Playbook / Lessons / Partners and paid growth

Expect channel partners to be slow to start

Skok warns that reseller channels bring several dangers for a startup. He says they usually take a long time to get going because a reseller has different priorities than you and needs training, marketing help and leads. He also advises making your first sales yourself so you know the sales model before teaching partners to repeat it.

“Channel sales usually take a long time to get off the ground.”— David Skok, The 8 Dangers of Channel Sales, Nov 2009

Do this

Take your next sales call yourself this week and write down every step you used, so that you have a script before you hand anything to a reseller.

More in this pack

• Judge early paid spend by payback, not LTV
• Pay for affiliates only out of real margin
• Put marketing metrics in the partner contract
• Ask your other referral sources, not only past clients

Get your plan

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