3 Steps to a Successful Channel Partner Program

When successful businesses look to the future, they plan. Weeks of management time go into costing and revenue budgets, development spending, capital expenditure, market and many other functions. But it is surprising how often new exporters or companies trading in a traditional model neglect to adequately plan their route-to-market strategy. Warehouses all around the world are filled with great products that never made it to their target customers simply because the manufacturers failed to build the right route-to-market. So, how do you avoid this pitfall?

Here are the 3 Steps to a Successful Channel Partner Program

Step 1: Develop a deep understanding of who will use your product or service and who will pay for it. Who makes the ultimate purchase decision and how will you influence that? Is this something you have to do yourself, can you entrust it entirely to your channel partner or do you need a multi-faceted plan to get decision-makers to choose your solution?

Step 2: Research the market to establish which channel partners - for both competing and complementary products - are already influencing your target decision-makers. Keep a wide-open mind when you're doing this; you'll often find the best channel partners in the most unlikely places. Who would have believed you ten years ago if you'd told them that an on-line book-seller would rank amongst the world's biggest retailers within a decade?

for more information on Channel Partner programs please visit http://www.qupact.com