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Posts Tagged ‘channel partner salesperson education’

How To Keep Channel Partner Sales Rolling Through The Holiday Season

Posted on: December 12th, 2011 by joe No Comments

The six weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas can be maddening for salespeople.

Turkey, gifts and time off puts sales meetings and calls on ice for weeks. Many salespeople are on autopilot during this time. This is the time when your team should be seriously planning and prepping for the New Year.

To keep your business rolling during this slow time, here are some easy way to keep your salespeople on point.

Research, Research, Research – This is a great time to research your prospects to get an understanding of how they operate and make decisions. Look at company websites and social media sites such as LinkedIn to get some intelligence.

Education – When things are slow, it’s a great opportunity for channel partner salesperson education. Whether you attend webinars or in-person training sessions, this is a great opportunity to improve your staff.

Plan Ahead – This is the time to lay the groundwork for important trade shows and sales meetings with channel partners throughout the year. If you map out your year ahead of time, you’ll be in better shape for the duration of the year.

Create a Campaign – Start the New Year off with a bang with a campaign that targets your sales leads.

Following these tips will keep you rolling through the holiday season. For more great tips, be sure to read other post on the Right On – No Bull Marketing Blog. There, you’ll find expert best practices on the best ways to increase dealer network sales.

5 Social Media Trends Impacting Manufacturers

Posted on: November 9th, 2011 by joe No Comments

If you want to increase dealer network sales, your network of dealers needs to be using social media to promote your products and services.

Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are all great ways to grow your business.

However, if you want your channel partners to use social media, you really need to understand the important trends impacting manufacturers.

Social Media Examiner recently had an excellent posting on important social media trends. We’ve highlighted the most important ones for distributors and manufacturers looking to grow channel partner sales.

Trend #1: Focus On Facebook and LinkedIn

When it comes to social media, companies tend to focus on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. The stats from the Social Media Examiner posting show social media use at:

Facebook – 49%
Twitter – 40%
LinkedIn 27%
YouTube 23%

In our opinion, it’s important to focus on Facebook and LinkedIn. That’s because Facebook and LinkedIn have very large user bases. They also very easy to interact with potential customers.

Trend #2: Most Channel Partners Need Social Media Help

According to the report, lots of companies now use social media to promote products and services. But do they know what they’re actually doing?

Our guess is that some have a slight idea to what they’re doing while most are completely clueless. For distributors and manufacturers, it’s important to make sure your channel partners know how to promote your products and services via social media.

There are channel partner salesperson education programs that can help teach your channel partners how to sell and market in the internet era.

Trend #3: Be Patient

If you want to see success, you and your channel partners need to be patient. You’re not going to see record results overnight. It takes time and hard work.

The report showed that most companies generally saw an increase in confidence with social media at the two-year mark. We know that’s a long time, but if you have a fully developed social media marketing plan, you may not have to wait that long.

Trend #4: It’s All About Conversation

In the report, it showed many companies are using social media to broadcast marketing messages. This is totally wrong.

With social media, it’s all about the conversation. Have discussions with your customers on Facebook. You’ll build a stronger relationship and have a life-long customer. That’s the goal that you need to stress to your channel partners.

Trend #5: Measure Results

When it comes to social media marketing, most do not measure results. If you want to see channel partner sales increase, you need to pay close attention to your social media results.

According to the report, more than half of the respondents didn’t consistently pay attention to the results. This is a big mistake. By paying attention to the number of followers, comments, likes, postings, etc., you’ll be able to create a more successful social media marketing plan.

Get More Great Tips!

Paying attention to these five trends will help you increase channel partner sales. For more great tips, be sure to read other posts on the Right On – No Bull Marketing Blog and follow us on Facebook!

Ways To Beef Up Your Channel Partner Sales

Posted on: November 7th, 2011 by joe No Comments

If your channel partner sales are flat, you may need to give your dealers a little sales advice.

This may seem a little untraditional, but it’s the best way to stay in touch with your dealers, while working to increase sales.

Here are some ways to help them sell more of your products.

1. Get Inside Their Head – Sales is 1 percent physical and 99 percent mental. If a salesperson presses too hard, they’re not going to close the sale. Like golf, don’t try so hard. You’ll post more sales.

2. Sales Is Not about Selling – Good salespeople know that selling is all about building a relationship with the customer. Don’t get too caught up with trying to close the sale. Working on building a strong relationship.

3. It’s about the Help – Selling is all about helping the customer. If you don’t answer the customer’s questions, you won’t make the sale. Ask questions to find out the needs and concerns of your customers.

4. Customers are Not All the Same – If everyone were the same, we’d have a simple sales formula. Understand some customers respond better to visuals (signs, brochures). Others respond better to dialogue.

