Convey's Channel Partner MicroCast

Microcast

Gaining an Edge

This year Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide will not be making an appearance in the college football playoffs thanks to Auburn’s stunning victory in the Iron Bowl.  But you can count on Coach Saban to be there just about every other year.  He has many secrets to being at the top including the undying support of his university and the alumni, a huge budget and good coaches.  We have focused our college football MicroCast series on why he has been so successful, and today’s episode is about Saban’s willingness to use technology to get an edge.

A few years ago, Alabama began using a GPS system to track the performance and workload of its players.  Without getting too technical, this GPS system tracks a player’s top speed or acceleration in practice with his past performance.  Saban is looking to see if that player is getting worn out during the season.  Alabama lost to Clemson in the final minute of a national championship game, prompting Saban to consider that his team was tired.  Once he started using the GPS system to crunch the number, the data showed that the Tide had a performance drop off in post season, so Saban adjusted practice to keep his players fresh.  

So, if we take a play from Saban’s playbook and use technology to get an edge in our channel program, what technology should we be looking at and how can using that technology help us recruit better, run our program better and get more deals?

Start by using the data to be analytical about the ROI for each partner you work with.  I’m sure Saban’s GPS was relative complex, but once he used it after losing to Clemson, he won the national championship the next year after adjusting his strategy.  Your program likely has quite a bit of data that you need to use to determine what adjustments should be made in your partner strategy.  Look at the number of referrals and quotes to closed deals to see if the partner is sending in junk or real opportunities.  Look at what it is costing you to recruit and support a partner and adjust if the cost is too high.  Geolocate where you have the best partner traction and spend more time going to those locations. If you are in the Convey Channel program, run a catalog report to see which partners are engaged and what they interact with. 

Create digital experiences that engage partners when you’re not with them.  You’ll never have enough staff, money or time to go everywhere and that’s where digital experiences come in.  Technology, particularly Convey’s Channel program and partner portals, enable you to educate partners online, be present when partners are doing their research and starting their journey to find the right services and ensure that they are aware of your latest and greatest financial incentives.

Use technology to automate your processes.  Channel programs have a lot going on, never enough money and almost always are understaffed.  One way to get around this dilemma is to invest in a partner portal to make your staff more efficient and do more with less.  If you were using one of our portals, we would automate partner onboarding, managing your data, regular messaging and outreach and provide assets for marketing and campaigns.  Without automation, your program will never grow and may even have a hard time being relevant and surviving.

Leverage technology to make sure partners show up.  Saban believes that a full stadium is essential to keeping player morale up and winning games.  However, when the Tide is far ahead by halftime, students tend to leave, and the stadium starts to empty.  Technology has stepped in to encourage students to stay longer with an app called “Tide Loyalty Points”.  If students stay through the 4th quarter, they earn points toward priority access to post-season games. &nb

Microcast

Leadership Counts 

Nick Saban, legendary football coach at Alabama, has produced more successful head coaches of other programs than anyone in the league. Kirby Smart is leading the Georgia Bulldogs, winning his SEC division 3 years in a row and already having an appearance in the National Championship.  After a successful run at Colorado, Jim McElwain lead the Florida Gators, and Will Muschamp moved from Florida to lead South Carolina.  The list goes well beyond these standouts as Saban has created a machine for producing successful football leaders.

Saban’s secret is to focus on developing leaders by exhibiting the leadership skills he wants his coaches to adopt.  In the channel, we have many opportunities to lead our team and lead our partners to get the results we are looking for.  Let’s look at Saban’s leadership strategy to see what we can learn from it.

At the end of the day, Saban is still the boss and he maintains authority at all times. 

Watch Saban in a press conference and you’ll see that he is clearly the one in charge and also the one that is accountable if things don’t go Alabama’s way.  Knowing that there is a leader in charge of a master agency, a sales partner organization or a provider’s channel program who is willing to step up and be clear about their guidelines, their program and the results inspires confidence in others.  Take a lesson from Curt Allen who navigated his Windstream channel program through bankruptcy.  You could look to Curt and recognize who was the “leader” in the Windstream channel.

Surround yourself with the right people. 

