This seems like the next evolution in our series of “the Art of Channel Management”. How do we grow and partner to resell our products? At its most rudimentary level, how do we effectively manage and grow multiple partners and multiple locations, across multiple verticals? The answer is so simple, a common platform for everyone to communicate. It blows my mind how many firms really miss the boat when it comes to this very simple logic. A very important component of this equation is “rules of engagement”. Laws in how we communicate effectively, that are followed to the extreme. Most importantly, review back to my past couple of blogs regarding partnership and trust, from both the manufacturer and resellers/agent. This is paramount. If one fails, the program is broken, there must be buy in at the executive level and engagement from everyone underneath to make it successful. The Art of Deal Registration could be a series of blogs all by itself. There are many pitfalls, traps and mistakes that are made regularly. Egos have no place in successful DR but often challenge its base foundation, and typically egos don’t engage in any partnerships because they lack the basic forms of partnership, trust and sharing. I speak with very intelligent Channel Managers who make, in most cases, very similar errors when trying to implement these programs. When DR is executed perfectly, magic occurs. You have solid communication and understanding of a healthy sales pipeline, hundreds if not thousands of qualified indirect sales agents selling nationally or internationally and competing firms evolve into trust partners that help each other to effectively close business and hence, true partnership is formed. DR is a serious tool in not only in channel management but also channel acquisition, because top performing resellers work best with protected, high margin opportunities and without channel conflict.