5. Provide Support to Your Claims – Customers on the fence sometimes need to see reviews or testimonials. Be sure to have some on hand. They can go a long way in closing a sale.

Following these five tips will help you increase channel partner sales.

At Right On – No Bull Marketing, we’re experts at helping you find new channel partners and channel partner salesperson education.

For more, great channel partner tips, be sure to become a fan of the Right On – No Bull Marketing Facebook Page.

Is The Internet Transforming The Sales Process?

Posted on: October 26th, 2011 by joe No Comments

The internet sure has changed the way we get information.

It has changed the way we get our news, listen to music and for some … even how we watch television.

But has it change the sales process?

This is an important question for distributors and manufacturers because you constantly hear that the internet is changing everything. Some experts say it’s changing. Other’s say it’s not.

To help you answer this question, you need to understand how people view technology such as the internet.

Think about this…

You’ve probably heard of the telephone. It’s that thing with all the numbers that lets you communicate with your family and friends.

Over 100 years ago, businesses faced a similar challenge with the telephone that today’s businesses face with the internet. We like to call this the “getting to know you phase.”

The Getting To Know You Phase

During the getting to know you phase, businesses really don’t know how to use the technology.

Typically, only a few specialized people know how to use it. With the telephone, many business leaders had assistants take the calls and transcribe the conversation.

Sounds like a waste of money. Doesn’t it?

Well during this phase, people are still trying to figure out how the technology will fit into every day life and work.

The Experimentation And Adoption Phase

Once people start using the technology, they begin to experiment with it. With the telephone, businesses started doing all sorts of things. Some worked. Others didn’t.

Eventually the technology is full adopted, and it’s seamlessly integrated into every day life and business.

The internet is moving quickly into regular adoption. Obviously, new technologies such as smartphones are impacting the adoption process.

So, is the internet changing the buying process?

The answer is yes.

The internet is changing the way customers gather information about the products that you manufacture.

At the moment, customers are figuring out ways to use tablet computers and smartphones to improve on the buying experience.

As distributors and manufacturers, it’s your job to work with your channel partners to give them the resources that they need to sell more of your products in the 21^st Century.

Most channel partners didn’t know how to sell before the internet, so you’ll need to provide them with the resources necessary to do this.

At Right On – No Bull Marketing, we can help you increase channel partner sales. We provide channel partner salesperson education that shows your channel partners how to sell in the 21^st Century.

To learn how we can help you, call us today at 602-412-3168 or visit the Right On – No Bull Marketing Contact Page.

Why Your Channel Partners Are Ignoring You

Posted on: September 29th, 2011 by joe No Comments

Are you having trouble staying in contact with your channel partners?

It’s not uncommon. Many manufacturers and distributors have similar problems.

If your channel partners are ignoring you, here are some tips to get them to pay attention to you.

1. Understand the Function of Your Products – Your dealers will already understand the features and technical specs of your products. As a manufacturer, it’s your job to help them understand how your products will improve the lives of their customers. For example, if you manufacture furniture, it’s far more important tell them how customers will benefit from the furniture than talking about the furniture itself.

2. Understand Why the Product Is Profitable – Your dealers are going to want to know why your product is profitable. To explain this, you will need to understand why customers will use your product over the competition. You can explain why your product is profitable by understanding how your product improves the lives of customers.

3. Show Commitment – If you want to get the most out of your dealers, you need to show commitment. You need to be regularly posting helpful information on your dealer portal that will help them sell more of your products. Posting tech specs and company history information isn’t going to cut it. Dealers need to know how to sell and market your products.

4. Be Consistent – You want to be consistent when communicating with your dealers. That means regularly communicating with them. Have the infrastructure in place – dealer portals, websites, email lists, etc. – so you can consistently communicate with your dealers.

5. Balance Interests – To have a mutually profitable relationship with your dealers, you need to balance both the interests of your business with your dealers’ interests. If you want to see success, it can’t all be a one-way street. Keep this in mind when interacting with your channel partners.

Following these five tips will help you to communicate with your channel partners.

At Right On – No Bull Marketing, we help manufacturers and dealers increase channel partner sales with our channel partner sales consulting.

We have a proven track record of increasing channel partner sales using a variety of techniques including company newsletter services and channel partner salesperson education programs.

To learn more how you can help us today, contact us at 602-412-3168 or visit the Right On – No Bull Marketing Contact Page.

Posts Tagged ‘channel partner salesperson education’

How To Keep Channel Partner Sales Rolling Through The Holiday Season

Ways To Beef Up Your Channel Partner Sales

Is The Internet Transforming The Sales Process?

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