What do you do when you hit a snag and realize the processes and strategies you’ve put in place aren’t working?
Reflecting to my past blogs, maybe you would’ve guessed practicing patience would have been the best solution to these types of challenges. If you have a solid framework in place, why not continue with status quo until things improve? This past month I’ve learned a lot, and the saying “it’s often said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results” has really begun to resonate with me.
Welcome to the third post in the How to Build a Software Reseller Channel series. Included in this post will be:
- The difference between active recruitment and passive recruitment – a lesson learned
The Difference Between Active Recruitment and Passive Recruitment – a lesson learned
As I stated above, I learned a lot this past month. I’ve already learned that practicing patience in this industry is very important, but this past month I also came to appreciate that it’s important to know when patience is interfering with building a successful software reseller channel. You need to be patient, but you also need to be proactive and persistent.
To begin my story, I will define passive recruitment as courting potential resellers/partners through the use of email introductions and follow up phone calls, but then waiting “passively” for these contacts to return your messages, after just a single attempt. This strategy involves hoping for the best following a one-and-done approach, and will almost always lead to failure. Active recruitment on the other hand is the polar opposite; it’s actively recruiting potential resellers/partners through the use of context based, building upon previous voice messages, follow-up phone calls, connecting with them on LinkedIn, subscribing to their blogs, getting familiar with their business, etc. The prospect may see your efforts as pesky and too much, but far more often they’ll appreciate your persistence and reward your efforts or at the very least provide you with the professonal courtesy by contacting you back. Remember, professionals in this industry are very busy and often don’t mean to neglect your messages, so it’s up to you to be stay top of mind and on their radar so that they become aware of the value you can bring to their business.
I had fallen into the mistake of focusing more on filling my prospect pool than actually managing and effectively pursuing the prospects I had already fully qualified. To give context, I would contact these prospects once or twice by email, attempt one follow-up phone call (which would end up as a voicemail message 9/10), then file that prospect as “attempted contact” and hope for a call back as I moved on to the next opportunity. This is definitely the wrong approach you want to take when building your reseller channel, as it’s far more important to nurture and work with a pool of strong leads that fit your ideal reseller profile (Works in the same markets/verticals, experienced as a reseller/knows the business, is acutely knowledgeable about your product offerings, has an established client base, etc.) than to contact a 100 new leads once or twice and give up on them after they don’t respond. It’s perfectly normal to send 5-12 voicemail messages to a single contact before considering them to be uninterested, so be careful before missing out on a potential mutually beneficial partnership by giving up too soon. Persistence pays! A good trick I learned when contacting an ideal potential prospect leads nowhere is to send them a negative message on the final attempt to reach out to them.
For example: “Hi again _______. Riley Bell from Find it EZ Software. I left you a few voicemails with the hope of connecting with you and discussing a potential strategic partnership. I have not heard back from you so I assume that we’re either not a good fit for _____ or you’re not actively looking for a partnership that can increase your bottom line with a new revenue stream.”
Keep the message simple a brief, and highlight the potential “missed” opportunity they could be losing by not giving you the time of day. For whatever reason, sales experts will attest to the fact that the going negative voicemail has the highest callback rate – so give it a try!
In conclusion, through strong guidance and support I was able to realize my own mistakes and pivot by making small adjustments to the follow-through propecting methods that are better suited to our target market. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity, so if things aren’t going as planned don’t be afraid to change things up.
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