for RAP will receive:

- Early access to our new product information.

- Opportunity to network with other RAP members.

- To be listed on our where-to-buy section.

- To be included in our press releases and/or monthly promotions.

- To be included in our monthly reseller rebate promotions.

- We will pay a certain amount of MDF(TBD) back on their product purchase.

VIP Resellers:  The customers who purchase more than a certain amount every month/quarter is considered VIP resellers.  They are our best customers. They are eligible to receive VIR (volume incentive rebate) from us based on the amount they purchase for the month or quarter.

Things to consider: we might want to design a part of our website for RAP, and we should also put together some RAP welcome package once someone decides to join.

Step #4: The Internet and Web 2.0

Needless to say, the Internet has become a critical part for almost all businesses around the globe.  The Web has made it easy and cheap for us to spread our messages, and I believe it should not be overlooked in our overall marketing strategy.

While this is an entirely separate topic, I think we can put off the discussions for now.

Things to consider: product review on various hardware websites; participate in forum discussions to listen to what people are saying on the products and respond accordingly; have a presence on the most popular social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook; advertise with PPC (Pay Per Click) programs such as Google Adwords.

So there you have it, my plan to grow in the channel!