The results say that Nick Saban is easily the best coach in college football, but he's got a keen sense of understanding that you become the best by hiring the best. He's not afraid to align with prominent personalities and talents as assistant coaches and coordinators because he realizes they can make the difference.  If you are in a leadership position in the channel, hire talented people that you can develop into leaders.  Then demand excellence.  Make sure that the people you invest in are worth it because you only have so much time to spend developing those leaders. 

Focus on the process over the outcome. 

Great leaders are fascinated by the process and followers tend to be obsessed with the outcomes. This may be the defining factor between a successful leader and an unsuccessful one. Saban immediately goes back to work after winning a National Championship. Championships are one-time events, but processes are repeated. You’ve seen football teams luck into a win and have setbacks in a game that produces a loss. But processes are a constant and not just a one-time thing. Our teams, businesses, and lives are defined by the processes we choose, so consider being driven to have the right processes in the channel that create success.  That might include the process to sell your services, the process to recruit partners or the processes to ensure that customers are happy with you.

Leaders know how to adapt and adjust.

I will never forget the National Championship game where Georgia faced off against Alabama three years ago.  I was there, sitting in the stands at Mercedes Benz stadium cheering on the Bulldogs thinking we had the game in hand after a great first half.  But then Saban adapted and adjusted pulling out his starting quarter back and putting in his backup Tua.  You know the rest as Alabama went on to win in double overtime.   

In the channel, good leaders have to show their teams how to adapt to changes, the competition, changing partner needs, and the list goes on.  Channel leaders adjust to make sure their program evolves and is healthy.

Inspire confidence in your people by sticking to your guns

Microcast

The Process

Because of his success winning national championships, Nick Saban is now the most successful active college football coach in history.  He wrote a book called, “Think Like a Warrior” where he described what he calls “The Process” as his secret to success.  Simply put, Saban shares that “The Process” is maintaining a relentless focus on things that we can control.  It also means not being distracted by the opponent’s perceived strengths or the score, but rather do your job so that you can contribute what you have control over.

How many times in your channel job have you gotten distracted over your development team missing a product release date, the reorganization that you think is coming to realign resources, or an install that is taking too long based on that final circuit?  Saban teaches his team that they are responsible for what they create, not what the other team has going on that they can’t control.

So, when we look at Saban’s “the Process”, how can we apply this and other things that he’s doing to the channel.

First, worry only about the things you have control over. Stress comes from things that we feel we can’t control.  On game day, there are a million small things that happen on and off the field that could drive players and coaches crazy....the way the ref made that call...the dropped punt and turnover....the missed pass or fumble.  The list is endless.  Saban coaches his players and his staff to not consume themselves with things that they can’t control but focus on what they can deliver.   

If you are a channel manager, you have control over which partners you spend time with and how you teach them to interact with you.  You can’t control how often they will refer deals and if those deal will translate to revenue.  If you are in channel marketing, you can control the quality of your materials, campaigns you run or events you produce.  You can’t control what partners will do with the materials you so carefully crafted.

Next, organize the process by breaking it down into its component parts.

Saban breaks his process down into smaller parts so each routine is understandable, manageable and measurable.  We develop software at Convey.  No task takes our developers more than a day or two and each new feature is compiled of many smaller tasks that we can manage and measure to keep us on track.  Those of us in the channel managing complex sales processes, commissions, installations or other processes should take a lesson from Saban’s playbook to take a big process, break it into its component parts then track and measure it. 

Don’t get anxious about impending situations.  How hard do you think it is to win in the SEC?  You have a balanced league with teams like Auburn, Georgia, LSU and Florida who are perpetual powers.   Saban is known to be hyper-focused with a work ethic that is unparalleled.  He keeps his eye on the prize, winning, and doesn’t pay attention to those other teams that try and distract him or what they may do in the future.

It’s easy to be distracted in the channel with one eye on the competition, the partner who is complaining the loudest, or with things that are not in your control.  Staying focused and minimizing those distractions is critical to make sure you have the right orientation to keep your eye on the prize – revenue.

