IBM, HP, EDS, SAP, Oracle, and all the big consulting firms often rely on smaller companies - often much smaller - to provide important components of the mammoth enterprise solutions they're selling.  So, if you're one of those smaller companies, what steps can you take to motivate these larger companies (i.e. your channel) to include your products and services in their proposals? If you're a salesperson, how can you motivate your sales counterpart in the channel to include your products in his or her deals?  I was asked this question a few days ago.  I think my answer was on the money, but afterwards I posed the question to my LinkedIn network only to find the answer isn't all that straight forward.  Here's what they had to say.

Generally, I believe you have to be in tune with the needs of the channel and focused on providing value - the kind of value that motivates them to include you in important discussions.  This means building a strong, credible, advisory relationship with the channel to understand what is most important for them, and then delivering it consistently, and reliably.  The specifics boil down to the following:

• Provide Strong Technical Support: If this helps the account win the deal, and successfully deliver the project, your value will quickly become the defacto risk-mitigation strategy.
• Provide strong marketing and advertizing support.
• Create Obligation: Sometimes you can create an obligation by investing in training, market development, or co-marketing relationships, or even just a close sales-to-sales relationship.
• Get the technical members of the sales teams (such as sales engineering and implementation assistance) on board by educating them on the impact of including your product (see EDUCATE).
• Financial incentives, but only if these are supported by Management – achieved through education. (See EDUCATE)
• Working with management to adopt product inclusion as quota relief – once again, achieved through education. (See EDUCATE)
• Provide attractive credit terms to the channel or SI
• EDUCATE
  • Gross Profit Margin: Increased margin can often be a significant motivation. Pricing consideration for the product vendor.
  • Larger Deal Value: Inclusion of product will enable channel to pursue larger scale opportunities and compete at a higher level.
  • Differentiation: Inclusion of product will differentiate the solution from others and increase win probability
  • Competitiveness: Inclusion of product with give channel greater competitive position, enabling customer retention, and bolstering channel’s position as trusted advisor in the account.
  • Risk Management: Inclusion of product will help channel reduce project risk.
  • Follow-on Revenue: Inclusion of product will pull through a larger sale of other items.
  • Access to Expertise: Inclusion of product will give channel access to high value expertise, useful for demonstrating market and thought leadership in the account.
  • Hero Factor: Inclusion of product will make the account see the channel as having “hero” status – in terms of the great work they’ve done, the great expertise they’ve provided, their impeccable implementation, etc.