These channel partners are the interface of the organization for the end customers, be it in the form of franchisee owners or sales and service partners. These channel partners must mirror the brand promise that the organization is working towards delivering to its end customers and at every touch point with the customer, deliver on that brand promise.
The confidence and credibility of the organization in question can be strengthened or eroded by the channel partner with whom the customer is interacting. So, every time a customer walks into a channel partner outlet or speaks to a call center representative he/she feels he is interacting with brand in question and it is the brand’s ability or inability to resolve his/her queries that is being subjected to a test.
With this growing focus on channel partners and their direct impact on our business as they touch our end customers, what can organizations do to ensure that they have a channel partner network which is committed to building and growing business with them and mirrors the organizations core values to its end customers and at the same time acts as a key differentiator for them in this crowded marketplace?
The answer to this question lies in building Strong Relationships. Just as strong customer relationships mean sustained business growth similarly strong relationships with channel partners help ensure creation of an ecosystem which reflects organizational values and is committed to building the business through increased customer acquisition, better servicing and improved cross sell/up sell.
For an organization to positively impact this relationship strength, it may look at building customer like relationship with its channel partners which go beyond rational satisfiers and are held together by a strong emotional connect.
In a complex business environment, businesses continue to rely on gut feel and impressions to impact and improve channel partner performance. If we do not make any major investment decisions without going through the numbers then how can we make decisions that impact our business so directly without going back to numbers, identifying areas of improvement and then acting on it.
Hence going forward, one of the key differentiating factors for organizations may be their ability to objectively assess their relationship strength and work on areas which have a maximum impact on business.
Two critical aspects which impact any relationship and hence need to be evaluated are Rational and Emotional aspects. While rational aspects indicate an organizations ability to satisfy a channel partners on hygiene factors of a relationship such as product, price, promotion etc. emotional aspects (such as trust, integrity, pride and passion) help an organization assess the commitment of channel partners in building a business and has a direct impact business outcomes.
An objective assessment of the channel partner & company relationship strength is needed. This can be done through various research based frameworks available through reputed agencies. Most critical aspect to be kept in mind while evaluating a framework should be its ability to assess the critically important emotional bonds of trust, integrity, pride and passion and its linkages to business outcomes. This framework may then be coupled with other organizational and business environment variables; this would help an organization get a complete picture of their relationship across both rational and emotional aspects.
A complete approach to relationship strengthening may encompass the following steps- measure, plan & implement and review & monitor to help organizations experience improved channel partner throughput. The complete approach may be designed with a view to assess improvements made.
Thus, the paradigm shift of strengthening relationships should focus on measuring the key outcomes and drivers which impact channel partner relationships and instituting steps to ensure effective improvements which are then assessed for effectiveness for further improvements.
