22 Mar 2023
Channel Sales is when you sell to your end customer via a channel, ie a partner, a reseller, a distributor, a retailer, etc.
It is complementing Direct Sales, ie selling directly to your end customer.
I have spent the most part of my early career building Channel Sales for both hardware & software organisations.
The leverage potential of Channel Sales is huge, and mostly undertapped, ie with sub-par execution.
I think Channel Sales is vastly underappreciated, underutilised and often plain misunderstood.
Investing properly & executing well in Channel Sales is a great way to grow quickly - and to expand in regions where it would be difficult & costly to do so with Direct Sales only.
High-level:
- referral only: introduces us, we do the work, gets X if we close the deal
- closes deal, but on our papers, gets X
- closes deal, buys from us, signs on his papers (reseller)
- VAR (Value-Added Reseller) buys from us, sells a package to client including their service and our platform
For small fishes, 1) is the easiest as 2-4 comes with quite a bit of work to support partner adequately to close, else can lead to frustration or below par results.
X can be:
- % on closed deal (or “all revenues in Year 1” from that client if you want to be generous and include growth in account beyond first deal signed)
- discount on his own product use
- or other carrots (buy something from him, donate to charity of his choice, Amazon gift cards, etc…)
Need to assess:
- what drivers are / incentive threshold
- channel sales potential
- support required/expected
TODO expand on Channel Sales playbook.