Deal reg can have a profound impact on a vendor’s channel programs. Yet business leaders sit around at the end of the year and wonder why they didn’t find success. To get better results, businesses need better tools, better programmatic details and a better basic understanding of how things work. Truth be told, there’s a lot of BS around deal reg. If you want your program to succeed, you need to be aware of the following four persuasive deal registration myths, why they are bogus, and what you can do to improve the partner experience—and, by extension, the success of your program.
Myth #1: Partners work for you.
Because you’re paying out partners who help you close deals, this essentially means they work for you, right? Not at all. Although partners can help you drive more revenue, they absolutely do not work for you, and they’d be insulted if they knew you thought of them that way. If you want them to help you grow your channel program, you need to
pay them every step of the way to drive that behavior. And keep paying them—don’t make them wait! At the end of the day, partners who participate in your program are salespeople who are motivated by one thing: cash. So cut the nonsense and pay them. Otherwise, you can expect more and more partners to leave your program. You wouldn’t work for free either, would you?
Myth #2: Partners have no other responsibilities.
We’ve just established that partners do not work for you. That being the case, they aren’t just focused on deal reg for your program. Instead, they are focused on solving problems for
their customers. To this end, they are selling many other products—not just yours. Just because you were named a Gartner Cool Vendor three years ago doesn’t mean your partners will be able to sell your solutions automatically, despite what you might think. Partners are way too highly paid and way too busy to spend their days filling out forms with all the data you request, especially when they aren’t being properly incentivized. Further, if you don’t have a
sophisticated deal registration system that makes your partners’ lives easier, you won’t get the level of participation you’re aiming for.
Myth #3: Partners will update deals if you ask them.
When you’re in sales, you’re laser-focused on closing deals and racking up revenue and commissions. The last thing on your mind is spending your time doing what essentially amounts to busywork that you’re not compensated for. Simply asking your partners to update deals won’t actually make them do it. If your goal is to legitimately make sure that they are updating deals as statuses change, you need to incentivize them to do that by paying them appropriately for their time and effort. At the same time, you also need to make sure that it’s as easy as possible for partners to update deals. One way to do this is by using a modern deal reg solution that gently reminds partners to update deals and keeps them engaged with a steady stream of communication. For example, Vartopia EZ Update gives partners the opportunity to update deals without having to log in to your portal.
Myth #4: Partner portals make all the difference.
Don’t get us wrong: Partner portals are great. They’re often filled with a wealth of information such as e-books and sales enablement documentation, which can be particularly helpful. Still, although your most dedicated partners might make it through all 37 of the e-books that are available through your portal, most partners expect portals to provide at-a-glance training resources and the ability to easily register deals. Not everyone has a ton of free time to read through anything more than the most important information they need to do their jobs effectively. The bells and whistles might help you drive competitive advantage to an extent. But if your portal’s main function
isn’t helping your partners sell more or making their jobs easier by streamlining deal reg, your program is unlikely to get the results you’re hoping for.
Ready to supercharge your deal registration program?
If you want your deal registration program to succeed, you need to stop thinking about deal reg the way many channel managers have thought about it over the years. By building a program that actually makes your partners’ jobs easier—and ensures they are well compensated for their efforts—you can drive more sales, increase customer satisfaction, and bolster your bottom line. To learn more about how modern deal reg tools can transform your channel program,
drop us a line today.
