Review of the Chanimal Channel Kit

Now we will review some of the components of the Chanimal Channel Kit. You should have downloaded it during the previous lesson, but it is also available HERE if you did not.  This kit has been compiled from the launch of over 400 channel programs, along with a detailed analysis of some of the best (and worst) reseller programs in the industry. It should save you weeks if not months of research and contains most of the templates to create your own world-class reseller program.

Many of the documents (#1 – 13 within the kit) contain sample copies that might be used within your own reseller portal or as attachments. However, it has since been converted to an actual sample portal which is kept even more up-to-date and shows you exactly how these components are used.

The sample portal also contains examples of the kind of content within each section (either a policy (leads, deal registration, agreement) or actual content that is already public or has been made generic. Please reference this online portal as the most recent example to follow. In fact, I would just replicate it along with the sample copy and then make minor adjustments to customize it as your own.

Sample portal location: portal.chanimal.com

Click HERE to download Login Instructions.

(bookmark it and use it as your primary reference).

You should have the following files within this kit (some may have a number before them which sequences them within the folder–the others are listed alphabetically):

1. Partner Program Introduction. This introduces your program and contains a summary of your most important benefits. This would typically go on the opening page that introduces your partner program.
2. Reseller Application. You would add market information that is critical for your VAR selection process. This would be available as an electronic form as a link from your partner program home page.
3. Benefits & Requirements. This contains a brief description of each of the benefits and requirements of your program. You will need to customize this after you do your comparative analysis and determine which features you can provide.
4. Benefits & Requirements – GRID. A grid that shows the same benefits and requirements, but how they apply to each level.
5. Policies & Terms. It contains descriptions and policies (detailed enough to work, simple enough to be understood without an attorney) of the previously mentioned features (deal registration, lead policies, MDF/CO-OP usage, etc.). Each of these policies is on a separate page, much like they would be in a separate section within an online portal. (See how they are used within the sample portal).
6. Reseller Agreement. A basic reseller agreement for a software company. I have additional samples if needed.
7. Contact Info. A grid to ensure you provide all of the contact info a partner may require.
8. Reseller NFR Prices. Use this grid to list your products and their corresponding reseller Not for Resale prices. SaaS products include access.
9. Collateral Order Form. A sample form that can be faxed to order additional collateral materials (product slicks, brochures, etc.). This would be replaced by an online form within the partner portal.
10. Disti SKU Info. It allows you to list each product by part number with the corresponding part number within distribution. It does not apply if you sell to partners direct.
11. Market Background – Template. A basic introduction about your market to orient the reseller.
12. Presentation to Customers. A PowerPoint template that contains the basics for a presentation a Partner might give to a customer.
13. Presentation to Recruit Partners. A similar PowerPoint as above (since Partners first have to be sold on your product), but also includes information about your Partner program.
14. Agenda for partner Marketing Meeting. As part of the orientation, you will set up a second meeting to discuss promotions (usually once a month) that the reseller can execute and that you will help them with. This is an agenda for this planning meeting.
15. Chanimal Partner Follow-up Worksheet. Record every reseller that applies to your program in this spreadsheet (it may be redundant, but is critical anyway) and then put the DATE when you complete each step of the follow-up. The date ensures that you follow up on their application within a few days and take them through the orientation within the first week (do NOT get behind or you may lose your reseller (through neglectful follow-up)). It also ensures you recognize them when they make a sale (they need to feel appreciated) and that you set up follow-up meetings to help them run their own promotions.
16. Chanimal Portal Copy – Repurpose. The actual copy from the sample reseller portal that you can use to do a quick search and replace and make edits to–before sending it to your webmaster to build your portal site.
17. Channel Plan of Action. The sequential step-by-step instructions to create or update a reseller program. It is one of the most valuable documents within the kit since it shows how to put everything together (by the numbers).
18. Follow-Up Orientation-Email. A sample email you might send to your partner so they will go through the orientation and get started on the first 3 month promotions.
19. Marketing Budget – ROI Analysis. A PowerPoint showing how to get your budget approved by calculating the anticipated ROI for every expense–critical when you need the cash to grow the program. Fortunately, a channel budget is one of the highest-leveraged activities within the company–so the funds usually provide the highest returns. You will want to download the Chanimal budget template (not included) from Chanimal.com.
20. Orientation For a New Channel Person. It contains over 15 sequenced steps to orient a new channel sales or marketing person–the fastest way to spin up to speed. Correlates to the Chanimal mini-course for a new channel person.
21. Partner Portal Mapped fields. The sample portal site writes the data from the form into simple text files. You can take that text file and drop it into the Excel document and the fields above will map to the text fields. Creates an instant database (the non-programmers’ quick-start approach to an online database).
22. Phone Dialogue to Recruit Resellers. A sample dialogue and some basic sales concepts to recruit resellers.  Only the template, you still have to customize with information about your products. Usually, a follow-up to the three e-mails that are sent at the start of a recruiting campaign.
23. Portal Overview Script. Shows a sample script showing the level of detail to take your resellers through the sample reseller portal content. you will also want to view the video of this script. The current location should be in the “Orientation for a New Channel Person” document within this kit.
24. Reseller Approval e-mail. A sample of an e-mail that might be sent to a newly approved reseller. It contains the approval notification, your contact info, access to the portal, margins (including extra margins when they register their deal), along with a recommended 90-day “Jump Start” promotion (so they get selling right away), along with an overview of the orientation meeting you want to schedule.
25. Reseller list. Sources to get the list of resellers.
26. Reseller PowerPoint Template Guidelines. Some basics on how to construct your reseller product PowerPoint (knowing they will often put their logo on it, etc.).
27. Reseller Program Competitive Research. This is the single most important document used by Chanimal to define an entire reseller program in less than an hour. It lists every major feature of a reseller program. The top portion shows a few sample partner programs (partially completed) as examples. Replace Acme with your company name and go from left to right (highlight each category for a description) and put a “0” on elements you don’t need, an “X” on those you already have, and a “TO DO” on elements yet to be completed. The video on building a Saas (and any type) reseller program will show how this is done. http://www.chanimal.com/resources/videos/
28. Reseller Promotions Picklist (PDF and Excel). Shows a pick list of possible promotions to discuss with your resellers during the “second” meeting to set up their first three promotions (during your 90-day specials).
29. Reseller e-mail Template – sample. This is a sample of an e-mail that might be sent BY YOUR RESELLER to promote your product to their prospects.
30. Reseller – Battlefield. Courtesy of Channel Sources (a rep firm), showing most of the national retail locations by type and size within the US.
31. Sample Reseller Recruiting Email & Follow-Up Process. Shows sample e-mails and the schedule and follow-up to recruit resellers. Very valuable. The email campaigns seldom get a massive response (always bigger whenever you have software that the reseller can use personally (like Quickbooks, a CRM, a Lead System, etc.). But it usually gets your critical first 10 partners–who you use to refine your new program and ensure you have your act together and can scale… before you move onto the bigger recruiting initiatives.
32. Sources for Reseller Databases. Some creative sources to find resellers.
33. Plus about 35 more samples and documents!

