In our blog last week, we identified the first of the four phases for fast-tracking demand in B2B channels. The second phase is ‘Marketing Enablement’, which we will be discussing in our post this week. Marketing Enablement phase involves providing partners with the enablement required for demand generation program success.
The enablement phase covers 3 key areas
- Marketing fundamentals
- Play execution
- Certification programs
Let’s take a look at each of these elements in-depth.
- Marketing fundamentals
Partner marketing support offered by Vendors to their channel partners must be tailored to match each stage of the buyer’s journey. An example of this would be leveraging different types of content at each stage of the buyer’s journey.
2. Play execution
When your channel partners sign up, they expect much more than a bunch of induction presentations and brochures. What they really need are plays for different scenarios and plays for prospects that are in different stages of the sales cycle. Channel playbooks fit this need perfectly. Create channel playbooks that are easy to understand and share them with your channel partners. Playbooks should help your channel partners understand the what, when, and how of prospect engagement—what to say to a prospect, when to say it and how to say it so they can respond to leads anywhere in the sales cycle. These are the 3 key questions that your playbooks should answer for your channel partners.
3. Certification programs
Encourage your channel partners to take certification exams from time-to-time: upon introduction of a new product or service line, in the event of product updates, or even in general to ensure they are in touch with the features and benefits of your products/services that they are selling. After all, if they are to convince someone to buy a product or service, they have to be convinced of its benefits themselves. Set-up 2-way alerts for your training and certification exams. Have your channel partners get automated notifications when they are due to take an exam, their certification is about to expire, or a new certification requirement has been introduced.
How does marketing enablement help in fast-tracking demand
Coaching and training your partners on marketing fundamentals, aligning partner marketing with the buyer’s journey, offering your partners a guided marketing and sales process better prepares them to handle customer queries and needs. They gain more knowledge about your product/services, engage in the most efficient way to market and sell your offerings, are naturally more engaged with your brand as your brand becomes easy for them to sell–driving more revenue for you.
Watch this space next week for the next phase in Fast-tracking demand in B2B channels, Demand Creation. This series of our blog post is based on our webinar, Fast-tracking demand in B2B channels, co-hosted with SiriusDecisions. You can watch the entire webinar here.
Over the years, Mindmatrix has helped hundreds of vendors make their channel partners become more effective at marketing and selling their products and services, thereby boosting their sales revenues. You can catch Mindmatrix at the CompTIA ChannelCon 2019 – Booth #120. Please email sales@mindmatrix.net or call 412-381-0230 for an appointment at the ChannelCon.
