Channel and Alliance Sales Consulting

*Updating & Optimizing Your Channel Sales Program

*Customized Sales/SE Staff Training

*Managed Services Offering Modernization

Jamestown consultinG

Founded in 2013

Since 2013 Jamestown Consulting has assisted IT Solution and Service Vendors, and Resellers build healthy Alliance and Channel Sales Programs. We successfully create or revise Channel Sales and Distribution Programs for our clients so they can focus on their delivering their products, service solutions, and managed service offering.

We Will Enable Your Strongest Competitive Edge With: Planning-Building-Launching-Managing-Expanding-Optimizing Your Programs With the End Goal of Handing The Keys to a Revenue Producing Power-Plant Over to You Upon Completion of Our Contract!

We Will Help You:

-Build Programs Right The First Time

-Avoid Foundational Element Mistakes That Can Disrupt Sales Programs

-Ensure Government, Program, and Legal Compliance

-Custom Training For Sales, Sales Engineers, and Channel Partners

-Rapidly and Long-Term Increase Sales Revenue

-Develop or Optimize Your Service-as-a-Solution Offerings

Why Consider Our 'Team of Consultants' Approach for Your Channel Program Development?

Each of our Sr. Consultants have 15-26 years experience in Actual Channel Sales, and Channel Sales Leadership Positions. All of our team members were highly successful in their various field and management positions, and we have worked for a wide variety of IT organizations. We assign two-three consultants for the first one-three month Phase I Assessment and resulting Recommendation Period on every engagement. This enables us to gain a multi-angle view of your Channel/Sales Programs, and your Sales and Sales Engineering Staff. Our Sales Staff Assessments are primarily focused on identifying areas of Needed Training, such as Filling in Solution Knowledge Gaps, Sales Skills, all in alignment with your Core Corporate Goals, Fundamentals, and Strategy.

During the first one-three months of working with us we will identify, and clearly map-out the areas requiring primary focus, which are those to address first in Phase II, the Implementation Phase. Our Optional Phase III Offerings focus on residual and secondary items, such as Advanced (round two/three) of Sale and Sale Engineering Staff Training. This can remove time intensive preparation and delivery of staff developmental training off your Management Team's busy schedule. Therefore, our highly customized Phase III Offerings may include any items that are not the best use of your internal resources time to address. We specialize is Sale Staff Training and Development, and we deliver solid long-term results. Areas where you do not expend internal resources can be just as important as where you focus your organization's most valuable resources.

For our Assessment and subsequent Recommendation period we team a minimum of two of our best suited consultants for the project(s) at hand. Each team member's contribution is based on their unique experience and skill set. Our Assessment and Development engagements entail each consultant working independently to perform pre-determined assessment tasks, then our collective team works in collaborative sessions, which includes working with your management team. It is not a matter of us not feeling that one of consultant would do a great job for you or not, rather we are certain that two-three consultants working together will do an outstanding job. Our Engagement Pricing in highly competitive with other consulting organizations who assign only one individual to your project. Our team approach has proven to be faster and more comprehensive for our clients. We do a better job while keeping cost equal to, or less than other consulting organizations.

Our clients tell us that we ask a great deal of questions. And it is true, we want to learn from you and your staff. No one knows your business as well as you do, but we are going to try our best to learn every relevant aspect of your business for the project(s) we are hired for. Our team of consultants will not be there to tell you how to run your company or department, rather they will guide you in developing programs to maximizes the return from working with your partners, vendors, and/or distributors.

Please keep in mind that the actual Cost of hiring a consulting firm should always factor in results. We are not a big-name Consulting Firm, you are not paying for our extensive advertising budget, large office buildings, massive support staff, and other overhead. We offer the best Consultants working off real-life experience, not theory or shrink-wrapped engagement plans. Our structure is the opposite of the big-name consulting firms with multiple layers a individuals to get to any real value, action or results. We are highly customized, agile, adaptable and we never approach any two projects the same cookie-cutter way. We do have Project Managers, and a handful of Support Staff who support our Field Consultants on projects, but that is the extent of our organizational layers.

Site Content

Building a Channel Sales Program to Work With Direct Sales VS. Compete - Direct Sale and Channel Sal

In Technology Sales a properly constructed Channel Sales Program is critical for maximizing revenue production. Compared to Direct Sales, Channel is Complex. The reality is that Direct and Channel Sales have long been pitted against one another. And channel partners, and sometimes even the customers are the innocent victims whether they know of the internal conflict or not.

