The relationship you have with your channel partners is the backbone of your partner program. Having a good relationship means that both you and your partners are invested in each other’s success. As a result, you and your partners are equally involved in driving that success.
So what exactly is a channel partner relationship and how do they work? And what happens when your current channel manager leaves? How do you ramp up your new channel manager fast enough?
The channel partner relationship
Channel partner relationships are mutually beneficial relationships. Your channel partners market and sell your products to their customers. You get more market share and revenue without having to invest in hiring and training new people. Your channel partners get more customers and revenue by selling your products, offering related products and services or by doing both. These partnerships allow both you and your partner to grow.
These relationships will look different for each company and for each channel manager-partner pair involved, but they all have some things in common. These are actual relationships with actual people.
First, your channel partners aren’t a faceless company that you can ask to sell your products, but are actual people with their own interests and motivations. You have to get to know your channel partners on a personal level. Due to current circumstances, this relationship building will look different than in the past, but there are still ways to get to know your channel partners. Events such as virtual happy hours and virtual coffee meetings can help you get to know your partners better and start building a good relationship.
Second is consistently supporting your partners. Some channel managers schedule weekly check-ins with their partners while others do one every two weeks. Those regular, consistent check-ins allow you to catch up with your partners, answer any questions and resolve any issues. Sometimes, this also involves your channel managers sitting in partner’s sales meetings and helping to assist in forming a sales or marketing strategy.
As you can see channel partner relationships take a lot of work. Once you’ve built that relationship with your channel partners, you have to maintain it.
But what happens if your current channel manager leaves? Your partner may not want to work with a new channel manager, may think that the previous channel manager was better or may even follow the old channel manager to their new company. Your new channel manager will have to start the relationship from scratch.
What happens when your current channel manager leaves?
For many people this is a familiar scenario. Your current channel manager found a better opportunity elsewhere, went on maternity leave, moved to a different part of the country, got promoted, ect…whatever the reason, you now need a new channel manager.
Here’s the problem.
Your new channel manager won’t know how to work with your partners from Day 1. They’ll need some time to get up to speed. But, you and your partners don’t have that time. So how do you ramp them up quickly?
How to quickly ramp up your new channel manager
You need a process that’s both efficient and comprehensive. This will minimize disruption and ensure a smoother transition from one channel manager to another. But what do you need in this process? Building relationships takes time and effort but there are a few things you can do to bring your new channel manager up to speed.
- Understand the partner
The very first thing your channel manager has to do is understand the partner. They need to know the partner’s strengths and weaknesses, what products they offer and their history. They also need to know what kinds of opportunities the partner wants and any issues that could prevent them from capitalizing on those opportunities.
Your new manager should spend as much time with the partner as possible in order to understand them and their business. This can be through having regular conversations with the partner or shadowing them during their day to day. This gives your partner a good first impression of your new manager and gets their relationship off to a good start.
- Have consistent partner expectations
Share your partner program information with your new manager. Ensure that they know what your company expects from your partners. What are your metrics to measure partner engagement? How do you track those metrics? Share that information with them. Doing so brings your new manager’s expectations in line with your partners and minimizes any confusion that may occur.
- Give them their partner data
Unless you assign your new manager a new partner, you’re giving them a partner who’s been with you for a while. What campaigns did that partner run? How many times did they meet with their previous channel manager? Do you have a history of their activities that you can give your new manager? Your new manager will need to know all of these things. Make sure to give them access to this data. This will allow your new manager to familiarize themselves with your partner’s history with your company and see how they can help your partner succeed.
- Communicate your expectations for them
While you have to ensure that your expectations for your partners are consistent and communicated to your new manager, you also need to communicate your expectations for them. How many partners will they work with? Are they expected to help recruit partners? What type of guidance will you give them? You probably went over this in the hiring process, but it doesn’t hurt to go over it again.
How xAmplify helps ramp up your new channel manager
xAmplify is a PRM+TCMA platform. It has all the features you’ll find in your typical PRM combined with the automation features of a TCMA platform.
The platform tracks your partners’ activity within the platform and with our new team update, makes it easier to ramp up your new channel manager. Your new manager will be able to see your partner’s history with you and get a sense of their strengths and weaknesses.
When you ramp up a new channel manager, you can ease the transition by giving your new manager access to the same information that the previous channel manager had. This can be done by assigning the new channel manager to the same group as their predecessor. The new manager will then be able to see the partner’s history on the platform and any notes that the previous manager had taken. This will get them up and running.
Schedule a demo to learn more.
Conclusion
Channel partnerships are mutually beneficial relationships between you and your channel partners. You get to expand your market reach and gain revenue while your channel partners get more customers and revenue. These relationships are also personal relationships between channel managers and partners and take time to build.
When channel managers leave, it’s difficult for new managers to rebuild that relationship. It also takes time to ramp them up. To make that process faster, you need to ensure that your partner expectations stay consistent. You also need to make sure your expectations for your new channel manager are communicated clearly. Finally, you need to ensure that your new manager has access to all the necessary information and systems they need to get up to speed.