Channel Sales Strategy to Increase Your Revenue in 30 Days!

Channel sales are a powerhouse for revenue growth, with companies that use channel sales strategies achieving up to 20% higher profitability than those that don't (source: Forrester Research).

In this guide, you'll learn how to craft an effective channel sales strategy, identify ideal partners, and maximize revenue—all within 30 days.

What is Channel Sales?

Channel sales is when retail company or a business sells its product or service through partners like retailers, distributors, or agents, rather than selling directly to customers.

The channel sales model allows businesses to leverage external partners for faster market expansion. These partners, called channel sales partners, help reach a larger target market and can make the sales process faster and more effective.

This direct sales model strategy allows businesses to expand without needing a large in-house sales team.

How to Build an Effective Channel Sales Strategy

1. Identify the Right Channel Partners

The first step in a strong channel sales partnership strategy is to find partners that align with your business goals. A channel partner is an outside company or individual that helps you sell your product or service. These could be distributors, resellers, or affiliate partners.

Why It’s Important:

The right channel partners can make your sales process more efficient. They already have an established customer base and a target market that fits your product. This saves time and helps you reach new sales channels and new markets more effectively.

Choosing partners who share your values and understand your target audience can lead to a strong, profitable partnership.

How to Implement:

• Research: Look for potential partners with experience in your industry and a strong reputation. Ensure they have access to your target market.
• Evaluate Fit: Make sure they align with your brand and sales strategy. Check their sales process and see if it matches your sales goals.
• Start Small: You don't have to sign big deals right away. Start by collaborating on smaller sales efforts and see how the partnership works.

2. Create a Strong Onboarding Process

Onboarding is how you welcome and educate your new channel sales partners about your product, brand, and sales strategy.

A clear onboarding program helps partners understand your product or service and their role in your sales process.

Why It’s Important:

A strong onboarding process ensures your partners are equipped to sell your product effectively. It reduces confusion, speeds up sales, and sets a strong foundation for your channel sales programs.

Good onboarding also creates strong partner relationships and ensures consistency in how your product is presented to the customer.

How to Implement:

• Clear Communication: Share your sales channel strategy, sales process, and expectations. Explain how your product or service benefits the target market.
• Provide Resources: Supply marketing assets, product guides, and any other sales enablement resources to help them understand your offering.
• One-on-One Support: Schedule calls or meetings to answer questions and support your partners. Make sure they feel like part of your sales team.

3. Implement a Comprehensive Partner Training Program

Training goes beyond onboarding and helps partners continuously improve their sales skills. It’s important to provide ongoing support, coaching, and resources to ensure partners stay updated on product changes and new sales strategies.

Why It’s Important:

Even great partners need training to succeed. An ongoing training program helps keep your channel partners informed, motivated, and aligned with your sales goals.

This leads to better sales performance and higher revenue growth. Training is also a chance to celebrate partner success and encourage continued effort.

How to Implement:

• Create a Training Schedule: Offer regular sessions on your product updates, new sales strategies, and market changes.
• Provide Online Tools: Use partner portals or e-learning platforms to make training materials easy to access. A good partner sales program often includes a mix of videos, guides, and quizzes.
• Encourage Feedback: Ask your partners what kind of training they find helpful. Use their input to improve your program and make it more effective.

4. Establish Clear Goals and KPIs for Partners

KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators, are measurable goals. These goals show if your channel partners are on the right track. They could include sales targets, customer growth, or revenue.

Why It’s Important:

Setting goals and KPIs helps partners know what you expect from them. It also provides a way to track sales efforts and measure performance.

If partners know their goals, they can better align their sales process with your own business model needs. This will lead to more revenue growth.

How to Implement:

• Discuss Goals Together: Sit down with your partners and talk about what you both want to achieve. Are they aiming for new customers? Higher revenue? Or maybe breaking into new markets?
• Make It Measurable: Create specific numbers for each goal. For example, "increase sales by 20% this quarter" is clear and easy to track.
• Use KPIs for Motivation: Share the progress with your partners. Show them how close they are to meeting their goals. Use their progress to encourage and celebrate partner success.

5. Create a Partner-Centric Support System

A partner-centric support system is all about helping your partners succeed. Think of it as a "help desk" for your partners.

They can ask questions, get updates on your product or service, and get tips to improve their sales process.

Why It’s Important:

Support helps your partners feel confident and valued. It ensures they are informed about your product, which makes them better at selling.

When partners know you are there to help, they are more motivated to perform well. This also strengthens partner relationships and the channel sales program as a whole.