We tell our clients to try and avoid creating a conflict between Direct and Channel Sales if at all possible. Most direct sales reps are happy to work with a knowledgeable channel partner rep or engineer who brings an opportunity to the table. A bit of training, document creation, and process implementation can go a long way. With a program that is either direct or channel, your direct sales rep, your channel rep, and a partner sales rep enter a battle were someone has to lose for someone to win. We usually suggest a model where the direct sales rep will be compensated 100% for working with that specific partner on the first X number of sales, then a reduced percentage going forward. The concept is to get your sales rep invested in teaching and working with the partner sales rep to uncover new business. If things work as they should, your sales rep will end up with several channel partner reps out there hunting down business for them, in which case they should be fine with getting paid a reduced percentage on channel deals. Yet we suggest the structure of your channel reps compensation be the same if they work with direct sales or not. Logic usually prevails and the Channel Reps will work with the good direct sales reps on a repeat basis to help the opportunities along, and to assist with partner enablement process. While this may be a slightly more expensive sales model for you, if it enables an increasing number of partner reps and engineers selling your solutions it is well worth it.

A solid Channel Sales Program can produce tremendous rewards, but building and managing a Chanel Program properly is much more complex than a Direct Sales Model. Channel Sales is a multi-tier sales structure that at minimum will involve your company and another company selling your solutions. The most common structures involve your company, a distributor(s), and the companies selling your solutions. This is where things start to become complex. Adding in compliance with other sales programs you have, especially Government Sales, requires the focus of people trained and experienced in building legal programs. Most healthy Channel Programs offer a lower buying price for high volume "resellers"; A multi-tier structure calls for the distributors to apply the appropriate discounts for each Channel Partner. In most cases it is recommended to have at least two distributors for redundancy. Getting this foundational structure built properly is essential to the success of your Channel Program. A Channel Program selling to Federal and State/Local Government may impact your commercial sales and channel programs. In some cases your commercial pricing needs to be equal to or higher than the government pricing on the same solution. If you plan on, or think you might be interested in leveraging Government-wide Acquisition Contracts (GWAC) such as GSA, you must build your Channel Program to be compliant from the ground-up. Not doing so could cause you and your organization a lot of difficulties down the line. We help you make these considerations and ones like them from the start. These are very expensive lessons you and your organization do not not have to go through.

The Channel Program experts at Jamestown Consulting can get you up an running with a solid Channel Program designed to be future proof, and always legally compliant. We also work to revise, improve and ramp-up existing Channel Programs. Channel Sales is what each Consulting Team Member has be doing successfully for up to 25 years. Your success is our focus.

Testimonials

“Prior to our meeting to discuss the findings of our five-member consulting team, I never understood the concept of not having a problem simply because I did not know it was problem yet. I had been looking at the four-hour meeting blocked off for weeks wanting to cancel it. I was thinking what the [heck] could these people tell me about a department and company I have spent every day at for 11 years. Three people above me at [my company] who have a “C” in their titles decided to hire this firm, so I went along with it and smiled. Even when Jamestown camped a person out at my office drilling me with questions. I had mainly pushed them off on my sales VPs and Directors. The consultants asked me an insane number of questions. In the office for 20 mins here and there, then I guess I had given [one of the consultants] my cell number because four seconds after I escaped his questions in person a text would pop up. If I left anything out the emails would start. I pretty much gave up resisting and answered every question.

The review meeting was not what I expected, if you have not guessed already. The first 90 minutes or so was about the general market we are in, trends, new players, our traditional competitors, and things they were doing, I will use the word "better" than us. The Jamestown team was nice and used words such as "opportunity" and "potential". They were answering the question no one had to utter, why had we gone from a market leader position to barley showing up on Gartner's MQ, and falling fast since 2016. It turns out there is a long answer to that, but to the teams point we only had time for the Cliff Notes version of the answer. Even with the short version the four-hour meeting that was to end on a Friday a 3pm went until 2am Saturday morning. Not boring in the least. The lead consultant flew back down here for a previously unplanned all-day meeting on Monday and most of Tuesday. And it is not BS when I say every single point and suggestion was thoroughly backed-up and supported with research data and real examples, much of the input from our own sales teams and partners. It seems there was a point to all those questions.

We ended up with an altered direct sales program and an entirely new channel resale and agent referral programs. I can say the plan is simple, but the fact is they made it simple. I greatly appreciate the urgency which Jamestown assigned this, how much heart they put into working with us, and especially for making the multiple sessions of training for our folks and partners comical and rewarding. You guys did what you said you would and a lot more. I could not recommend a better team. My advice is to answer their questions, and listen! Thanks again.”

M. Anderson

VP of Sales, Austin TX

Verified Customer 2019-2021