One Easy Exercise to Identify Your Best…and Worst Resellers!

NOTE: Click here if you prefer a video version of this article

 

Who are your top 3 best resellers?  Can you name them off the top of your head?

I’ve spoken with hundreds of tech vendors over the years and many of them can come up with a handful of names quickly, but when I ask them why they chose those particular resellers, I get a mixed bag of reasons: “they spend the most money with us!” or “they’re great people” or “they grow fast and keep buying more stuff!”.

Everyone has a different angle on what makes a good reseller.  The same can be said for what makes a bad reseller.  But when you apply some logic and analytics to it, the results may surprise you.

And for the record, I’m not talking about some complex algorithm.  I’m not suggesting we plug your reseller base into an AI engine and see what spits out.  I’m talking about a simple exercise that you can do easily and quickly.

Why is it important to identify your best and worst resellers?  Because you may be spending too much time with the wrong group.  When you invest with the RIGHT resellers, watch your business skyrocket!  To learn how to truly drive hyper-growth, watch this video for one simple strategy to skyrocket your new reseller acquisition this year.

From my first-hand knowledge, here’s a simple exercise to show you who your best…and worst resellers are, at least using my simple recipe.

The importance of investing your time with the highest potential resellers

This simple exercise involves identifying the resellers that:

1. Take up the least support tickets and hours clocked with your support engineers
2. Pay their bills on time
3. Are easy to communicate with
4. You genuinely like
5. Book a lot of revenue with you!

Here’s one easy exercise to determine your best…and worst resellers

This one easy exercise is broken out in the following steps:

1. Support Time and Burden on Team

When it comes to supporting your resellers, some are easy and some are difficult.  Try this exercise:

• On a simple spreadsheet, list every one of your resellers on the left side
• In the 2^nd column to the right, add the title: “Burden on My Support Team”
• Beside each reseller name, put a score of 1-5.
  • 5= Super easy to support, barely ever call in, when they do, easy to resolve and pleasant to deal with
  • 1= Multiple support calls, always angry, it’s always an emergency, constantly escalating tickets for faster resolution

2. Pays Their Invoices On Time Without Hassle

Everyone wants to get paid on time right?  But not everyone does.  So:

• In your 3^rd column to the right, put the title “Pays Invoices on Time”
• Beside each reseller name, put a score of 1-5
  • 5=Always pays on time, rarely disputes a charge, doesn’t argue if prices increase, pleasant to deal with for your admin team
  • 1=Always chasing customer to pay their bills, reseller is always arguing about charges, complains when prices increase, your admin staff hates dealing with them

3. Easy to Communicate With

Communication is critical to keeping a business relationship productive.  Too bad not everyone sees it that way.

• In your 4^th column to the right, put the title “Easy to Communicate With”
• Put a score from 1-5 beside each reseller name
  • 5=Easy to reach, always responds, have productive easy conversations/emails/video calls, pleasant to deal with
  • 1=Can never reach the reseller, won’t return messages, emails or calls are brief, always need to clarify or verify information

4. Resellers You Really Like

OK, I admit it.  This one is the least scientific, completely based on your emotion, very subjective, and may change from time to time.  But it’s a people business so this wishy washy criteria is still important.

• In your 5^th column to the right, put the title: “Resellers I Really Like”
• Put a score of 1-5 beside each reseller name
  • 5=I love these guys!
  • 1=I can’t stand these guys!

5. Show Me the Money

Finally we get to the financials!  Which resellers keep the lights on in this place?  Because this one is super-important to your company’s financial health, it gets a different weight-element.

• In the 6^th column to the right, put the title “Revenue and Profitability”.
• Put a score of 1-10 beside each reseller name
  • 10= This reseller is in my top 20% highest revenue and/or profit and is growing.
  • 1=This reseller is in my bottom 20% of revenue and/or profit and is flat or shrinking.

 6. Let’s See the Scorecard

I’m sure you’ve figured it out by now: high scores are good 😊 and low scores are bad ☹.  So your best resellers:

1. Are easy to support!
2. Pay their bills on time and don’t complain!
3. Are easy to communicate with!
4. Are really likeable people!
5. DRIVE YOUR REVENUE AND PROFITABILITY!

And your worst resellers…well…

Conclusion

So it should be clear.  When you invest with your best resellers, your business will grow and be profitable, and your company’s morale will be healthy.  So do some reflection, you may find that you’ve been spending too much time with resellers who drain your time and resources and don’t actually deliver the growth and profitability that your company needs.  Good luck with the exercise!

For more advice on how to build a strong reseller program to achieve exponential growth, watch this video.