In the complex world of enterprise accounts, team selling is\nthe name of the game. When it comes to winning, selling to, growing, and\nserving major accounts, team selling needs to be much more than just a tag\nline. It needs to be the way you do business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All too often, though, when we talk about team selling, we\nthink only about marshalling all the selling teams\u2019 internal resources. That\u2019s\nnot enough. Winning and growing major accounts should be everybody\u2019s business. The\nentire organization \u2013 Accounting, Finance, Legal and all other functions \u2013 must\nhave a level of accountability and a role in making major account sales happen.\nBut there\u2019s an even broader element to team selling that looks beyond the walls\nof the selling organization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The unique challenges of the enterprise world often require\nthat team selling includes the involvement of parties external to the\norganization itself. And while this collaboration can lead to big wins, the\ncomplexities of third-party partnering demand the navigation of very challenging\nwaters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jay McBain, Forrester\u2019s Principal Analyst of Global Channels\nreports that 75% of world trade now flows indirectly. Digest that for a moment\nand then think about the critical roles played by channel partners in that\nmassive wave of global business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, channels are often involved in selling to small\nand medium-sized businesses as well, but the complicated needs and pains of large\naccounts routinely demand that channel selling be part of our strategy for\nwinning business. As an example, I recently talked with a sales manager from a large\ntechnology infrastructure provider that won a $22M deal with one of the largest\nUS health systems. The victory included nine different partners providing supportive\nservices in the winning solution. A big deal? Definitely! Complex? You bet! But\nnot uncommon in the enterprise world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This type of collaborative selling, in which third-parties represent\nand sell the products and services of primary firms to actual end clients can be\nhighly effective. The alliances involve the use of distributors, value-added resellers,\nfranchisees, agents and other types of entities to expand a primary firm\u2019s\nreach, open new markets and make connections between offerings and potential\nbuyers that would otherwise be impossible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Such channel partnerships can provide powerful operational\nvehicles for increasing a firm\u2019s bandwidth in executing its go-to-market\nstrategy. With a dependable channel sales model in play, a firm can scale\neffectively, ramping up or down as situations warrant, often utilizing multiple\nchannel partners to achieve its goals. Such a strategy can also provide a\ncost-effective selling framework, with expenses often far less than they would\nbe with a direct sales force. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But channels carry with them their own unique challenges. Some\ndegree of control is always sacrificed in channel models in comparison with direct\nselling frameworks. And the increased levels of uncertainty and risk present\nnegatives that must be carefully considered in the cost-benefit analysis of such\nmodels. Being forced to take into consideration not only the needs and pains of\nyour prospects but also those of indirect, often uncontrolled selling teams can\nbe difficult and extremely frustrating. It\u2019s hard to argue with those who\nsuggest that channel sales management is one of the hardest jobs in all of business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the enterprise selling world, it is critical to have a keen\nunderstanding of how channel partnerships work and what the best practices for\nmanaging those partnerships are. Even if your firm sells direct, you\u2019ll most\ncertainly be working with and selling to channel organizations. And, of course,\nall firms face competitors that utilize third-party models, which makes a\nworking knowledge of channel dynamics all the more important. Such is the complex\nnature of enterprise selling \u2013 what you don\u2019t know almost certainly will hurt\nyou.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, how can build a solid understanding to embark on\nbuilding a roadmap for the feeding and growth of channel-based sales forces? This\nis a topic that, surprisingly, hasn\u2019t received the focus it deserves. Many\nsales training programs don\u2019t even recognize channel selling as the unique vehicle\nit is. Often, traditional programs preach that training of channel sales forces\nshould be structured in the same way as training direct sales forces. This\ncould not be more wrong!<\/p>\n\n\n\n