The 8 Habits of Successful Channel Managers

Good channel managers can create partner loyalty and drive tons of new business.

But bad channel managers. They can be “devastating,” according to Matthew Toth.

“It is absolutely devastating. We’ve dealt with people, and you’re just like, ‘Do I need to talk to you once a week for the next two years?”” said Toth, who runs the Michigan-based consultancy C3 Technology Advisors.

On the other hand, a solid channel manager “really greases the skids,” Toth said.

“Sometimes even if their product isn’t a 100% fit, if they can make it so easy to do business with them, sometimes that guy ends up winning an unfair share of his business,” Toth told Channel Futures.

Toth urged vendors to do their due diligence in hiring channel managers.

“If you don’t have a guy that can put one foot in front of the next, we’re never bringing this guy in. I don’t care if you’re selling the most amazing UCaaS product that costs 50 cents a month. If you hire the wrong person, that will eliminate your ability to grow in whatever swath that guy was hired for. Because I don’t want to deal with him. I don’t care how good your product is.”

Channel Futures asked Toth and other partner executives about what they value most in their channel managers. Go through the eight images above to see eight habits of successful channel managers.