Make an impact at Your Partner’s Global Sales Kick-off (part 2/2)

This article is for software vendors who are selling through partners of different types, particularly larger partners, who hold Annual Sales Kick-offs.

In part 1, I mentioned our first client and their opportunity to present at their new partner’s Global Sales Kick-off with 1,500 salespeople. Read how they made the best of this opportunity, and how it could have killed their business.

Part 1 ‘Get in there – Your Partners’ Global Sales Kick-off’, covers how a vendor can get the opportunity to present to their partner’s sales teams at a Global Sales Kick-off or other sales teams’ gatherings. 

Many companies restrict vendors from directly contacting their partners’ sales teams. Presenting to their global sales team is a super opportunity to make a big impact on your partners’ salespeople around the world.

In winning an opportunity to present, then how do you best present your product:

1) Don’t sell to them. Tell them when and why customers buy

Being told how great your product is, is one of the most frustrating experiences for resellers. Regardless that you have a signed reseller agreement with the company, you now need to get the sales team convinced. You need to talk from their point of view, considering their sales challenges objectively:

• Position your product within what they are currently selling. What product is their greatest focus? What customer problems are they mostly focussed on solving? How does your product fit and relate to their focus, without asking them to change their focus?
• Outline the customer scenarios, the most relevant use-cases for them to identify opportunities within their contact base.

2) Materials: Just what they absolutely need, and no more

Too many provide a large repository of materials, thinking that more is better. If you have to show them everything, then you don’t know what’s important. Focus is the key:

• Just what they need, and structured to their needs. The more materials you provide the more confusing it becomes unless you provide it in a structured manner to meet the salespeople’s needs.
• Structure your support materials according to what they need, when they need it aligned to the stages in their sales process; prospecting, presenting, discovery, proposing, and closing.
• Don’t demo. Nobody cares. That’s way too much detail at this point. You may be proud of your product, but you need to be confident that outlining the needs solved is more important, until their ready. They trust that your solution works, because you have customer references.

3) Salespeople are the point of the spear, be there to support them

A salesperson’s job is driving and managing the process and relationships with a focus on solving their customers’ needs. They don’t need to be the experts on everything.

• Make it easy for them. Salespeople will sell your product if it’s easy to sell. It takes much work to make it easy for the salespeople and its takes time to learn and finetune.
• Give them precisely what they need, when they need it, urgently. When a surgeon is saving their patient’s’ life and asks for a specific instrument they need, then they need it precisely and urgently to get the job done.
• You can’t do the job for them, even if they are doing it badly. You don’t choose your partner’s salespeople, you need to figure how to work with what you have. If you can, assess the salesperson’s capabilities, how they work and how best you can work with them.
• Be there. Support them and help them. You may not be able to contact your partners’ salespeople, but they could contact you if they feel you can help them sell more faster, while not trying to control, influence, or push them.
• Make them look good. Salespeople look good to their customers when they solve an urgent need efficiently. Salespeople look good to their managers when they meet targets and deliver revenues. Salespeople look good to their peers when they are scoring for their team and being recognised for being good at their jobs. Make it about your salespeople’s egos in making them look good, while you also benefit from the results.

When we were faced with the opportunity of presenting to 1,500 salespeople, it was too much. Our client was a company with 5 direct salespeople with their own direct sales targets. How could they be expected to support enquiries from 1,500 salespeople from around the world? We narrowed the focus as much as we could to the most ideal customers, applications being sold and regions and this resulted in presenting to just 50 salespeople. We thought that 50 was more manageable, and yet still this was too much, and seriously impacted direct sales results for that quarter until we rebalanced how the companies worked together.

Getting in front of your partners’ sales teams is a big opportunity, and one to constantly look for but do be aware of the risks within the opportunity.