Ep. 5 - Why should I care about channel conflict?

Channel conflict can be highly disruptive to your partner business. However, in many cases it's an unavoidable part of maximizing your business across multiple channels. Check out this episode for an intro to channel conflict and what you can do to minimize it.

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Transcript

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Speaker 1 0:04

[inaudible]

Speaker 2 0:05

Hello and welcome to the partner strategy network podcast. I'm mark [inaudible] and I'm here with Wesley. Hello ? Hey Wesley. Hey mark. So what are we going to talk about this week?

Speaker 3 0:16

We're going to talk about channel conflict this week. Wow.

Speaker 2 0:18

Okay. Channel conflict. That always seems like such a hot topic. Everyone's always worried about having channel conflict, but I remember years ago, hearing from an expert in two tier distribution channels, the channel conflict is actually a good thing that it means you are actually making an impact in the market. So what's the story. What's the real story here. Wesley, what are the different kinds of channels?

Speaker 3 0:40

The kinds of channels that are most common are online. Web sales, direct sales and working with resellers and OEM partners.

Speaker 2 0:48

Okay. So we've got these different kinds of channels. And when does the channel conflict happen and what kind of problems can it create?

Speaker 3 0:54

Yeah, the conflict happens when the different channels that you have are competing with each other for the same piece of business.

Speaker 2 1:02

Okay. So like for example, the complaints I hear the most is the internal direct sales team. They hate it when I've set up various OEM and reseller partnerships, because they feel like it confuses, the customers creates more sales, friction maybe makes it harder for them to hit their quota. Maybe you're ended up creating price wars with yourself. Is that the problem?

Speaker 3 1:21

Yeah, absolutely. So you don't want to be competing across those different channels and competition within a channel is very healthy, but you don't want your direct sales team competing with your partner .

Speaker 2 1:33

Okay. So then what are the techniques for minimizing this channel conflict? What can we do here so that we can keep things cleaner and with less friction for the customer,

Speaker 3 1:42

Some of the things people do to address this, our segmentation is the main one. So if you've got different buyers or different regions or even different deals , sizes to segment your market and have your channels, address those independently, that's a great way to reduce the channel conflict. Another way to deal with this is with deal registration. So you can have a system set up. So we know who's got the lead on a particular deal. And one of the things that I've seen work really well is a simple solution. Just double pay your reps. And so if your direct reps are getting paid on partner deals that has everybody rowing the boat in the same direction and everybody's working together to get the deals stuff

Speaker 2 2:20

Well , and maybe in an earlier stages of a company, maybe that's a really great ways. I've seen a lot of times where people are fighting over small pieces of business. And if you can double pay them, then that just a way to make sure that everyone's cooperating well together. Is that right?

Speaker 3 2:34

I'm definitely seeing that work very well.

Speaker 2 2:36

All right. Well, I think that calvers channel and conflict, Leslie , thanks for sharing your thoughts on that. All right .

Speaker 3 2:42

Thanks mark.

Speaker 2 2:44

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