Motivation

5 Ways To Motivate SKIOLD Partners To Sell SKIOLD Products First

1. Train Your Partners

When a partner is well-trained on a product or service, they are more confident and knowledgeable during their sales pitch. That confidence radiates to the customer and increases the likelihood of closing the sale. Salespeople will always opt to push the product they are most familiar with since it almost always leads to a fast, easy conversion. In-depth partner training is crucial and should cover a full-scale, detailed breakdown of the product or service, why it was created, and what problems it solves for the end-user. 

Once trained on the ins and outs of the product or service, don’t forget the importance of training the sales team on the following:

  • Fully explain the value of the product for not only the end-user but why the product will be an easy sale and more profitable for their business 
  • Ensure partners can answer potential end-user questions about the products or services
  • Educate the sales team about what sets your products apart from other competing products

2. Support Your Partners

After training is complete, regular support must be provided in the form of further training opportunities, sales collateral, local advertising, lead generation, and account managers. Provide quick and easy access to all necessary documentation, especially training and sales materials. Keep in mind many of your independent dealers may not have the money or means to create sales collateral, so make sure they have access to well-branded marketing collateral that’s aesthetically pleasing, catchy, and well-designed.

 Support materials for internal and external use include:

  • Training documentation
  • “How-to” selling videos
  • Sales scripts
  • Fact sheets
  • Spec sheets
  • Flyers
  • Brochures
  • Pricing packets 
  • Comparative competitive information 
  • Customer stories and testimonials
  • Webinars

The more sales collateral and point-of-sale material you can provide, the better. Also, ask for suggestions from your partners on what training and sales material they think would benefit their efforts. 

3. Communicate Regularly

Many small independent partners are responsible for all ownership and sales activities, meaning, they are incredibly busy and long communication pieces are likely to go unread. Work fast to find the communication method that will work best for your partner network. The sooner you can figure out what drives their behavior, the sooner you can get them on the path to driving more sales.

Focus on what matters most, first. When communicating with your network be as short, yet, detailed as possible. If you have a promotion that you want to share with your partners, highlight only the most important parts of that promotion. After all, if the promotion is too complex to explain to the partner in thirty seconds, imagine how the sale pitch will go. After highlighting the most important feature of the promotion, provide a link to your website or promotional landing page for further information. The goal is to inform them of the sale, pique their interest, and give them a place to go to get detailed information when they have time to fully consume it.

Remember that images and short videos can go a long way when trying to communicate with your network. If you can include a well-designed tip sheet or a short video, you will likely see an increase in engagement and understanding.

4. Create A Community

It’s important that you foster a sense of community with your partners. They need to know that you care about their success and offer every opportunity possible for them to be a successful partner. 

Create a sense of community through:

  • Webinars 
  • Lunch-and-learn events
  • In-person gatherings either regionally or nationally
  • Online business development
  • Sales incentive contest and leaderboards for a little bit of fun competition between the partners 
  • Social media

Offer partners as many opportunities as possible to share ideas and help each other. This type of supportive environment fosters a loyal inter-connected community excited to work with each other.

5. Build Trust

A strong partnership must be built on a foundation of trust and accountability. It doesn’t matter how well-trained or loyal your partner network is, if you can’t get your product to your partners when, where, and how they want it, they will sell a competing product. First and foremost, always be honest and set expectations correctly. The pandemic and the war has disrupted supply chains on a global level and, in some cases, completely shut down manufacturing for certain industries. We get, we all get it. Be honest about inventory expectations. Be honest about everything. Do not string on your partners due to your lofty hopes for a magical turnaround. Lying to your partners is the fastest way to demotivate your network. For good.

Finding that perfect partnership should be the ultimate goal. Following up the perfect match with the proper training, support, communication, and trust will secure your success for many, many years to come.

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