Timing is Everything When You Onboard a Channel Partner - Global Sales Mentor | Zach Selch

5 Aug 2020 · 3 min

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2:50

In this concise talk, Zach Selch emphasizes that timing is a pivotal factor in successful sales, especially when working with distributors or channel partners. He explains that after signing a distributor, there is a limited window—determined by how many new product lines the distributor introduces annually—to capture their attention and get them ready to sell. For a distributor adding four new products a year, the window is roughly 90 days; for one adding 24, the window shrinks dramatically. Larger distributors often have rigid onboarding processes (registration, marketing material creation, field testing) that further compress this window, creating a “double whammy” that can cause missed opportunities if onboarding is slow. Selch urges sellers to accelerate the onboarding process to maximize sales results and concludes with a call to action for companies seeking help to grow international sales.

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Timing is so critical. Critical to what we do. And it's critical for all types of sales. But when you're dealing with distributors, I can think of a dozen different areas where timing is critical to your overall success. Let's talk about one of them. Let's talk about how fast it gets to onboard your distributor. What do I mean by that? You find your distributor. You sign your distributor, you get them moving until they're ready to sell. How long does that really take, that period of time? And that's a window of opportunity. Let's look at it a different way. Let's say that you have a distributor that takes 4 new product lines a year, right? You're gonna get his attention essentially for a quarter, for 90 days. You have 90 days to onboard that distributor, their attention is focused on you. And after that, their attention may very well focus to a different product line. So that first 90 days is critical. Let's say you're talking about a distributor that onboards 24 new products a year. How much time do you actually have then, right? And, and what I find is, especially with the bigger distributors, they might be onboarding more and more new product lines. Every year, and they have these very, very rigid processes in place to control your side of the onboarding process, right? Which essentially is a double whammy against you sometimes, because what that means is not only do you only have a short window of opportunity on the one hand, but on the other hand, they're pushing you back and resisting any attempts. To push through and make sure that you're onboarded correctly during that time because they have a process. They want to first do registration. They want to do different types of marketing materials. They want to do maybe tests in the field, etc., before their salespeople know how to sell your product. And before you know it, you've missed that window of opportunity. So remember, timing is very, very important. The faster you get your distributor up and running and onboarded and prepared to sell your product, the better results you're going to get in the end of Remember, when you're ready to grow your international sales, reach out to us. We can help.
When you decide it's time to grow your international sales, call us.