Agents Identify 7 Best Practices for Channel Managers

4. Offer transparency by allowing contact with other departments. The channel manager should offer transparency by introducing the agent to personnel in other departments, such as billing, pricing, provisioning and repair. By bringing in whoever can handle the issue or question at hand, rather than delaying an answer because they don’t know who or how to get the issue resolved, channel managers can help reduce costly disruptions in the sales process. It is beneficial to all involved to make those resources available to the agents while serving as a leader or conduit for the process. After all, being a channel manager is about managing relationships. Their achievements are based on the success of others' work. Cultivate this process and the right outcome can be achieved in a timely manner.

5. Know the agents’ business and accurately represent them. A good channel manager should be the champion of the agents’ interests within their company. Agents said they sense that supplier personnel think agents are unreasonable because often by the time the agent ends up with the right person who can answer the question, they are feeling frustrated. The agent, they said, should be treated more like the customer they’re trying to help.

6. Channel managers should never know less than the agent. A good channel manager has product and application knowledge, long-term industry experience and a feel for the competition. Most importantly, they have a comprehensive understanding of the inner workings of indirect sales. TCA members found it was extremely counter-productive to work with channel managers that were not properly matched to their role — particularly those coming from direct sales. Agents agreed, however, it is ideal to work with a channel manager who has a solid history with the company, as these are often the most successful relationships.

7. Understand the agents’ focus on product quality. Based on agents’ past experiences, what appears to be a good spiff doesn’t bring value if it is not a good product to start with. A good agent pays more attention to the product quality when selling, not the spiff. Channel managers must be mindful of this focus and work to deliver to agents comprehensive information on products that will bring beneficial results to the customer.

At the end of the day, the customer always will be the winner as the caliber of service they receive becomes markedly improved through the cultivation of mutually beneficial channel manager-agent relationships.

Lynn McCullough is association manager for the Technology Channel Association (TCA), where she is involved with the direction and management of the association, as well as membership recruitment and retention. She can be reached at lmccullough@tcasite.org.