http://www.nanglepartners.com/index.php/blog/ The Nangle+Partners blog discusses topics related to our practice: education, strategy, and sales best practices. Visit the main Nangle+Partners site to learn more about our work. en Copyright 2010 2010-04-22T19:15:49+00:00 http://www.nanglepartners.com/index.php/blog/item/new_report_published_by_nanglepartners/ http://www.nanglepartners.com/index.php/blog/item/new_report_published_by_nanglepartners/#When:19:15:49Z As mentioned in a previous post, Nangle+Partners has now published a report titled “Understanding and Using K-16 Sales Channels - A Practical Guide to Growing Your Education Sales”.  The report is currently available for sale through our partners at Selling To Schools.  Here is a link - http://www.sellingtoschools.com/products/selling-to-schools-using-k-16-sales-channels. This report is designed to serve as a roadmap for publishers and manufacturers to identify, evaluate, select and implement a sales channel strategy appropriate for their specific products or services.  I hope you will read it, it is a very rich resource.  And if you haven’t spent any time at the Selling To Schools website - it is time you did as there isn’t a richer resource for education publishers and manufacturers. 2010-04-22T19:15:49+00:00 http://www.nanglepartners.com/index.php/blog/item/independent_sales_agents_are_a_nice_option/ http://www.nanglepartners.com/index.php/blog/item/independent_sales_agents_are_a_nice_option/#When:12:07:56Z If your company doesn’t have the fat sales and marketing budget to build and support a direct sales force with full geographic coverage in N. America BUT you want to maintain a higher degree of control than a typical VAR channel will allow then Independent Sales Agents (ISA’s) are a nice option.  You can plug the holes in your geographic coverage with Independent Sales Agents who are married to their customers and have little to no infrastructure.  Typically, they only have a few customers but they know them cold - they know the buying cycles and process, they know where the money is, they know where the administration is focusing their time and attention, they have personal relationships with many of the key decision makers in the district.  They are very loyal to their customers and place their vendor relationships second. An ISA will usually operate without infrastructure.  That means that pre-sales support, sales administration (accepting P.O.s and invoicing), customer training, professional development and implementation support is going to need to come from the vendor.  Perfect for those companies that want / need to maintain a high level of control and count on services dollars to bolster their revenue line.  The question is - do you have the infrastructure to support this model?  If yes, then how many ISA’s can you handle and where? I’ll be writing quite a bit more about ISA’s over the coming weeks so stay tuned for more if this topic is of interest.  2010-04-18T12:07:56+00:00 http://www.nanglepartners.com/index.php/blog/item/landmark_sales_channel_report_coming_this_april/ http://www.nanglepartners.com/index.php/blog/item/landmark_sales_channel_report_coming_this_april/#When:14:01:59Z Recently I was fortunate to get my hands on – and purchase all rights to – the Education Channel Partners Report published by The Peak Group in 2006.  I had read this report with great interest a couple of years ago in my former job, and so I’m really pleased to get the chance to update it and refresh it for 2010. The report breaks down the K-12 and post-secondary education market for educational vendors and explains the various roles different channel partners – especially value added resellers – can play in growing company revenues and expanding sales and service coverage. Most importantly, it outlines key steps in creating an effective channel sales strategy and best practices for working with sales partners. The education market can be a huge sales challenge for small-to-medium educational vendors and I am excited to publish this revamped report to make it more accessible. It will be available for purchase later in April … stay tuned for details. 2010-03-30T14:01:59+00:00 http://www.nanglepartners.com/index.php/blog/item/a_little_more_from_here/ http://www.nanglepartners.com/index.php/blog/item/a_little_more_from_here/#When:19:35:37Z Though largely inactive since going live with the website, you’ll be hearing a fair bit more from this blog over the coming weeks / months.  There is some exciting stuff coming and I look forward to hearing back from you - please feel free to leave comments. 2010-03-23T19:35:37+00:00 http://www.nanglepartners.com/index.php/blog/item/this_channel_goes_with_that_product/ http://www.nanglepartners.com/index.php/blog/item/this_channel_goes_with_that_product/#When:18:33:59Z If your core products are largely transactional - your average transaction is less than $1,000 and you do a lot of them - then be sure to pick channels that are best suited for that kind of sale.  If, as a transactional business, you add a product to your portfolio that is a specialized solution which solves a vary specific and important problem at a premium price point you must consider adding a different kind of sales channel instead of trying to push it through your transactional sales channel.  Match your products to the right sales channels - build the right mix of sales channels.  If you don’t you may have some killer apps that look like duds because you’ve matched them with the wrong channel.  Smart and sophisticated K-16 education companies are still getting this wrong today! 2010-03-23T18:33:59+00:00 http://www.nanglepartners.com/index.php/blog/item/happy_holidays_from_nanglepartners/ http://www.nanglepartners.com/index.php/blog/item/happy_holidays_from_nanglepartners/#When:19:39:19Z We’re looking forward to a busy and exciting new year with our clients and VAR partners. Until then, we wish you everything good in the holidays—peace, rest, family time, and good cheer. Sincerely, Toby 2009-12-17T19:39:19+00:00 http://www.nanglepartners.com/index.php/blog/item/how_direct_sales_and_a_channel_strategy_can_work_together/ http://www.nanglepartners.com/index.php/blog/item/how_direct_sales_and_a_channel_strategy_can_work_together/#When:19:40:43Z As you can see, we have a new website now for Nangle+Partners. It was lots of fun to create—big thanks go to the creative teams we worked with: Turner-Riggs out of Ottawa and Hop Studios in Vancouver. 2009-12-16T19:40:43+00:00 http://www.nanglepartners.com/index.php/blog/item/sales_tip_of_the_week_respect_your_prospects_time/ http://www.nanglepartners.com/index.php/blog/item/sales_tip_of_the_week_respect_your_prospects_time/#When:17:15:56Z Real estate mogul Donald Trump was once asked how someone who pitches him an idea can be successful. “They have to be enthusiastic, succinct, and fast,” Trump advised. I couldn’t agree more. Your prospects are deluged with offers like yours every day, and they will only listen to pitches that are delivered quickly and with passion. The takeaway? Get to the benefit, and get to it fast. While it may seem like you’re too busy to practice boiling your pitch down to 60 seconds or less—focusing only on its most compelling differentiators and working your belief in its value into your delivery—I can’t stress enough how worth it this time will be in the long run. Seemingly paradoxically, the most practiced pitches often come across as the most natural. Perhaps this is because the people delivering them aren’t visibly struggling to remember a long list of product features and what’s amazing about what they’re selling. In sales, you rarely have a second shot. First impressions can mean everything ... in fact, Malcolm Gladwell based his entire bestseller, Blink, on the incredible amount of decision-making that happens in the first two seconds of encountering something or someone new. Think of your 60 seconds as an extension of Gladwell’s two, and you have a better chance of genuinely interesting your prospect. 2009-12-15T17:15:56+00:00