How to Implement:

• Offer Regular Check-Ins: Schedule monthly or bi-weekly calls with your partners. Ask them how things are going and if they need any help.
• Provide Resources: Share sales enablement resources like guides, sales scripts, and training videos. These resources can make their sales efforts more effective.
• Create an Online Portal: Build a place where partners can access information 24/7. It can include FAQs, marketing assets, and tips to improve their sales process.

6. Build a Joint Marketing Strategy

A joint marketing strategy is when you and your channel partners team up to market the product together through common sales channels. This means creating ads, sharing social media posts, and joining events as a team.

Why It’s Important:

Marketing together can reach a larger target market. It also makes your brand look bigger and more trusted.

Partners can bring their unique style to the strategy, which makes the marketing more effective and suited to different types of sales channels.

How to Implement:

• Plan Together: Brainstorm with your partners on how you can market together. Discuss social media campaigns, email marketing, or local events.
• Share Marketing Tools: Give your partners access to tools they can use, like templates for emails or graphics for social media. Make sure the materials are consistent with your brand.
• Run Joint Campaigns: Start small by running a campaign together. For example, send out a co-branded email to both your customer bases. Measure the results and refine your strategy based on what works best.

7. Facilitate Transparent Communication and Regular Check-Ins

Transparent communication means sharing information openly. Regular check-ins involve meeting with your direct and channel sales partners to discuss progress, challenges, and goals.

Why It’s Important:

Good communication builds trust and strong partner relationships. When partners know what's happening, they can perform better.

Regular check-ins help you stay updated on their sales efforts and address any issues early on. This way, partners always know what’s expected, leading to smoother sales channels.

How to Implement:

• Schedule Monthly Calls: Set a monthly or bi-weekly call with your partners. Ask about their challenges, share updates, and give support.
• Use Technology for Communication: Tools like Slack or Zoom can make it easier to communicate quickly. Use these platforms to answer questions, share sales resources, and keep everyone on the same page.
• Be Open and Honest: Share both good news and areas that need improvement. Transparency helps partners feel part of the sales team and motivated to reach their sales targets.

8. Optimize Sales Process and Resources for Partners

Optimizing your sales process means making sure that every step of the sales journey is efficient. This includes sharing resources that help partners understand your product and sell effectively.

Why It’s Important:

A well-optimized sales process makes it easier for partners to sell your product or service. When partners know exactly how to approach their target market, they’ll be more successful.

Providing resources like training guides or product demos can improve their confidence and improve their performance.

How to Implement:

• Create Easy-to-Follow Steps: Make the sales process as simple as possible. List out the steps a partner should take, from reaching out to prospects to closing a deal.
• Provide Tools and Resources: Share sales enablement resources like pitch decks, product videos, or sales scripts. Make sure these materials are up-to-date and relevant to your sales strategy.
• Regularly Update Processes: If you find a step in the process isn’t working well, change it. Always look for ways to improve and make things easier for your partners.

9. Gather and Act on Partner Feedback

Gathering feedback means asking your channel partners for their thoughts and opinions. Acting on feedback is about making changes based on what they say to improve your channel partnership building process and sales process.

Why It’s Important:

Your partners are the ones on the front lines, selling your product every day. They know what works and what doesn’t.

By listening to their feedback, you can learn a lot about how to improve your channel sales strategy and make it more effective.

How to Implement:

• Ask for Feedback Regularly: During your check-ins, ask partners what challenges they face and what resources they need.
• Create Surveys for Honest Input: Sometimes partners may not share everything during a call. Use surveys to collect feedback on what’s going well and what could be improved.
• Make Changes Based on Feedback: Don’t just collect feedback—use it. If partners suggest a new approach or tool that could help their sales, consider implementing it. Showing partners that you value their input strengthens your partnership.

10. Empower Partners with Sales-Driven Content and Collateral

Sales-driven content and collateral include all the materials partners use to sell your product—like brochures, case studies, and marketing assets. These resources help partners tell your product’s story clearly and effectively.

Why It’s Important:

Good content helps partners feel prepared and professional. If they have the right materials, they can answer customer questions and present your product in the best way. This makes it easier to close deals, increase brand awareness, and expand into new sales channels.

How to Implement:

• Create Customizable Templates: Provide templates for presentations, social media posts, or emails that partners can easily personalize. This way, they can quickly create content that fits their audience.
• Share Success Stories and Case Studies: Showing real-life examples of how your product helped other customers can make selling easier for partners. It adds credibility and helps prospects understand your product's value.
• Keep Everything Organized and Updated: Use a portal where partners can find all sales-driven content. Make sure to keep it updated with new materials as your product or sales strategy evolves.

