Channel Harmony: Avoid the Pitfalls of Channel Conflict
Mitigate Your Channel Conflict
You can engage with your partners in many ways for effective program outcomes and sustainable revenue growth. That is why it is critical to provide clear communication, training and rules of engagement to ensure your partners and direct sales resources are working in concert rather than in conflict.
It is essential that organizations proactively mitigate any potential ‘channel conflict.’ Alexander Group can help you design organizational and engagement models to ensure successful engagement between your sales team and channel partners.
A Proactive Approach to Conflict Mitigation
When deployed effectively, channel partners provide immense value and revenue growth opportunities. However, channel conflict can occur when an organization’s channel partners compete with its direct sales team for the same opportunities. That is why deploying a clear engagement model is crucial to avoid creating strained relationships or having a negative impact on sales.
You can deploy several channel conflict mitigation strategies to promote a seamless partnership between your sales team and your partners that include:
- Rules of engagement: Clearly define roles and responsibilities between your sales force and channel partners so each player clearly understands their target customers, territories and position in the sales process.
- Communication & training: Putting a clear engagement model in place for your partners promotes effective communication, avoiding conflict or confusion. Engagement methods include setting up regular communication cadences, training your partners and tracking each partner’s performance.
- Incentives & rewards: Partner incentives should drive the desired behavior. For example, structuring your partner incentive program to encourage collaboration rather than competition will help you to avoid channel conflict. Rewards include financial incentives, awards or recognition and other enablement opportunities.
- Program processes: Setting up a formal partner program should include guidelines around conflict resolution and a straightforward method to resolve any possible disputes.
Alexander Group can help ensure you set up your partner program for success for all parties. Take a proactive approach to mitigate channel conflict by ensuring you have the guardrails to guide you to revenue growth.
Need Help With Your Channel Partnerships?
Experts at the Alexander Group look to top organizations within your industry to see how they are maintaining and growing successful partnerships.