To Customize

1. First, put all of the files in a separate directory so you do not wipe out the original templates.
2. Second, search and replace the name “Acme” with your company name within each template.
3. Third, add your name and applicable phone numbers and e-mails.
4. Finally, review the content on each page, determine which features you can provide, and erase the rest. You may wish to use the Partner Program Competitive Research template to evaluate all of the available features–it is documented (red tab in each column).

Questions and Answers

How does this kit differ from the previous Chanimal Reseller Kit?

The previous kit was more paper-based. This is designed to be used within a portal (although paper still works fine). There is also a sample portal site that shows how it all comes together at portal.chanimal.com. In addition, it has been simplified. It no longer contains detailed descriptions of each level. This information is self-evident within the grid. It has also been updated to include the latest deal registration, lead, and eval policies—plus much more.

What if I need help doing competitive analysis or determining what should and should not be in my program?

Check out the Chanimal “Micro Consulting” for quick and relatively inexpensive assistance with any of your channel needs. Click the “consulting” link on top the of page. It usually takes about one hour for Chanimal to review each element and finalize the program. Then, it takes about 1-2 hours (depending on how familiar you are with the channel) to customize every agreement and policy–so you are ready to add any missing content within 3 hours, or ready to start recruiting if you have most of it already.

Go HERE for specific help with the competitive matrix content (one of the main documents every reseller asks for–“How does it compare?”).

Testing

Please review EVERY document in this kit (you will have seen how most of it is used within the sample portal already) and prepare to be tested (open book–but you will need to know the documents to pass). I know, this is a LOT of information–yep, and you will be well prepared (and “this” is just the overview–not the full-fledged certification program (has more videos, more detail, and covers more areas).

Happy testing!!

Sample Reseller Portal

Now it’s time to see how a reseller portal comes together. This is where a reseller goes to find out about your program and sign up. Once signed up, they can enter the portal to get leads, register deals, get PowerPoints, competitive information, collateral, and collaborate with other reseller partners. Pay special attention to this section!

