I've just returned from a trip west to the Rocky Mountains - a client held its annual partner summit in Banff and I was fortunate enought to take part.
The great part of this event was listening to the business partner presentations of lessons learned. Here's some of my takeaways:
1. Never mistake what a "WHOLE" product really is. In this case, partners who exceeded plan are those who really "get it". The "IT" here is that selling a bundled solution, with services like training, support, implementation project management, is actually what customers want to buy - and it's high margin too.
2. The best marketing is "CUSTOMER MARKETING" - a referenceable customer is golden. Several of the best performing partners are the ones that include a customer commitment as part of the sales negotiation - commitment to speak at conferences, do a seminar/webinar, provide a testimonial, be a case study, you name it -- getting the customer to sell others is the name of the game.
3. PROOF, PROOF, PROOF - as you build out your customer base, always be looking for data points to validate your claims. The more data you can gather to show proof that what you're claiming about the product is true, the more traction you'll start to gain. Customers take comfort from the success of other customers. The more you can show them with hard facts the performance your product is providing others, the smoother the sales process should get.
That's it for now...3 simple takeaways. As I get my feet under me and adjust to the altitude change, hopefully others will spring to mind.
Enjoy your day!
Wendy
www.wendykennedy.com
author/advisor/lady with the flipcharts!
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