Bold Journeys Podcast

For episode 60, I’m taking a break from our usual channel topics to share my story of sailing 1500 miles across the Atlantic Ocean. Hear what it’s like to sail from the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean to Rhode Island in the middle of the global pandemic. This is my “little big one” with 5 crew and 2 captains, including one of my sailing heros, Tania Abei, the author of Maiden Voyage. 

At this time when we’re not doing trade shows or in person events, we have to find creative ways to reach and connect with our partners.  And knowing what not to do is as important as knowing what to do. Paul Bird, Salesforce Enthusiast and Portal Wizard at Magentrix, shares the top channel management mistakes vendors make and the biggest opportunities for partner automation.

3 big channel management mistakes that vendors make are:

When it comes to partner portals, there's this idea that if you build it, they'll come...and that's not really the case. - @Magentrix_PB
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Does your content for partners have to be any different than what you're developing for your direct sales force? I don't think so. It just has to be easy to consume. - @Magentrix_PB
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You got to treat partners like they're your most important customer. If you keep giving them that red carpet VIP treatment, you'll find that you'll get mindshare and that wallet share from them. - @Magentrix_PB
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Even before Covid, Managed Service Providers (MSPs) have been one of the fastest growing channels for SaaS vendors. New work-from-home mandates have driven the demand for outsourcing to even higher levels. But building a well-functioning Managed Service Provider channel isn’t easy. In this episode, Tony Beller, SVP Worldwide Partner Ecosystems at TIBCO, shares a wealth of experience in building MSP channels that he gained at Saleforce, ServiceNow, and Anaplan.

Here are 10 steps you can take to build and manage a high-peformance SaaS MSP channel:

We created custom MSP pricing SKUs because they used our technology differently than end customers. - @tonybeller
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Use a double comp model, at least initially, as you get the first MSPs going and get the field used to the MSP channel. - @tonybeller
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I really believe that training should be something that you give to MSPs at a discounted rate, if not free, but then charge for certifications. - @tonybeller
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Covid-19 has driven an unusual economic crisis. For certain industry and technology sectors, companies are doing as good or better than pre-Covid. But many companies are struggling, including IT vendors. Steve Benson, CEO of Badger Maps and field sales pro, shares how to lead an IT Channel Sales team through this time of economic crisis and remote selling.

Here are five things you can do when leading your channel sales team in this crisis:

If the inability to sell face-to-face is hampering one sales stage, focus on the other stages where you can drive more activity remotely.

Lean into social media to generate new leads and deepen existing customer and partner relationships.

A slowdown in sales activity is a great time to sharpen the sword by up-leveling your team’s skills, especially in the area of negotiating and selling value.

When margins are getting squeezed, look at your sales comp plan. Reps will defend margins a lot better if you align their incentive plan with the profit line instead of with the revenue line.

An economic downturn when unemployment goes up is a great time to find and hire excellent channel sales talent. 

There are really great and clever tactics that you can use to generate new leads and deepen existing customer relationships by leveraging social media. - @SteveBenson
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We need to relearn how we're prospecting and rethink who is our ideal customer and who is a great lead. - @SteveBenson
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If revenue is important to an organization, which it always is, your sales channel is one of the last places you should look to make cuts. - @SteveBenson
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How do you build a partner program that will succeed in our new remote world? Believe it or not, there are many advantages of working 100% remote, as I learned from Michelle Hodges, VP WW Channels at GitLab. This is a company that has been 100% remote since it was founded. They have written over 5000 pages on how to run a company fully remote. And what they’ve learned about executing quickly and iterating continuously translates directly to how they run their partner program. In this episode, Michelle shares her expert insights on how SaaS vendors can restructure their partner program to succeed in a remote world.

Here are the top things I learned from Michelle about building a partner program for the remote age: 

Document everything. GitLab has an over 5000 page Handbook of how they do business remotely.

Rather than being constrained by dates, build a partner program that is continuously evolving and improving. And of course, make sure it is meticulously documented. 

Focus on the strategic objectives of what your company is trying to do, then think about how your partner program can drive that forward behavior.

Take advantage of the new normal to move faster and be more responsive. With Covid you no longer have those excuses to wait for a physical meeting to get things done.

Don’t wait for any process to be perfect. Document where you are and give your partners visibility into where you’re headed.

If you've done any research on GitLab, you'll see that we document everything. We have an over 5000 page Handbook of how we do business - @GlobalHodges
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Whenever we have a partner webinar and 100 folks on the phone, we have a doc up in zoom that everyone opens and they're adding in questions as we go forward. - @GlobalHodges
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We add to our partner program all the time. We don't change the fundamental contractual nature of what we're doing. But we are able to launch quickly and iterate daily. - @GlobalHodges
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When I build partner programs, I tend to look at the forward behavior I want to create as opposed to compensating on past activity. - @GlobalHodges
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