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Over my 25-year sales career, I’ve read dozens of books on how to become a better salesperson and communicator. “The Challenger Sale.” “The Little Red Book of Selling.” “The 25 Sales Habits of Highly Successful Salespeople.” Name the book; I’ve probably read it.

I certainly learned a lot from each and every one. But the best sales tip I ever received came from my father, and I’ve come to believe it’s really the only strategy you need to be a successful communicator. That is, approach every conversation with a full appreciation of the customer’s point of view. If you don’t view yourself or your product or service through the customer’s lens, you really have no chance of understanding his/her motivation.

When I look at my sales and marketing customers in the technology channel supplier community, there are far too few who use this strategy when communicating with their channel partners. Most start out with the best intentions. But almost all channel communication strategies ultimately fall into one of the following categories that reflect their own needs or objectives as opposed to the partner’s:

1. It’s All About The Benjamins. Sure, everyone wants to make money. But to assume your partner’s primary motivation to sell your product over some other is based on a higher commission or a rebate is truly misguided. I have salespeople who have never once looked at their compensation plan. Their motivation is to make sure the customer achieves their stated objectives. Happy customers = repeat customers. Solution providers are no different. They rely heavily on repeat customers to drive their business. On average, two-thirds of their revenue comes from customers with whom they have a long-term relationship, The Channel Company research shows. A $50 rebate certainly isn’t going to sway them.
2. Ten Pounds Of Sausage In A Five-Pound Casing. Channel marketers way too often overwhelm their partners with too much information about their company/product. I know there are stakeholders throughout your company who want their story told. But the average partner portal makes Healthcare.gov look downright simple. Solution providers don’t have the time to navigate through all of that information to find the one morsel they need. They’ve got multiple suppliers they need to manage, so take your information times 10 and you’ll start to get an understanding of the information overload they face. Tech suppliers need to provide the right information to the right partners at the right time. Let them choose the material they need. If they need more, they’ll ask.
3. Technology Supremacy! I get it. Your technology is better than anything on the market. When you spend your life eating, sleeping and breathing your tech, you tend to fall in love with it. But solution providers are hearing the same thing from a dozen of your competitors. Yes, they want to know that you’ve got great products. But there’s got to be more to it than that to catch their attention. How does this technology solve my customers’ problems better than any other technology? What’s the technology road map? Solution providers need to understand not just where you are today, but where you’re going to be in two years.
4. As An Extension Of Our Sales Team.  1985 called and it wants its pitch back. There is probably no phrase that causes solution providers to tune you out more than this one. I hate to break it to you, but your channel partners don’t work for you. If anything, you work for them. They are no longer an extension of your sales team. That may have been how the channel was born when “resellers” bought IBM medallions to stick in their windows. But it’s not the case now. They’re an extension of the customer’s IT department. I know of only one technology supplier that refers to its partners as “customers.” All of you should.

To be successful communicators, channel sales and marketing professionals need to understand some of the following solution provider realities:

• The vast majority of your solution providers are small-business owners who are worried about making payroll every month. They need more customers. Now.
• They’re having trouble finding and training qualified technical talent. Getting trained on your tech is super important. How can you make that easier? 
• They’re fielding dozens of calls and hundreds of emails per day from well-meaning folks just like you, all saying the same thing. Eventually, it just becomes white noise. How can your communications strategy fit into their daily routine, rather than disrupt it? 
• For the most part, they’re not great marketers (no offense, solution providers.). You are. You need to really roll up your sleeves and figure out where you can help here. 
• Business transformation is real and solution providers are faced with a lot of options. Cloud? Managed services? Service providers? How can you enable them to make the right decision for their business?

If channel sales and marketing pros can keep these realities top of mind when devising their communications and messaging, they certainly stand a better chance of understanding their partner community’s motivation. Because it’s a two-way street. They’re not just looking for a supplier. They’re looking for partners, too.