Lazer-Focus

Morris said succesful channel managers know how to prioritize the subagents with which they interact.

Morris’ recipe goes like this: identify 2-3 ‘A’ players and 6-12 ‘B’ players. Plan on driving the business predominantly through those A players will working to promote the B players to the A tier.

“Get behind subagents that you believe in. And that will make your job as a channel manager much easier, cement the relationships and award your time to the partners you think can deliver for you,” Morris said.

Morris said channel managers should work to turn their “C” players into B players, but they should be wary. If they find themselves repeatedly giving quotes to partners with no sales ever occuring, it’s not a fit.

“Spend that time figuring out ways to promote them or fire them. Don’t stay in the middle, because they’ll just eat your resources. They’ll take all your time,” Morris said. “They’re dangling a carrot out in front of you. They have not proven to you at all that they are worthwhile to you. You’re just another tool in their bag, placed in front of the customers’ proposal spreadsheet to say, ‘Here’s the six vendors I quoted.’”

Peter Radizeski, president and president of Rad-Info, wrote a book about channel managers. He agreed.

“Enroll aligned Partners, not everyone that can fog a mirror,” Radizeski said.