Strive to be liked, but don’t obsess over it is another play in his playbook.
Nick Saban may easily be the best coach in college football because he's got a keen sense of understanding that you become the best by hiring the best. Sometimes we fear hiring people that are better than we are because they might outshine us, replace us, threaten us or be better liked.  If your channel program is going to grow, you have to deve

Microcast

Partner Recruiting

Unless you are from Birmingham or Tuscaloosa, you may be getting tired of seeing the Crimson Tide of Alabama in the playoffs and as college football national champions year after year.  For those who follow Nick Saban, he has many secrets to his success including the undying support of his university and the alumni, a huge budget and good coaches.  But many will argue that what really separates his outstanding football program is his focus on recruiting.

Unlike other college programs who come in as cheerleaders for their school and tout how great they are, Saban and his coaches have another approach that is very factual, practical and direct.  Recruiting coaches are taught to have a conversation that goes somewhat like this, “This is who we are. This is what we do. This is what we’ve done. This is what we feel like we can do for you. This is what we feel like you can do for us. If you want to be a part of it, great. If you don’t, somebody else will.'”

In our channel, partner recruitment is an on-going process.  Master agents want partners to sell through their contracts, and recruit based on their relationships with providers and what they can do for the partner that other masters can’t.  Providers recruit partners to sell services in preference to those of their competition.  So, what can we learn from arguably one of the most successful college football coaches of all time about recruiting?

The first lesson is to target the right partners.  Saban doesn’t want just anybody to play for Alabama.  It has to be a win-win.  He focuses not only on what Alabama can do for the player, but also what the player can do for Alabama.  Master agents and providers need to define the characteristics they value in a partner and then target those that come the closest.  Here are some questions to ask your program that help you recruit the right players:

·      What type of customers are currently in the partner’s portfolio?

·      How complex of a sales process does it take to win a deal?  Some partners are not motivated for a long, strategic and large deal?

·      What type of relationship does a partner need and want from you and is your program ready to support that type of relationship?

You don’t need every partner to affiliate with you, only the ones that create a win-win relationship and score the touchdown and bring the deal in.

Once you have defined the right partner, it’s time to narrow the field and focus your efforts.  Saban and his coaches can’t scout at every high school football game, meet every parent or bring every player to campus.  They have to focus their efforts to be effective.  Once a partner program has defined the ideal partner they want to target, then the next step is to eliminate activities that produce partners that are not going to succeed in the program.   As an example, if your deal is complex and you want a partner that understands security as a service, a program may want to target managed services providers, attend their events, and gear their marketing message to attract that type of individual.

Define what you can do for your partner and what you need them to do for you.  Back to Nick Saban.  His conversations with prospective recruits was direct and to the point.  “This is what Alabama can do for you AND this is what you can do for us.”  In the channel, we often forget the part about what we want the partner to do for us.  Partner programs should be clear about the benefits of their program, and most programs do this.  But you also need to focus on the commitments you want them to make to you and be clear about that.

Don’t wait for partners to come to you.  Go to them.  Although Alabama is an elite pro

MicroCast

Lessons from Nick Saban

This is the time of year when we get fired up about the college football playoffs, who is going to which Bowl game, and which teams will be in the elite four for a chance at the college football National Championship.  Nobody in college football has been to the “big dance” more often and won more national titles than Nick Saban, the coach of the Crimson Tide of Alabama.

Now, it pains me to say that because I’m a Georgia Bulldog fan, so Alabama is considered one of our arch enemies, and frankly, I’m tired of seeing them at #1 year after year.  Of course, that pleases one of my colleagues Danny who not only is a “Bama Boy”, but also worships at the feet of Tom Brady.   But when you have someone that is that successful, you have to take a look at what he does differently and think about what we might learn from his strategy, plan and process to see if there are some lessons we can apply to the channel.

Here are four things I’ve researched that break down Nick Saban’s strategy to stay at number one that I think we can all learn from.

It all begins with recruiting.

In our channel, partner recruitment is an on-going process.  Master agents want partners to sell through their contracts, and recruit based on their relationships with providers and what they can do for the partner that other masters can’t.  Providers recruit partners to sell services in preference to those of their competitors.  So, what can we learn from arguably one of the most successful college football coaches of all time about recruiting?

