As I wrote in my last newsletter article, How you’ll help me achieve my 2017 Channel Resolutions, SAS is driving to achieve at least 50% growth in our channel sales this year. So what does that mean for you as a SAS reseller? It means you have a great opportunity to build a meaningful SAS resell business by aligning to our channel engagement strategy. I described our strategy for success in my latest LinkedIn article, How to increase channel sales in a direct sales culture. Here are three key ways you can take advantage of our strategy to grow your SAS resell business:
Agree on a Target
Working with your Channel Account Manager (CAM) to agree on a sales target sounds simple, but it is a key step to growing your SAS resell business. You want to make sure that you and SAS are aligned on your target, as everything you do with SAS should align to achieving that goal. Your SAS CAM has their own resell sales target to achieve, and is looking for resellers who are committed to achieving realistic and attainable sales goals.
Agree on the Plan
Agreeing to a sales target is the first step in the planning process with SAS. You should also work with your SAS CAM to build a detailed business plan to achieve that goal. An effective business plan has 3 main components:
• Sales Plan – what target markets are you going after, and what SAS sales teams will you align with for account mapping, lead passing, and relationship building?
• Marketing Plan – what marketing activities will you execute during the year to build awareness and generate leads to achieve your sales targets?
• Enablement Plan – what sales, technical sales, and delivery education and training will your team need during the year to gain greater SAS proficiency?
Build your SAS skills
Passing opportunities to our resellers, particularly in our midmarket accounts, is a priority for SAS in 2017. Our expectation is that by passing business to you and investing in your enablement, you will in turn invest in gaining the skills required to sell and deliver SAS. Work with our sales and technical sales teams on sales opportunities to learn how to successfully sell SAS products and solutions. Take advantage of the wide variety of free sales and technical training materials and discounted delivery education for resellers.
The greater your SAS skills, the more attractive you’ll be to the SAS account executives who are looking for skilled resellers to help them achieve their sales goals. And that will help you build a very meaningful SAS resell business with a high-margin recurring revenue stream.
