SEchannels: SEskills for Channels SEs
Prior to training, it is important for channels sales, sales, and pre-sales leaders agree to commit resources to a Channels SE Skills Improvement Program and define an implementation plan. A good forum for this is an Executive Workshop.
Training could consist of a 2-day course designed specifically for Channels Sales Engineers (ChSEs). ChSEs can learn to apply engineering principles to "Project Manage the Solution Relationship Sale”. The goal is for ChSEs to empower and enable partners to make them more productive and effective, thereby spending less time with less productive, less capable partners.
ChSEs should be provided project management structure to establish healthy partner relationships and enable partners with technical and sales competency. ChSEs assess and qualify partners, compete against competitors for the partner relationship, improve the partner’s productivity, and enable them to effectively sell your solutions. Through workshops, the ChSE can document sales intelligence to share with Partners.
In such training, the Channel SE can learn to:
- Align with the Channel Sales Rep’s partner business strategy
- Reduce time spent supporting ineffective partners
- Assess the needs of the partner from the partner’s point of view and develop an improvement Channel Enablement Plan
- Assess the partner’s solution and revenue generation capability
- Eliminate technical obstacles preventing the relationship
- Enable partners to achieve their revenue goals by empowering them with valuable sales intelligence and best practices
As a course deliverable, the ChSE can create a technically oriented "get well" Channel Enablement Plan for one of their partners.
Contact Us for a detailed outline.
An SE Knowledgebase such as SEbase can be used as a training aid to capture the ChSEs’ sales intelligence which will be shared with partners. An SE Channels Technical Account Review Tool such as ChSEstart can be used to facilitate development of a Channels Enablement Plan. Other channels specific tools can be used to perform a partner gap analysis and assess which partners to best focus on. |
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Post-training, it wil be important to ensure that the principles of "Engineering the Solution Relationship Sale" are put into practice. A follow-up program should implement new policies, procedures, and coaching to ensure correct use of important new SE Channels skills.