Saban’s recruiting coaches are taught to have a conversation that goes somewhat like this, “This is who we are. This is what we do. This is what we’ve done. This is what we feel like we can do for you. This is what we feel like you can do for us. If you want to be a part of it, great. If you don’t, somebody else will.'”  Imagine the clarity that gives a partner to know what your program can do for them, but what you expect in return.

Saban never waits for players to come to him, he finds those hidden gems, recruits year-around, and knows he faces stiff competition from the likes of LSU, Georgia or Clemson.  That lesson should translate to partner recruiting.  You have to go out and find partners proactively and not depend exclusively on passive ways to get them to notice you.  Advertise, offer incentives, host lunch and learns, be at regional meetings in order to find partners you want to work with. 

Next, perfect “the process”.

Simply put, Saban shares that “The Process” is maintaining a relentless focus on things that we can control.  It also means not being distracted by the opponent’s perceived strengths or the score, but rather do your job so that you can contribute what you have control over.  How many times in your channel job have you gotten distracted over your development team missing a product release date, the reorganization that you think is coming to realign resources, or an install that is taking too long on that final circuit?  Saban teaches his team that they are responsible for what they create, not what the other team has going on that they can’t control.

Saban also breaks his process down into smaller parts so each routine is understandable, manageable and measurable.  We develop software at Convey.  No task takes our developers manage takes more than a day or two and each new feature is compiled of many smaller tasks that we can manage and measure to keep us on track.  Those of us managing complex sales processes, commissions, installations or other processes in the channel should take a lesson from Saban’s playbook to take a big process, break it into its component parts then track and measure it.

Use technology to gain a competitive edge.

I was astounded to learn that Saban focused hard on&

Being in “the channel” can be a challenge, to say the least.  We have to balance our personal lives with our careers, manage through complex relationships, get people to notice us when the field of people who want attention is crowded, and deal with the uncertainties of businesses that combine with each other, go under, or fail to perform like we think that they should.

Having said that, there is quite a lot to be grateful about when we think about the decisions we made to chart our careers, run our businesses, and form relationships with colleagues in “the channel”.  Being grateful and appreciating what is good about our industry, our careers and our relationships has a number of positive benefits. 

Being grateful makes you a happier person.  Research reveals that if you just spend 5 minutes a day writing down what you are grateful for increases your feeling of long-term happiness. 

People that express gratitude are generally more well-liked.  Social capital never hurts, and gratitude tends to make us nicer, more trusting, more social, and more appreciative. As a result, we have more friendships and better business relationships.

Grateful people tend to progress further in their careers.  Gratitude can make you a more effective manager or team member, help you network, increase your decision-making capabilities, increase your productivity, and help you attract others to you. The result is that you move up the ladder quicker and your workplace becomes a more friendly and enjoyable place to be.

An attitude of gratitude promotes health.  Channel careers can take a toll on your health with lots of travel, eating on the road and long hours.  Research shows that grateful people are generally healthier, so it’s good to get all the help we can.

I’ve had a long career in technology, much of that involving developing and working in the channel.  At Convey, we have thousands of sales partners that use our portal services, master agents that we have automated and dozens of vendors that streamline their marketing through our services.  The bottom line is that I know the channel and here are some things that we should all be grateful for.

The Channel creates entrepreneurs. I’ve been an entrepreneur for most of my career, owning my own businesses since 1995.  Sales partners and master agents are also business owners.  Without needing significant start-up capital, thousands of you left the comfort of your jobs with carriers and vendors to start businesses and create recurring revenue streams that have afforded you very good lifestyles.  And for a lucky few, you’ve been able to sell your businesses creating generational wealth for your families.

The Channel is constantly evolving. Over the last 5 years, we’ve seen many advances in the channel that have given us more opportunities to serve our customers with a wide breadth of new technologies.  We’ve seen businesses move their phones and applications to the cloud, find better ways to connect to the Internet, cloud-based services to run every aspect of a business operation, the Internet of Things to track assets and the list goes on and on.  Evolving industries like ours grow, create opportunities for all of us, and ways to keep expanding our businesses. 

