New businesses are entering the industry almost every day, and with this, there is increased competition. To help your business stand out in a saturated industry, you must ensure that you are using multiple channels for sales.
The multiple sales channel strategy works in three main ways:
- Firstly, it helps you to reach new customers. These are mainly customers who do not buy their products directly from the vendors. Such customers usually prefer buying the same items from resellers or consultants. With an efficient channel sales program, you can easily tap into this market.
- Secondly, a channel sales strategy allows you to sell products through managed service providers and third-party marketplaces. They sell the products in offer package deals, which make the products more appealing to the customers.
- Lastly, a channel strategy can come in handy when you start your business in a new location. You can implement several ways to further accentuate your business in any new geographical region.
It goes without saying that connecting with others and cultivating partnerships that can indirectly sell your products can help boost your sales. This is the sole motto of utilizing channel sales strategies. A company will undoubtedly benefit from a well-designed channel sales program.
That being said, before you implement any strategy, it is very important that you know which one is the right sales channel method for your company. In this guide, you will further learn about the different types of sales channels and how you can use them to your benefit.
Types Of Sales Channels
There are many types of businesses out there, each with its novel needs and requirements. This essentially means that no ‘ONE’ approach is ever going to satisfy all types of businesses. Fortunately, there are several options you can explore. Further mentioned below are some of the most commonly chosen options.
- Referral partners
- Managed service providers
- Distributors
- Marketplaces
- Agents
- Dealers
- Influencers
- Retailers
- Value-added resellers
Depending on the size of your business or requirements, you can find partners through both enterprise companies and individual people.
For both digital goods and SaaS; affiliates and referral partners are the most common choices. If you are unclear about the concept of a referral partner, it is quite self-explanatory.
It simply means a person or company that refers a lead to the vendor to fulfill a sale. In such a case, the vendor usually sells the product directly and pays the referrer a commission fee.
Affiliates are mainly responsible for promoting and marketing the product. The terms and conditions are quite clear, where the affiliate or referrer will only get paid once the deal is closed.
Another very commonly chosen avenue of channel sales is using resellers. Your product will be directly bought from you at market price. After that, the reseller can either increase or decrease the price and sell it again. But any profit or loss in this transaction will be retained by the reseller.
However, you should not confuse resellers with value-added resellers. Another channel sales strategy often used by SaaS, a VAR adds extra services or features to a particular product before reselling it. This is done to improvise on the product and then is sold as an integrated product.
For instance, if you only sell software, a VAR might bundle it with some hardware and resell it as a new package.
Companies can also utilize the services of marketplaces, distributors, and other individual retailers. Whether you want to sell your service or product to a partner or through them is completely up to the kind of business you own. While selling to partners requires you to pursue new partners now and then, the latter requires you to build and maintain long-term relations with them.
How To Make Sure That You Have The Right Partners For Your Company?
Given the several options in the market, you might think that finding potential partners is easy. However, finding the right partner requires you to do some deep analysis. Without the right set of people working with you, it does not take much time for the positives to become negatives.
Irrespective of what you want from an agreement, never settle for the first candidate you come across. Before finalizing your choice, create an ideal part profile. This should include the attributes you are looking for and information about how you want to grow your business. While the ‘perfect’ partner can vary from business to business, one should have these three qualities at the very least.
- They should clearly understand the business you are in and the target audience you want. Only with a proper idea of how you want to market your products in the industry can they find suitable buyers for you.
- They should be able to provide a service or have some expertise in the industry. This, when added to your knowledge and skill, will only accentuate and quicken the growth of your company. In addition to that, with proper knowledge, even they can sometimes guide you if you are going wrong.
- They should have the necessary skill set to allow your product to sell itself in the market. They should be experienced with the kind of service or product you deal in. try and look for the past companies they have worked with. It is better if you find someone who has a history with a similar company as they will know the right audience and platforms to sell your product.
With the right sales partner, you can easily grow your company to new heights without having to worry much about sales.
If you are in doubt, one way to find the right partners is by brainstorming the people you might want to work with. Once you have a clear idea of that, consult the people you know and find the closest person you can find.
Although that is the easier way, the best way is to be clear about what role you want the partner to play. That way, you will know what your relationship will look like, and you can easily find someone who fits the role.
Conclusion
All in all, Channel sales are a very important component that aids business growth in all industries. Whether you are an established company looking to expand further or just starting, looking for partners to hit different demographics and markets is never a bad idea.
However, that does not mean all your responsibilities are over. You will still have to handle your business data and understand if your sales performances are getting better.
That said, with the right set of partners by your side, this whole process can be a lot easier and further help with the growth of your company.