Types of Channel Sales Partners and Their Roles

1. Distributors: Connecting Manufacturers and Retailers

Distributors are like the middlemen between manufacturers and retailers. They buy products in bulk from the manufacturer and sell them to retailers who then sell for direct sale to customers.

Why They’re Important: Distributors help expand your product into new sales channels and reach a larger audience quickly. By handling the logistics and storage, they take a load off the manufacturer. This makes the sales process easier and faster.

Example: Think of a toy manufacturer. Instead of selling directly to each toy store, the manufacturer sells to a distributor who then supplies the toys to multiple stores, saving time and effort.

2. Value-Added Resellers (VARs): Enhancing Solutions

VARs buy products from partner companies, add their own services or features, and then sell the improved product to customers.

These added features can be anything from software support to installation services. This "value-added" part makes the product more appealing to certain customer groups.

Why They’re Important: VARs help tailor your product to meet specific customer needs. By enhancing the product, they can reach different markets and increase your overall revenue growth.

Example: A company might buy computers from a manufacturer, add custom software, and then sell them as ready-to-use solutions for schools or businesses.

3. Retailers: Direct Customer Touchpoints

Retailers are the direct sellers to customers. They buy products from distributors or manufacturers and sell them in stores or online. Retailers have a strong connection with end customers, making them a crucial sales partner.

Why They’re Important: Retailers know their local market and can promote your product to their customer base effectively. They are the face of your product, so choosing the right retailers as sales partners is key to creating a good customer experience.

Example: Think of popular stores like Walmart or Best Buy. These retailers buy a variety of products from distributors or directly from manufacturers and make them available to customers in their local stores or through online shopping.

4. Franchisees: Operating Under a Brand’s Umbrella

Franchisees are business owners who use another company’s brand and system. They run their own store but sell products or services using a parent company's name and process.

Think of fast-food restaurants like McDonald's. Each location is owned by a franchisee but operates under the McDonald's brand.

Why They’re Important: Franchisees help grow a brand quickly. By investing in a known brand, they can attract customers more easily. For the parent company, franchisees help expand the business into new markets without needing to manage every store directly.

Example: A coffee company wants to expand across the country. It offers franchises, allowing local business owners to open coffee shops with the company’s branding, menu, and guidelines.

5. Consultants: Offering Expertise and Strategic Insight

Consultants are experts who advise companies on how to have channel sales managers improve their sales strategy and process. They may not sell products directly but can guide channel partners on how to reach their target market or better understand the sales process.

Why They’re Important: Consultants bring a fresh perspective. They analyze what’s working and what’s not, helping businesses make smart decisions. This expertise is particularly helpful when a business wants to improve its channel sales strategies or explore new sales channels.

Example: A tech company hires a consultant to help its channel sales team understand how to better sell its software. The consultant offers insights on what customers want, pricing strategies, and best sales tactics.

6. E-Commerce Affiliates: Driving Online Sales Traffic

E-commerce affiliates promote a company’s products through their websites or social media. When they drive traffic that leads to a sale, they earn a commission. This is a type of indirect, sales model where affiliates don’t handle the product directly.

Why They’re Important: Affiliates help reach a wider target audience, especially online. They often have their own followers or existing customers, who trust their recommendations, making it easier to drive sales.

Example: A beauty brand partners with a popular YouTuber who shares makeup tutorials. The YouTuber includes a special link to the brand’s website, and each time a viewer makes a purchase through that link, the YouTuber earns a percentage of the sale.

7. Strategic Alliances: Joint Ventures for Market Expansion

Strategic alliances are partnerships between two or more companies to achieve a common goal. This could be expanding into a new market, sharing resources, or co-creating a product.

Why They’re Important: Strategic alliances allow companies to combine their strengths. This makes it easier to reach new customers, enter different markets, and create new products.

Example: A fitness brand teams up with a nutrition company to launch a combined health package—fitness gear and supplements—to reach customers who want both exercise equipment and nutrition support.

Channel Partners vs. Direct Sales Team: Which Is Best?

Direct Sales Team: Control, Customization & Relationship Building

A direct sales team consists of in-house representatives dedicated to selling your products or services. Here are key benefits and drawbacks:

Advantages:

• Complete Brand Control: Direct sales teams can be trained to represent your brand exactly as you want, ensuring consistency in messaging and customer experience.
• Deeper Customer Relationships: Your sales reps can build closer, long-term relationships with customers, offering personalized service and gaining a better understanding of customer needs.
• Quick Feedback Loop: As they interact directly with prospects and customers, they can quickly relay market insights, customer feedback, and potential challenges to your company for immediate action.

