The lead villain in the 80's cartoons Transformers is the war hungry leader of the Decepticons, Megatron. Megatron transforms into a Proton hand gun which his treacherous ally Star scream uses against their enemies the Autobots. However Megatron and his minions are always defeated by the Autobots, one factor is that Star scream always sabotages or devises devious plans to kill Megatron so he can rule over the Decepticons. So why does Megatron keep Star scream in his ranks if he was such a useless ally? This scenario can also be seen in manufacturing companies who have many inactive partners that do not contribute to the indirect sales, yet they are still part of the company. Channel Management software can help a company in handling and administering their indirect sales but what if the problem lies in the roster that encompasses the indirect selling units?
If you are managing the channels, you need to evaluate the performance of the company's reselling team. You have to know which are active and which are inactive, which is an asset and who are the liabilities. If your resellers managed to come up with 250,000 dollars last year and your product costs 250,000 dollars it just shows that those certain resellers are not tapped into the right customers to sell your product. Worst they may not have the sufficient resource to supply the support your joint customer needs.
How to determine if your partners are worth investing your time and effort? If they are willing to take up training to improve their skills or if they inquire a lot on how to sell the company's product or service better is a good sign. It shows that they are enthusiastic and willing to put more on the line to help the company. If they are too eager to get leads before they know how to approach the market, chances are they are not going to add a lot of value. It is matter of knowing which one of them the company should keep is the key in taking out the rest and leaving behind the best.
What about those who are inactive? Every company has inactive reselling units and for an organization that has a global number of partners, it hard to monitor if they are improving or if they remain static. What to do with them? Follow the rule of Survival of the fittest. Set renewal certification, business plan requirement, or sales certification update, which will require them to complete these tasks in 3-6 month's time or else their partnership, will not be renewed. It maybe harsh but it only means if they want to stay part of your company they have to prove they are worth investing your money, time and effort.
Channel Management Software will allow the company to sort out problems with their indirect selling team effectively and will give the company clear visibilities of their partner's profile and performance which will help the company evaluate if they are worth investing for.
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