Please view the sample reseller portal at portal.chanimal.com (opens in its own window).

Opening Page

Pay special attention to the following elements on the opening page.

Note that there is no mention of the product. Resellers look for three things

1) Do you have good positioning–is your product competitive (your main site shows this–it does NOT belong here (that decision is over)). If they believe you have a worthwhile product then the next thing they look for is,

2) Can they make any money? Whether or not a reseller can make money is determined by your reseller program. Things they look for:

• Do you provide leads (even if you hand out two per year you can say “yes”)?
• Will you train them and is it free?
• Do you have channel conflict (this is avoided with a deal registration program)?
• Do you have not for resale copies (or free access if a SaaS application?
• How about PowerPoints, competitive matrix or product slicks (or do they have to make their own)?
• Do they have easy access to reseller support?

In addition, is there a contact by name and number so they can ask questions (like the margin or any other barrier to entry).  Some companies (SalesForce, Cisco to name a few) took me 6-7 calls and multiple e-mails and it still took weeks to get anyone to call back to ask a basic question (such as, “what is your margin” (common))–which is horrible.  Note that the sample website has contact information.

Also, note the reseller application. It asks for a LOT of information. Why? Because you have to profile your partners at the beginning (when they are the most eager to apply and give you any information). One vendor I had helped called me back 10 years later to profile their resellers–they had 2,200 partners and wanted to recruit more that were just like the best–but they didn’t know why the top 20% were better because they didn’t know anything about them!

Also, note the reseller grid, showing the levels, requirements, and benefits of each level. Most partner programs don’t have this–yet resellers look for it to ensure the vendor rewards loyalty (partners that learn their product (certified) and maintain quotas).

3) Do you love me? The third thing they look for: is the vendor easy to work with and do they love (appreciate) me? This is answered somewhat within your portal. If you recognize top producers or the reseller within their portal (or via e-mail, newsletters, calls), then they start to sense that you care about them and their business–they, in turn, will start to care about yours.

Portal Sign In

Location: portal.chanimal.com

Name: Visitor
Password: !Welcome123#

Once you sign into the portal, note the opening page contains news, promotions, and (if it were customized (versus the sample generic portal)) it might show leads and progress toward certification and the quota. This sample is a generic portal–same info for everyone and what I recommend to get started unless you use a PRM.

Now notice the simple navigation and the buckets of content.  You will want to review the content samples (you will be tested on some of them). This is also a great resource for sample policies, format, and content examples (for example, what does a demo script look like–there are samples in the portal).

This portal utilizes many of the best practices (having reviewed most of the industry portals, talked with resellers, and getting a lot of feedback).  This should be your model for this kind of reseller portal (and you are welcome to scrape the policies and content and re-purpose it for your own site–but a lot of this is in your “Kit” (later)).

Now take the test (but be prepared–there are a LOT of items to learn and they will be covered within the test).

Hint: Pay special attention to elements of the home page, the reseller application, levels, all the policies (NFR, Leads, Deal Registration), plus the kinds of content you should provide for the resellers. The test will also give you hints throughout.

Bonus

Below is a video from the PRM selection and elements from the paid, “Certified Channel Manager” course. The content from this video content is NOT on the quiz, so it is optional, but it also gives you a feel for the main course (more engaging–not this text-based orientation course).

1) Watch the video below, “Building a SaaS Channel, a Step-by-Step Approach.” It covers the three phases of a partner program: 1) defining, 2) recruiting, and 3) enabling a channel. It covers ALL the channel (software, hardware, services), but also includes a section on the unique differences for a SaaS channel (as a Channel Manager, you will need to know all of this so you can transfer between roles and not have to re-learn).

The video is a good channel overview. You can expand to watch full screen if you wish. Grab some popcorn and enjoy your lunch-n-learn. It is apx. one hour long.

2) Review EVERY page of the channel marketing section of Chanimal (includes 7 sections). Take notes and be prepared to be tested on everything (MDF, VARs, phases of a reseller program, elements of a VAR kit, how to recruit resellers, ways to keep them motivated, software that helps you with the resellers, and more.)

Go to Channel Marketing (opens in its own window).

3) Now, take the test (you can refer to the Channel Marketing sections during the test–but it is best to internalize the material if you plan to do this long-term).

Lesson Materials

• Building a SaaS Channel (PowerPoint). This is a copy of the PowerPoint used in the video. You may wish to download this PowerPoint to review it during the quiz. Note, sometimes the newer PowerPoints come across as zip files (since they are compressed). If so, rename the extension to .ppt and it should work. You can also modify and personalize this PowerPoint to conduct a brief channel orientation of your own for your internal team.