Drawbacks:

• High Cost and Time Investment: Building, training, and managing an in-house sales team can be costly and time-consuming. Salaries, commissions, benefits, and ongoing training all add up.
• Scalability Challenges: Expanding into new markets or regions requires significant investment in hiring and training new staff, making it harder to scale rapidly.

Channel Partners: Reach, Resources & Rapid Expansion

They operate independently, helping to extend your market reach without direct involvement from your internal sales team.

Advantages:

• Faster Market Expansion: Channel partners often have established customer bases and market expertise, allowing you to quickly reach new regions or industries without the need for a local sales presence.
• Cost Efficiency: By leveraging partner resources for sales, marketing, and distribution, you reduce the upfront costs of building an extensive sales infrastructure.
• Shared Risk & Investment: Channel partners bear some of the risk, cost, and effort of selling, giving your company more flexibility in testing new markets or launching products.

Drawbacks:

• Limited Control over Brand Representation: Since partners are independent entities, ensuring consistent brand messaging and customer experience can be challenging.
• Potential Conflicts of Interest: Partners may represent multiple brands or products, meaning they may not always prioritize your offering over others.
• Less Direct Customer Feedback: Since partners are the ones interacting with customers, your business may receive feedback more slowly or second-hand, making it harder to respond quickly to market changes.

Which Is Best? It Depends on Your Business Needs

The decision between a direct sales team and channel partners depends on several factors:

• Market Reach & Expansion Goals: For rapid market penetration or global reach, channel partners provide local expertise and access. To build strong, long-term customer relationships, a direct sales team is often better.
• Product Complexity & Customer Experience: Products requiring training, customization, or support benefit from a direct sales team for better control. Simpler products suit channel partners, who can quickly drive volume.
• Cost & Scalability Considerations: Channel partners are cost-effective for scaling without a large internal sales team. However, if brand control and a strong internal culture are priorities, investing in a direct sales team is worthwhile.

How to Design a Successful Channel Sales Program

1. Define Your Ideal Partner Profile

An ideal channel partner strategy and profile is like a checklist of qualities you want in a channel partner. This helps you find partners who align with your business goals and values.

How to Do It:

• Look for Fit: Find partners who know your target market and have experience selling similar products or services.
• Set Clear Criteria: List the qualities that are important to you, like industry expertise, sales team size, and market reach.
• Evaluate and Choose: Use your checklist to find partners who match your needs and can add value to your channel sales strategy.

2. Establish Clear Program Tiers and Benefits

Program tiers are levels that partners can achieve based on their performance. Each tier offers different benefits, like higher commissions or special support.

How to Do It:

• Create Tiers Based on Performance: For example, "Bronze," "Silver," and "Gold" levels could reflect partner sales efforts.
• Reward Growth: As partners achieve more sales, they should move up the tiers and receive more benefits, like better support or marketing assets.
• Communicate Clearly: Make sure partners know what they need to do to reach each level and what benefits they will receive.

3. Develop a Robust Onboarding and Training Program

Onboarding is teaching your new partners about your sales process, products, and expectations. Training helps them sell better and improves customer experience.

How to Do It:

• Create Easy Training Materials: Use videos, guides, and step-by-step instructions that partners can access easily.
• Teach the Sales Process: Show partners how to sell your product or service effectively, including how to talk to customers and close deals.
• Offer Ongoing Support: Regular check-ins and updates help partners stay up-to-date with your products and sales strategies.

4. Create Co-Marketing and Co-Selling Opportunities

Co-marketing is when you and your partners work together on promotions. Co-selling is joining forces to close deals and reach a larger customer base.

How to Do It:

• Plan Joint Campaigns: Work together on social media posts, email campaigns, or events to promote your product.
• Share Resources: Provide partners with marketing assets, like logos, banners, and product descriptions, so they can easily market your product.
• Sell Together: Go to customer meetings together or help partners sell to bigger accounts by providing sales support and resources.

5. Implement a User-Friendly Partner Portal

A partner portal is an online platform where your channel partners can access important information, such as training, marketing materials, and product updates.

How to Do It:

• Make It Easy to Use: Choose a portal that’s simple and intuitive. Partners should find what they need without frustration.
• Organize Resources Clearly: Include sections like “Training,” “Sales Tools,” and “FAQs” so that partners can easily access content to improve their sales process.
• Keep It Updated: Regularly add new resources and updates to keep your partners informed and engaged.

6. Design a Joint Business Planning Process

Joint business planning means working together with your channel partners to set common goals. It creates a shared roadmap for success.

