Friday, May 14, 2004

The Role of a Sales Rep
By Scott Karren

Often both a partner and a vendor want to work together more closely, but for some reason this does not happen. I recall a session with an account rep once who was preparing a value proposition to a distributor for a key project. Just weeks earlier the same distributor had told me that their key objective for the year was to increase business with the very vendor. So what went wrong?

In a way nothing. Both continue in the same old way they always had. The vendor made great products and the distributor bought them in volume, making them available to its resellers. Yet in another way, they completely missed the opportunity to do something bigger. Both need stronger demand with resellers. Both need to eliminate wasteful inefficiencies. Both need better communication. The real issues here are the role of the rep and the objectives for the relationship.

A rep can call on and touch an account, keeping mindshare high. “Hi, I’m your new IBM rep and I am just checking in on you. Here are some trinkets and I will be back again next month.” Just like detailing in retail environments, here the goal is to make sure the reseller’s mindshare is clean, orderly and conducive to the vendors business. I call this Channel Detailing.

Another role for the rep is account administration. Product availability, credit, authorization, billing, credits, and a host of other back office activities can be cumbersome to say the least. “Hi, I’m from Microsoft and I can help you get through our process and make it easier to work with us.” I recently became a distributor and reseller of Motorcat30 yachts from a small manufacturer in Poland. I needed a lot of help getting set up not only with Bond Yachts, but also with several ecosystem suppliers. New recruits and existing partners need a lot of help complying with vendor administrative systems, and a rep makes the process a whole lot easier. I call this Channel Concierges.

Problem resolution is another key rep role. When something has gone wrong and end user customers are screaming, the channel needs immediate help. “Hi I’m from Sun and I am your single point of contact, please leave your message after the beep.” Programs and platitudes are not enough here. We are talking about the reseller’s life blood. I call this Channel 911.

Moving from back office to the front office, another role of the rep is to promote the products. The traditional approach is to push the reseller adopt technologies as quickly as possible. “Hi, I’m from AMD and I would like to tell why our products are the most technologically advanced.” Resellers are inundated with product messages, some of them vital to their business. Creative approaches and value propositions abound, yet most of the marcom sent to channels falls on deaf ears. I call this Channel Awareness.

Out of the front office are the sales organizations of the partners. Their job is to identify, scope, propose and close enough end user business to hit their number and keep their business alive. “Hi, I’m from Oracle and I need to know how many licenses you will sell next quarter.” The reps at best often are seen as adding little value and at worst as bullies trying to hit their numbers on the backs of the channel. I call this Channel Stuffing.

Out in the market, the sales executive also has a role: business development. “Hi, I’m from Intel and I am here to help profitably grow your business.” If the rep has been properly trained, certified, and resourced they can bring incredible value to an account. Business intelligence, product positioning, consultative advice, links to corporate marketing, best practices, market insights and customer respect are just a few of the potential areas of impact. I call this Channel Management.

How you use the rep is up to you, but first you have to decide what you want out of your partners.

Scott Karren, The Channel Pro
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4 comments
Comments:
One way for a reseller to assess the vendor channel support model is to look for divisions of labor and teamwork. With this approach, a vendor might use a highly skilled rep to consult with the reseller management on business plan and mutual commitments necessary to increase revenues, a customer service rep to resolve everyday problems, a sales trainer to provide sales training to the front line reps of a reseller, and an SE to provide pre-sales technical support and implementation support.

A key to this type of model is tightly integrated teams. In this way, a senior rep directs the other resources and keeps them tightly coordinated. In this way, the team shares its collective knowledge of the account and avoids duplication of effort.

While larger vendors are in the best position to take advantage of these divisions of labor, even a small $10m hardware or software manufacturer can use this approach to provide better support of a channel. As such, when a reseller is evaluating a potential vendor, finding out about the roles and skills of various support functions can provide significant insight into the value that goes above and beyond the products.

Dave_Green@PipeAlign.com
 
Scott: You continue to amaze me as you push the boundaries of clear thought in the channel area. Although it is obvious that CAMs have a lot of jobs, it is not obvious how they need to delineate them and more importantly what the food chain looks like.

As people go about their jobs servicing the noise they lose the ability to drive the value. This value only comes at the business level and never at the product level. Of course there is always the rush to the next hot new technology but even that has its business costs. Ask any VAR when they made their first investment in VOIP and when they broke even and it will be a long and painful story. Yet it is obvious that VOIP will be a major Telecom change. The issue for channels is that few manufacturers addressed the business issues along with the certification issue.

Jim Melillo - jim@conversation.com
 
Great topic. I think this goes back to the simple rule that Stephen Covey teaches, "Begin with the end in mind." What are the goals for your program and how do your reps fit into accomplishing those goals? Determining what your company wants to accomplish with the reseller channel will help curtail the old rep habits of what I call "deer trail relationships" going to the same resellers, glad-handing, and eventually stuffing product into inventory.

It takes some forethought and planning to set objectives, goals and strategies for your reps in order to make the manufacturer, reseller and distribution work together for the benefit of all. That's why we call it channel management, unfortunately many companies simply manage channel chaos!
 
This post is also relevant from the the standpoint that when companies review budgets, it's critical that they clearly define the real issues. Often it's not how much is being spent on a program, but how it's being spent and how the program is managed.
 
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