“Feet on the Street?” No. What We Need Are “Boots on the Ground”

We are hearing a lot these days about “boots on the ground” – referring to our trained, well-equipped soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan who are in place in a fighting situation. They are not just present, but have hit the ground running.  We know instinctively what this means in terms of their being able to execute their mission. They are not just airlifted into place but are professional, trained, equipped, specialized, and ready to face the unknown in order to follow through at every step of their mission.

This immediately brings to mind our usual notion of channel partners as “feet on the street” – able to address a bigger market than we can through our direct sales organization, but viewed as mere bodies that take up space. Are they trained and specialized in our products? Are they capable of taking on any competitor without flinching? Are they the “best and brightest” we can bring to bear? The shortcomings are immediately obvious. There are several things we can do to make sure our channel partners are “boots on the ground”:

·         Training: our military are trained continuously – we don’t content ourselves with a half-day of training once a year, followed by a raucous night of drinking and “bonding”.  As sales managers, we need to augment standard certification training with reinforcement training several times a year, with role playing, lunch-and-learn sessions, case study discussions, win loss analyses and other interactive training.

·         Hands-on assistance: in the military, there is no substitute for on-the-job training. Soldiers train in simulated battlefield situations, with live ammunition and the threat of imminent danger. While most channel sales are not life-threatening, it pays off when the channel sales manager takes an active role in sales calls with the channel partner. Helping the partner learn how to deal with objections, better understand the solution capabilities and compete against the competition will help form a bond and will pay off in the long run.

·         Special programs and incentives: there will be times when the channel partner focuses on other products in his arsenal, rather than yours. In order to keep the training and knowledge fresh, and encourage active participation, programs and incentives are key. These keep your product top-of-mind and create a reason to try to include your product in proposed solutions. The more your programs and incentives match the culture of the channel partner, the better they will be accepted.

But in the end it’s the channel manager who provides these ingredients, and ties them all together. One government reseller I worked with stated it clearly: “Your channel marketing programs are great, and the incentives are terrific. But I could never have achieved what we have done without my channel manager.”