Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Make sure your basics are in place. The reseller needs the right tools and support so they can sell. I don't know how well you have set things up, so perhaps you already have this done. but if not, you should see an increase in sales just by giving them better tools to do their job.

You may want to provide incentives the employees at the resellers, not the reseller company. The point system you have sounds like it gives the award to the company, not to the employee. Sales people are often well motivated by money.

Getting resellers to do more is a push strategy. You can also look at a pull strategy - look to see if there is any marketing you can do at a national regional level (where it would help multiple resellers at once). Get the customers to search out the resellers.

Reward them on their efforts-- not those in competition with others. They immediately feel a competitor is able to do a better job, and not even try. Model it after the fiber companies-- they earn dollars based on sales (a finished product from someone else) and the store earns co op dollars.

Are your resellers online seller's or are the brick and mortar retail? I am assuming they are online affiliates.

How large is the cash prize? It seems that it would need to be worthwhile for the resellers to make an extra push.

Do you give the resellers feedback as to where they fall in regards to their points. Can a reseller find that they just need a few more points to surpass the person infront of them. This may cause a little more competition between the resellers.

Assuming your resellers are online, a better prize might be to give resellers a larger discount if they meet a certain quota every month. This would add to the incentive to sell a certain amount. The larger discount of course would add to their profit, causing them to sell more.

The problem with a single cash prize is that most know they will not win it, so it may not be that motivating. A larger discount could be achievable by all resellers and therefore more motivating.

Hope this helps,

Mike

Have you asked your resellers for information? Perhaps they're having problem competing with the competition, needing to find new niches, or something else. Support the resellers based on their needs, not just trying to make them sell more.

working with VARS, Distributors and Dealer networks is my speciality. I have done in depth interviews with everyone from the salesperson to the owners of these organziations. Based on their feedback, the biggest single way to drive additional sales comes from staying "top of mind". A program like the one you described is a good one for those who are competitive. But there are many people who say to themselves, "I work in a low population area - I can never sell like the guys in New York, London or Tokyo." You get negative mindshare with them.

That being said here are some thoughts for growing mindshare:
1) promotional peices designed to assist the reseller in understanding the value of selling your product
2) sales promotional products they can use in their own business
3) pay for promotion - where say, you pay for an event or email blast targeting your product to the resellers customers
4) spiffs for sales people - especially important here is minization of paperwork requirements
5) pay for performance of the reseller - putting money into the resellers pocket

The publication Computer Reseller News (CRN) is the bible of the industry when it comes to information on reseller programs. (And to a lesser extent, VAR Business)

Just go to their (CRN) web site and review the reseller programs for your competition and you will get an idea of what you are up against.

The more of the reseller's revenue your product accounts for, or the more consulting services it helps them sell (e.g., such as with the CRM stuff) - the more 'mindshare' you will get. Don't over look the distributor-sponsored shows such as Ingram Micro and Tech Data host. Then again, your product has to be distributed through them.

One of the biggest attractions to resellers (I used to consult to the industry) is sales leads. If you run your own lead generation program and provide the first-cut qualified leads to your VARs - that will make you stand out. Sales is what drives mindshare with those guys.

I would add only one simple idea that is very very often overlooked.

Product Training.

You may well have already done this but be sure hat each and every reseller is fully trained on your product; it's benefits and functionalities.

It takes 6 months to really learn and know any software and your resellers have to know it insode and out to be able to demonstrate it and sell it.

If they are fully confident on the product, they wil be happy to sell.

Set up some webinars with sales teams from all around and give them a really in depth demo of your product then open the floor for questions so that all the re sellers can hear each others ideas and objections.

The truth is that YOU will learn more than them :) Once you hear all their comments and ideas, you can.

a. improve the product offer
b. improve the incentive scheme to one that will motivate them all.
c. build a nice community of re sellers that trust each other and work as a team instead of competing against each other (assuming they have different territories).

make sure you have a monthly news up date email shot that goes out to each reseller with the latest news from the market and how other resellers are performing. Make sure this gets into the hands of the sales people not only to the boss of the resellers.

I hope some of this is helpful.

Matthew

1) Each reseller is different. Some are less concerned about the software sales and more interested in selling professional services surrounding the software. Some are looking to sell many small quantities to many clients and some just going after the larger sales with fewer clients.

2) Product training is great. Equip the reps with case studies and references of clients in different verticals that have used the software successfully.

3) Hold monthly/quarterly partner sessions to discuss new software offerings and to keep abreast of what they feel the shortcomings are of the program