B2B Technology client
Helping Our Client Sell More in B2B
One of our largest tech clients was seeking to expand their operations in the B2B channel by helping VARs meet their bronze, silver or gold partner requirements.
These partner requirements are highly reputable and sought-after industry certifications that B2B clients look for when deciding on which VAR they want to work with; therefore, it is important that our client’s VAR maintain their partner standing. A key part of obtaining these certifications are demonstrating competencies in key areas of technical ability, such as Apps and Infrastructure.
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The Brief
Many of our client’s VARs had competencies that needed revisiting for them to maintain bronze, silver or gold status, as well as a number seeking to expand their competencies in order to be able to grow their business. We took on the challenge on behalf of our client to develop a sales enablement programme, tailored for VARs to ensure they meet these requirements, to add more competencies and increase revenue.
A specific challenge with one VARs was their concern that they weren't going to be able to maintain their silver status. Alongside this, they were looking at other competencies to work towards with a view of becoming a gold partner. Their familiar challenge was only one person within the business managed all the client’s product engagements alongside trying to convey the message to their internal departments. This was proving difficult to do, and the VAR was at risk of losing their silver partner status, so it was clear that for them to achieve their status a new approach was required.
The Activity
To maintain the silver status, we agreed to focus on competencies in security and cloud. We also introduced them to resources that would help them work towards gold status and presented the team with learning materials including technical webinars to help with the exams. We assisted the partner’s colleagues in creating a solutions workspace plan and showed how to loop in other key stakeholders in order to help streamline the process. We presented a webinar to the team on our client’s planning application and demonstrated how that could be used to help manage the project.
Collaboration with other departments was also a key part of the programme, such as the marketing team to go through useful resources, and with their new Purchasing and Commercial Manager to go through incentives. In more recent activity, the client’s partner began selling partnership licenses internationally, so resources where prepared and provided to support. Self-sufficiency is a key aim for sales enablement, and this has been achieved through providing high quality, impactful webinar and marketing resources which they can present to their customer base when their new solution and competencies are ready to go.
The Results
Silver status was maintained in July 2020
Solution provider profile created
Cloud Platform competency achieved in June 2020
Success stories
Deploying Agile Reporting at Pace for a Tech Client
By: McCurrach