The technology we offer transforms how businesses operate. I spent a good part of my career in the conferencing industry.  We made it easy and cheap to have a remote team dial in from anywhere to meet virtually instead of getting on a plane to fly into headquarters. The technology was transformative because management became collaborative, people’s opinions were solicited and valued, and the remote worker became the norm not the exception.  Think about how we are transforming businesses with cloud services, contact centers and other technology. &

Listen in to a conversation between Curt Allen and Carolyn Bradfield as Curt shares his transition out of Windstream and involvement in InterAct LifeLine.  Carolyn and Curt share  the mission of  InterAct LifeLine and how this new technology company is poised to take on the opioid crisis and disrupt broken processes in addiction prevention and treatment.

Convey Channel Helps You Define Your Channel Program. 

Let’s face it.  Most of you don’t really want or need every partner out there to try and sell your services. You could try that strategy, but you end up with endless quotes, frustrated partners and very few deals. To have an effective channel program, you have to define who you want to do business with, both on the partner and customer side.  Vendors who participate in Convey Channel have numerous opportunities to use their content catalog to define their program, focus partners on the type of accounts that are in your sweet spot, and what partner benefits are part of your channel program.

Over the years, we’ve seen a number of vendors and master agents make the mistake of being all things to all partners.  Unless you are a huge national master agent with lots of resources or a vendor who has an extremely wide range of services, this strategy creates a recipe for disaster.  Partners tend to focus their sales efforts and build a customer base that matches their product expertise and sales skills.  The partner that likes to sell complex network deals to healthcare chains is likely not the same person that would be stimulated by pursuing a small business for hosted voice or failover service.

Convey has built its content and marketing network to help both the master agent and the vendor to define who they are and the type of partner they want to work with.

Start by creating an ideal partner profile and communicate your partner strategy through your Convey Channel content catalog.  That statement may seem scary to vendors and master agents because certainly it seems less risky to try and work with every partner, right?  But the reality is that 20% of partners are most likely to be those that are active with you and produce 80% of the referrals and your channel revenue. I’ve seen master agents be very successful by focusing on managed services providers as agents or vendors succeeding by attracting the partner who likes to sell complex cloud deals. 

A content catalog gives you many opportunities to let partners know who you are and how you define your partner program.  As an example, you can create a page inside your catalog entitled “Partner Program”.   Add text & graphics to let partners know if they are right for you or create a short informational video to communicate the message.  Use a banner to direct viewers to that page or a content post that define your program.

Then consider creating an “elite partner program” and inviting partners to join it.  Ask partners to “sign up” for your elite partner program in order to receive special help and support.  You can add a form to any page inside your Convey catalog asking the partner to let you know they are interested.  Once the form is filled out, you can designate any person in your channel organization to get notified so they can follow up.  If you have one of Convey’s partner portals, partners can apply to become members by linking them straight from your catalog on master agent portals to the member application inside your own portal.  You can even automate accepting that partner into your program or screen the application first before you approve that partner.

Next use the content catalog to educate partners on the type of customer that you would like them to pursue.  Unless you want an endless flow of referrals jamming up your quote desk, taking up your channel managers time and not resulting in transactions, you have to help focus your partners’ efforts.  Use your content catalog give partners an education on your target markets, the kind of account you want to work with and the individuals inside that account that are the right decision makers.  

Here is what works best.  Add case studies on sales successes in your best vertical market

A Balanced Channel Marketing Diet

It's easy in business to limit yourself to just a few marketing techniques especially if you are in the channel with limited resources and marketing budgets. You might look at the success others are having on social media and want to confine your marketing to LinkedIn and Facebook. Or, if your company has been around for a while, you might feel reluctant to dive into new digital marketing techniques and try instead to keep growing your channel using sponsorships and events.

One of the most dangerous phases in American business is “but we’ve always done it that way.”  If your channel fails to add the marketing diversity it needs to succeed in the modern market, your channel might continue to grow, but at a slower pace and without many key ingredients needed to sustain that growth. Eventually, a person that tries to survive on only pasta will notice they don't feel as healthy as they once did, and you'll notice the same thing about your channel if you limit yourself to just one or two marketing strategies.

Partners will likely interact with your business in a variety of ways before they decide to refer customers to you. They may browse your website, view an ad, scroll through your social media, search for reviews… the list goes on and on. This reinforces the fact that today’s partners are no different than today’s consumers who prefer to start their discovery process online and start exploring without your help. Partners are more autonomous than ever and choose to access information online and on demand. 

