What’s a Channel Partner?
A channel partner is a company or individual in some cases that partners with a manufacturer or vendor to market and sell their products, technologies or services. The channel company although sells products and services on behalf of their partnering vendor and belongs to the indirect sales force, it is and acts as an independent company.
This means that a specific channel partner may have partnerships with more than one vendor and in fact the average channel partner works with 7-10 different IT vendors at a given period. Due to the explosive evolution in the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) industry many channel partners produce and promote their own products as well.
How to build a channel partnership?
Channel partnerships can be a win-win relationship for both the vendor and the channel partner. A vendor should create an ideal channel partner profile before engaging with potential partners. Then there are several criteria on our platform to help you track these companies and reach out to them.
When reaching out make sure to provide your potential partners a concise message of what are the benefits and requirements partnering with your company. And please keep in mind that the most important part comes afterwards, how to maintain a successful relationship with your partners.