How to Create a Successful Reseller Advisory Board

Whether you call them resellers, channel partners, or VARs, if your business model and success depends on retaining and attracting resellers (resellers is my naming convention for the purposes of this article), you’ll no doubt know that they’re a very vocal bunch. . To a greater or lesser degree, you rely on resellers to sell your products and perhaps for implementation services as well. From a bottom line standpoint, you’re giving up the margin. Plus, to some extent, you’re also giving up branding of your products, as your resellers can often be the only face your company has to the customer and prospect.

Eliminating the clutter of your reseller’s feedback and complaints (and, let’s face it, sometimes whining), is no easy task. There is no science to evaluating and managing all of this communication from your channel and it is difficult to make truly sound business decisions based on a potentially qualitative but somewhat nebulous set of feedback. For example, your sales managers can give you isolated, anecdotal examples of what a couple of channel partners (or maybe even just one key channel partner) are hearing from their customers. Remember – at the end of the day, whether you sell directly or through a channel partner, the customers who buy your products are YOUR customers.

A reseller advisory council can be an invaluable springboard to tap into those closest to the sale on what your customers and prospects are saying about your products, gain critical advice on upcoming launches or strategic business decisions, as well as improve channel relationships. .

You may already have a Reseller Advisory Council or are thinking of creating one. Based on my own personal corporate experience in highly dependent reseller revenue models, there is one right way to get the maximum desired results and some notable pitfalls to avoid.

At this point, it is important to note that a Customer Advisory Council is a very different animal than a Reseller Advisory Council. Most notably, a customer rarely has a hidden agenda in the way that a reseller might. Done properly, a Client Advisory Board will almost always be a productive exercise with honest and actionable feedback. Reseller advisory boards can provide the same benefits to your company’s external knowledge pool, but are much more susceptible to pitfalls.

Avoid these pitfalls when setting up your reseller advisory board:

Choosing/choosing too many of your most “popular” resellers for your Advisory Board: Don’t default to choosing your most vocal resellers or those who make up your classic 80/20 revenue production. Likewise, don’t be tempted to solicit resellers you know will give you positive feedback. Mix the audience. It changes the members of the advisory council every year. An advert; You may want to retain one or two key resellers who have been continuously engaged and have provided meaningful feedback.

Choose reseller partners who follow the rules of engagement (register leads, pay on time, and don’t have an overly aggressive personal agenda). Make the appointment of the Board something official (without legal obligations).

A “soft” agenda: Your Reseller Advisory Council meetings shouldn’t be a dog and pony show. Carefully consider the issues you and your partners face together. Be honest: if a product launch is seriously compromised, the agenda needs to address it. Ask for their opinion on how to proceed. The right agenda and invited company participants are key.

Real Life Example: One of my most embarrassing moments on a reseller advisory board was when I was in a senior marketing position at a billion dollar company. I was asked to present our past and future marketing initiatives and key learnings. I had doubts from the beginning about the real value of presenting the content that the executive team asked me to create. My presentation contained defensible statistics on the lead growth we provide to our resellers. My PPT slides, data points and statistics had been reviewed by our Executive Directorate prior to the Advisory Council meeting. After the fact, I knew I had good reason to trust my intuition. On the day of the meeting, it was apparent that not every scalper in the room was getting more leads. What was clearly missing from our discussion/agenda was a discussion of our sales department’s somewhat arbitrary lead distribution methods. Lesson learned.

Resellers have their own agendas. It is understood. They are independent businesses that have a synergistic relationship with your company that can create blurry lines. Their focus is on their own results, not yours. A successful reseller advisory board should mitigate personal agendas as much as possible and mediate according to a set agenda that generates maximum objective feedback on critical business initiatives that affect both the company and the reseller channel.

An unprofessionally organized meeting: In order for any Reseller Advisory Council to meet the expectations of both the company and the members of the advisory council, it is important to follow a few basic rules. Set the meeting frequency (either quarterly or twice a year) and stick to it! Notify advisory board members well in advance of the date, time, and location of the next meeting. Hold the meeting in a professional setting, which could be your company office or an off-site meeting location, either close to your offices or remotely if members require a mutually convenient geographic location.

Use A/V presentations and provide advisory council members with a hard copy of the presentations. Designate someone within your company to take the minutes. Conduct the meeting with respect for everyone’s time and moderate effectively so the meeting doesn’t veer off topic or one person is hogging too much “air time.” Politely but firmly deflect the conversation if it’s turning into a grievance session or if the reseller board members are becoming antagonistic to each other.

Irregular meeting schedule: Nothing reduces the credibility of a reseller advisory board more than postponing or canceling regularly scheduled meetings. I reiterate: set the frequency of meetings and stick to it!

Not knowing the perceptions of the rest of your channel: Be very direct in communications with any resellers you have, or are establishing a Reseller Advisory Council. Many resellers may be suspicious as to why they weren’t chosen or what is being discussed at these meetings. Eliminate any mistrust by outlining to all your resellers the goals of the Reseller Advisory Council.

Comments not communicated to the rest of your channel/reseller company: Not everything that is discussed during Reseller Advisory Council meetings needs to be communicated to the outside world. Analyze meeting notes for relevant topics and comments from board members that translate into actionable items for your company. Communicate that information to your reseller community via follow-up group reseller conference calls or webcasts.

A reseller advisory board requires commitment and foresight. Managed correctly, it can provide your company with a productive avenue to increase engagement and association with resellers. Engaged resellers ultimately means more focus on your products, and more focus equals more sales.