By Larry Walsh
Growing up in Massachusetts in the 1970s and ’80s, we were awash in powerful, well-known political figures. Future presidential hopeful Mike Dukakis was governor. Paul Tsongas, a popular figure who made time for everyone, was the junior senator. Kevin White, mayor of Boston, might as well have been governor. And Billy Bulger, the state Senate president and brother of famed mobster Whitey, ruled the chamber with an iron fist and the charm of an Irishman.
But one stood above them all for his humility and tenacity: Rep. Thomas “Tip” O’Neill, who would serve in the House for decades, rising to Speaker in 1977 and later becoming Ronald Reagan’s chief sparring partner across the aisle. When O’Neill retired, he wrote a book about politics and his political career, “Man of the House,” which offers a lot of great stories and several lessons worthy of committing to memory. One of those stories was about a woman who didn’t vote for him.
Now, I’m writing from memory, but I recall the story going like this. An older woman from O’Neill’s neighborhood in Cambridge had voted for the congressman for years. She would affirm her support every time O’Neill came calling during the door-knocking phase of the campaign. Then, one year, he didn’t come around because of his schedule. He won re-election, but not with this woman’s vote. When he ran into her, he asked why she didn’t vote for him. She replied, “You didn’t ask.”
The grand lesson from “Man of the House” is that all politics is local.
I share this story at the risk of boring you, but it’s important to recognize that politics and the channel share one key characteristic: local relationships.
Recently, the Channelnomics team and I have been working with a vendor that wants to grow its indirect sales and market coverage by re-engaging with partners it hasn’t worked with in years. Some are selling the vendor’s products, but mostly opportunistically and episodically through distribution. Many have been fallow for years. So, the Channelnomics team designed a strategy and program specifically aimed at recovering these relationships.
The program manager, someone I’ve known for years, and I were reviewing the plan and the specifications for making it work when he asked a seemingly simple question: “Will the partners respond to this?”
I had an answer. We designed the program with partner feedback. We ran the strategy and mechanics through Channelnomics game theory models to determine how partners and competitors would react to the new initiative. We had high confidence that the program would generate the results the vendor was seeking, with caveats.
Why caveats? Because strategies, programs, and models work only as well as the people executing them. If the vendor made the investments in the needed capabilities and repositioned its people in the field to engage with partners more regularly, the model says the partners will reciprocate, even in the absence of new incentives.
So, I gave our client the only answer I could: “It will work if you ask them. And we shouldn’t spend more money on incentives until we see how well partners respond to our asking them to re-engage.”
Essentially, I was channeling Tip O’Neill’s advice to always ask for support. More often than not, the people on the receiving end will act. But they’ll act only if you, the vendor, and your people make a real commitment and engage in a meaningful way. Throwing a new program, lavish incentives, and automated systems at partners isn’t the way to develop or redevelop productive relationships. The channel is a people business, built on trust and mutual understanding. Partners are just like customers; vendors have to earn their business.
On a regular basis, vendors come to Channelnomics thinking that they don’t have the right partners, that they need new partners, or that they need fewer partners to achieve their goals. We don’t discourage them from those notions, but we do encourage them to explore why they came to those conclusions. We recommend that they take a second or third look at their existing partners to understand why they’re not engaging. The answer often comes down to this: They weren’t asked.
So, before you rush out with the latest and greatest low-touch technique for getting partners’ attention and reinvigorating their selling of your products, or look past your existing partners because you think they’re not worth it, pause. Step outside your preconceived conclusions and comfort zone, and simply ask them for their support. You might be surprised by how well they respond.
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Larry Walsh is the CEO, chief analyst, and founder of Channelnomics. He’s an expert on the development and execution of channel programs, disruptive sales models, and growth strategies for companies worldwide.