4 Bad Assumptions IT Brands Make About Channel Partners

… as streamlined and efficient as possible. Partners shouldn’t be expected to spend more than five minutes per month to execute a marketing campaign.

4. Through-channel marketing eliminates the need for incentives. Making the marketing process as easy as possible is obviously a major benefit to channel partners. But they may not immediately appreciate the opportunity you’re providing them. Their specialty is in sales and customer service and they’re often reluctant to consider devoting attention to other types of work, especially if they don’t see an immediate impact.

Incentives are an effective way to nudge partners to spend that necessary five minutes a month to send the campaigns. They offer a way to provide an immediate benefit that even those who are skeptical of marketing will appreciate.

Partners will respond positively to a wide variety of incentives. In our surveys of channel partners, we have found that cash incentives are the most popular, but a large number of resellers also voice interest in other tokens of appreciation, including additional marketing support. Brands would be wise to offer both: monetary rewards and marketing support to boost utilization.

While partners may demand incentives to participate in marketing at the beginning, over time they will begin to see and appreciate the impact of the marketing campaign. As a result, you’ll likely be able to dial back some of the incentives, since their main motivation to participate will be the leads generated.

Joel Montgomery is founder and CEO of OneAffiniti, a partner marketing company with closed sales tracking that he started in 2008 in Sydney. He expanded into the United States in 2015. You can find him on LinkedIn at Joel Montgomery.