TL/DR
You received an introduction to talk with a partner sales person about a mutual account…..now what? This article breaks down what to do, what not to do, and best practices for building a productive co-selling relationship with salespeople at your partners. These co-selling best practices are important for direct sales reps, partner sales reps, partner managers, channel sales reps, and channel managers.
Who needs to have co-selling conversations?
People in all of these roles should have regular co-selling conversations with partners:
- Direct sales reps
- Channel sales reps
- Channel managers
- Partner sales reps
- Partner Managers
Co-selling effectively with partners is a must-have sales skill in this next era of B2B selling.
We built PartnerTap to help every B2B sales professional co-sell with the right data, automation, and co-selling best practices to sell more and win. Official definition of co-selling available here.
Why have a co-selling introduction call?
Getting the chance to talk with a fellow sales person about one of your accounts is an opportunity not to be wasted. It’s an opportunity to:
- Learn something new about your account
- Understand who this person has relationships with inside your account
- Share information about your knowledge of the account
- Explore ways to make your customer more successful with a better-together approach
- Brainstorm ways to block out competitors
- Get competitive intelligence
- Strategize how to sell more into this account
- Figure out ways to land a new account
- Build trust, and introduce each other into more accounts
Best practice approach for initial co-selling conversations
An initial co-selling conversation isn’t the same as getting a lead from a partner. It’s a chance to learn about this fellow sales professional, share what you each know about your mutual accounts, and gain trust that can lead to access into more of your partner’s accounts.
- Get on the phone! Have an initial conversation with your counterpart about your mutual account. An email or text won’t get you what you need. Only a human-to-human conversation will give you the chance to compare notes, share information about what you each know about the company, and figure out if there’s more business or a new angle you could take with this account. Here are some conversation openers to get you started:
- “Thanks for getting on the phone with me, I find it’s the best way to get to know each other and compare notes on [ACCOUNT NAME].”
- “How long have you been at [PARTNER COMPANY NAME]?”
- Let them get to know you. Start by sharing a few things about yourself. A little openness or vulnerability at the beginning of a call can really help open up the conversation. Work on building a personal rapport and let them know you value conversations with partners. And always remember that people remember how you make them feel, so be authentic.
- “I’ve been working with [MY COMPANY] for [X years/months], and I know how important it is to collaborate with partners like you.”
- “How long have you been selling into these types of accounts?”
- Get to know this person. You want to get a sense of how this partner approaches selling, treats their customers, and works with partners like you. Here are some questions that may help:
- “How do you typically engage with your customers?”
- “What’s your usual process when working with partners?”
- Be helpful. Be the first to share information about your mutual account. Sharing some valuable insight or information about your account shows that you’re not a taker and could be a valuable resource for them.
- Share what you know about the account’s business challenges and goals.
- If you haven’t engaged with the account at all, review as much information you can get your hands on and share anything you’ve learned in recent press, linkedin articles, 10K reports, CRM notes, etc.
- Offer insights on any recent conversations or activities within the account.
- Ask for their thoughts or experiences with the account—what’s working, what’s not.
- Explore if there are opportunities for joint selling efforts, such as combining products/services or leveraging relationships.
What NOT to do on an initial co-selling call
Consider this list the anti-best practices list. Doing these on your introductory call violates a first principle of co-selling: don’t be an a**hole.
- Don’t expect the partner to give you a lead. You are talking with this person for the first time, they’re not going to hand over their contacts or make an introduction until they get to know you.
- Don’t be a taker. Embracing a give-now-to-benefit-later mentality will serve you well over time.
- Don’t expect the partner to trust you just because your companies are official partners. People build relationships at the 1:1 level in the field. Each relationship has to be earned through trust and may take a few calls to remove the barriers.
Approach co-selling as an investment in your future
Even if there’s not a specific opportunity to go after together today, offer to stay in touch and keep your ears open for them. Sales careers are long. Building trusted relationships with sales professionals now will help your career for years to come.