Our goal at Convey is to help you achieve a more balanced diet in your channel marketing strategy by adding that all-important element, digital and online presence through our Convey Channel program.  Here is how we help you create a balanced marketing diet.

First you have to get the partner to the table, so they know what you are serving. In the world of Convey Channel, you have a wide audience of partners who are hungry for services. There are around 40 master agents who have subscribed their over 23,000 sales partners to a Convey partner portal.  If you have a content catalog in our network, partners have many ways to find you because we help those master agents drive traffic to the portal.  In 2019 alone, we had over 2 million content views and downloads from partners who began their online journey to find you through Convey.

Then it’s time to start the meal with an appetizer. The partner may not know you yet, but they know they are hungry for the type of service you offer because their customers are asking for it.  In a balanced digital diet, you give the partner a taste of who you are, so they want to dig deeper.  Content catalogs on Convey master agent portals can contain a summary of your services in a battlecard, a quick video about your program, or a page that overviews your value proposition.

Now, let’s go to the main course.  Now that the partner has come inside your content catalog for a meal, you need to feed them what they want.  Partners need to know the type of customers that they should pursue, how to sell to them, how to interact with you and how they make money.  Partners looking for a deeper dive want a full meal of case studies, white papers, product features, or descriptions of high target vertical markets. You can vary that meal inside of a Convey catalog by promoting webinars, adding content, or being featured in outbound email campaigns.

And no balanced marketing diet would be complete without the dessert.  For partners, the dessert is most often that financial incentive that sweetens the deal.  We’ve seen Convey providers get very creative about how they showcase their spiffs and promotions.  They add creative banners to their content catalogs that can also appear on the master agent home page.  They get creative w

Full Transcript

Convey Micro-Cast Series

This is Carolyn Bradfield and you’re listening to the Convey Micro-Cast audio series.  

One of the key concepts every vendor must keep in the forefront of their mind when it comes to keeping sales partners engaged and interested is “out of sight, out of mind”.  With so many vendor choices and services out there, it’s just not enough to sponsor partner events, go to trade shows and travel to meet partners.   Communication must be continuous, online, and on-going to keep your company top of mindshare. 

Your message fades quickly once you are back on the airplane going home after a face to face event.  Here are some interesting statistics from the training industry:

1.         After only one hour, people retain less than half of the information you presented.

2.         After one day, that drops to 70%.

3.         After six days, 75 % of the information has gone out the door. 

So how does a channel program create a communication strategy until the time becomes right for a partner to notice, pay attention, and get engaged with you?  You have to go online, attract people to your message, and continuously reinforce your value proposition.  Here are 3 simple strategies.

# 1 Be present where your target audience is most likely to look.

Although sales partners might be on Facebook, they are definitely on LinkedIn, researching companies, finding prospects, and looking for business ideas.  They have signed up for email broadcast services like iAgent, Channel Vision or Telecommunications Association.  They subscribe to their Convey master agent portal.  You need to find a strategy for all of these online or electronic outlets to get to the audience that really matters. 

#2 Communicate continuously to ensure that your message will be seen

You never know when someone is going to be online trying to find strategies or services to sell to customers.  You have to continuously feed the content engine to ensure that when someone is on LinkedIn, they find your post in the Channel Partners group, read your email sent from Channel Vision, or find that SPIFF on a Convey master agent portal.  And don’t just say the same thing.  Vary your messages, inject new ideas, and communicate in a way that grabs their attention.

#3 Reinforce your message after a live event

You’ve spent a large portion of your marketing dollars on sponsorships and events, only to have that message fade if you don’t do anything else.  After the event is over, keep it alive in your social media posts, Convey content posts, or email broadcasts.  Take that new product announcement, the latest promotion, or the addition to your channel team that you announced at the regional event and go online to reinforce what partners learned when they met you.

The right time to communicate to partners is all of the time and the only way to do this is to have a strong online content strategy that focuses on where your audiences are looking, communicates to them continuously and reinforces your most valuable messages.

This is Carolyn Bradfield and you’ve been listening to our “Micro-Cast” from the Convey Channel Partner Program.