How to Do It:

• Set Shared Goals: Work with partners to identify clear targets, such as sales numbers or entering new markets.
• Develop Action Plans Together: Plan how to achieve these goals step by step. Discuss sales strategies, customer experience improvements, and timelines.
• Hold Regular Check-Ins: Meet regularly to track progress, discuss challenges, and adjust plans as needed.

7. Design a Rewarding Incentive and Commission Structure

Incentives and commissions are rewards given to partners for hitting sales goals. A good structure motivates partners to sell more.

How to Do It:

• Offer Fair Commissions: Make sure commissions are competitive. If partners earn well from your program, they'll be more motivated to sell.
• Reward High Performers: Create special incentives, like bonuses or extra benefits, for top-performing partners. Celebrate partner success through recognition or special events.
• Be Transparent: Clearly communicate how the incentive and commission structure works. This keeps partners motivated and focused on their sales efforts.

8. Utilize Partner Relationship Management (PRM) Tools

PRM tools help you manage your relationships with channel partners. They organize data, track performance, and provide easy communication.

How to Do It:

• Choose the Right Tool: Find a PRM tool that fits your needs. It should help with tracking sales, sharing resources, and improving partner communication.
• Automate Tasks: Use PRM tools to automate tasks like lead sharing, deal tracking, and partner onboarding. This makes everything smoother and faster.
• Monitor and Improve: Use the data from PRM tools to see which partners are performing best, where they need help, and how you can support them better.

How to Measure the Success of Your Channel Sales Programs

1. Revenue Contribution from Channel Partners

Track how much revenue your channel partners bring in. This shows how valuable your channel partners sales efforts are to your overall sales.

How to Do It:

• Compare Sales Figures: Compare the revenue from direct sales to the revenue from your channel partners.
• Calculate Percentage Contribution: Find out what percentage of total sales come from your partners. Higher percentages mean your channel sales strategy is working well.

2. Partner Performance and Sales Velocity

Performance measures how much each partner sells. Sales velocity looks at how fast they close deals.

How to Do It:

• Check Individual Sales: Look at the sales each partner makes over a specific period.
• Track Speed of Deals: See how quickly they close deals. A faster sales process means partners are working effectively.

3. Deal Registration and Lead Conversion Rates

Deal registration is when a partner submits a potential sale. Lead conversion rates show how often these deals turn into real sales.

How to Do It:

• Monitor Deals: Track how many deals partners register and how many of those deals become actual sales.
• Calculate Conversion Rates: A higher conversion rate means your partners are good at turning leads into paying customers.

4. Average Deal Size and Profit Margins

Average deal size is how much each sale is worth. Profit margin is the money you make after costs.

How to Do It:

• Track Deal Sizes: Look at the average size of each deal closed by your channel partners.
• Calculate Profits: Check the profit margins for these deals. Bigger deal sizes and high-profit margins show your channel sales programs are effective.

5. Partner Engagement and Training Metrics

Track how often your channel partners engage with your program. Also, see how much training they complete.

How to Do It:

• Check Training Completion: Monitor how many partners finish their training. Partners who know your product or service well can sell it better.
• Measure Engagement: Use your partner portal to see how often they log in, use resources, and attend events. High engagement means they are motivated to sell.

6. Customer Satisfaction and Retention via Partners

Measure how happy customers are with the service provided by your channel partners. Also, track how often they return.

How to Do It:

• Collect Customer Feedback: Use surveys and reviews to get customer opinions on their experience with your partners.
• Track Retention Rates: See how many customers come back to buy again. The happier the customer, the more likely they are to return.

7. Marketing Development Fund (MDF) Utilization and ROI

MDFs are funds you give to your channel partners to help them market your product or service. Check how they use these funds and the return on investment (ROI).

How to Do It:

• Track Spending: Monitor how much of the MDF is being used and on what activities, like ads or events.
• Measure Results: Calculate the ROI by comparing how much was spent with the sales generated. The higher the ROI, the more effective the spending.

8. Alignment with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Goals

KPIs are numbers that show how well a partner is doing. Make sure their KPIs match your overall sales goals.

How to Do It:

• Set Clear KPIs: Decide on KPIs like sales numbers, deal size, and lead conversion rates for partners to achieve.
• Monitor Progress Regularly: Use monthly or quarterly reviews to check if partners are hitting their KPIs and aligning with your goals.

Conclusion

Channel sales can improve your business by reaching more customers. A well-planned strategy, clear goals, and supportive partners are key. Remember to track your sales process, celebrate partner success, and aim for revenue growth. With these steps, your channel sales can thrive and help your business grow.

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