The Evolution of a Successful Channel Account Manager

Last week, Marketopia CEO Terry Hedden made his way to Pittsburg to speak at an internal sales kickoff seminar hosted by Continuum, a worldwide IT management platform company. Throughout this two-day seminar, Terry led 12 hours of content focused on Channel Account Management Executive Training. He spoke directly to the Continuum Sales Team, giving insight about how to improve the results of their Channel Account Managers.

This seminar was designed to give participants the mind-set concepts, knowledge and skills to grow into an “evolved” Channel Account Manager. Here’s a quick rundown of the seminar content that was covered so you too can soak up this valuable knowledge.

Resellers: Then vs. Now

If you take a look at resellers from only 20 years ago, you will notice that they are all pretty much the same. They offered the same benefits and limited services. There was not much to differentiate between one or the other.

However, today, managed service providers (MSPs) are finding more ways to leverage their portfolio of services and technologies in order to find the right solutions for their clients. They can offer up to 27 different services, from managed IT solutions to cloud computing services and management.

In the process, they must keep in mind that to be successful, resellers need to take on different strategies to better understand their target clients and then market deliberately to those needs. To best accomplish this mission, they need a robust Channel Account Manager.

Understand the Reseller

Because resellers are not all exactly the same, it’s critical to get to know who they are and from where they are starting.

• What are their goals?
• How do they want to grow?
• What is it that sets them apart from all the other resellers?

By understanding the reseller, you can create strategies that fit their goals and budget.

Know Your Target Clients

Not only is it important to understand the reseller, but also, who the reseller is targeting. Whether it’s small business or industry specific, no two potential clients are identical. The business needs are different from client to client. Knowing the target will give insight about how to effectively market to them.

Modify Your Approach

It’s critical that you modify your management strategy to closely align resellers with what they need the most and want to accomplish. When channel partners don’t market effectively, that’s when revenues suffer.

Channel Account Managers succeed by enabling and motivating their partners to proactively generate demand for their solutions. They do this by serving as their marketing consultants or by bringing in the right marketing resources, such as a company like Marketopia.

In the end, having a great product isn’t nearly enough. Unless marketed in an effective way, no one will know about your IT services or its benefits. That’s why there’s a necessity for developing a Channel Account Manager. Specifically, one who listens and learns about their resellers. Someone who works with them to form an understanding of where they are and who they target.

Most importantly, the Channel Account Manager gets the resellers to where they want to go, creates more revenue and, above all, helps grow a better business.

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