Educate, Motivate, Celebrate

You can achieve channel success if you focus your activities on education, motivation, and celebration. I first heard these three things grouped together when I was involved in the planning and coordination of a sales conference. This particular conference brought together a global sales force of about 3,000 professionals to the MGM in Las Vegas. The question we had to answer was, "How do we make sure people choose our content over blackjack?" We decided to focus our agenda around education, motivation, and celebration.

Why stop at a sales conference? Shouldn't you constantly educate your sales channel on product positioning, sales techniques, and competitive solutions? Shouldn't you establish a suite of motivational programs that will drive revenue and increase channel satisfaction? Shouldn't you celebrate in your mutual successes and offer recognition to your best partners? Of course you should.

If you had a Leader of Channel Education, a Leader of Channel Motivation, and a Leader of Channel Celebration working together to build a channel community based on the four Channel Relationship Principles, you will have a comprehensive baseline for building a world class channel program.

In many companies you find that education, motivation, and celebration resources are spread throughout different organizations. You will need to harness these resources and get them working together so that education, motivation, and celebration are linked together in a consistent and logical manner. Look at your channel organization, it's hierarchy and structure, and determine if it offers the ability to educate, motivate, and celebrate your channel community. Maybe it is time for something a little different.