Sales, revenue and overall profitable business begins with customer need.  Products and services are interesting can and do sell.  But products and services that are needed to fill gaps for customers are much more likely to sell in larger volume.  Customers don't often part with money unless they perceive a need for the products or services they are buying.

Good sales and marketing organizations focus heavily on understanding, quantifying, qualifying and articulating customer need.  Successful businesses take their products to market by talking about and demonstrating how their products and services address the needs of their prospective customers.  From time to time, businesses lose their way and focus on a myriad of other factors.  When that happens, successful businesses and business people bring the focus back to the basics...customer need.

Channels organizations too must focus on customer need.  It's easy, though, to be fooled into thinking that means a company should focus on partner/reseller needs.  But reseller partners are NOT customers.  Unless resellers consume the products and services sold by the vendor, they are not customers.  In fact, by definition they do not consume the products and services.  They resell the services.  Resellers are an outsourced sales agent for the vendor.  They are a sales force employed by the vendor to do the work of selling on behalf of the vendor.

One of the implications of this information is that partner selection must also begin with customer need.  But often, vendors start by asking, "What partners want to sell my product?"  It is certainly important to have partners interested in the products of the vendor, but interest in the products is not the same as money in the door.  When a vendor starts with a solid understanding of customer need and selects partners based on knowing who is already talking to the highest priority customers about their needs, there is a much greater chance of success.  How do you select partners?  Does it start with partner interest or custmer need?

William Vanderbilt

+1 630 343 6261

WVanderbilt@InnovativeLearningChannels.com