Recruiting new channel partners is an essential task to maintain and grow a profitable channel partner community. Using a live touch is essential to the success of these campaigns. Here we outline ten steps for running a successful channel partner recruiting campaign using teleprospecting and email.

Determine Your Ideal Partner

When profiling your ideal partner, you’ll want to look at several factors including location, company size, sales and marketing capacity, experience in your industry and current partner relationships. Each partner you recruit should check all of the boxes outlined in your partner criteria.

Compiling A Database

Once you’ve identified what your ideal partner will look like, you’ll want to begin compiling a contact database. Whenever possible you want to narrow your universe so your messaging will be targeted to that audience. Gather 2-3 contacts from each company and keep in mind that the correct contact will often come from a referral.

Company Research

Before placing a call, your team will want to do some preliminary research on each company and the contacts they’re reaching out to. This helps to warm the call a bit and can provide talking points. It will also give you insight into the organizational structure and help determine the proper contact.

Call Guide

Your call guide should be built to be attention grabbing and informative while gathering the information you need to qualify a potential partner. A brief greeting that identifies your company and purpose and asks whether or not you have the correct contact and a list of qualifying questions should be followed by an attempt to set a formal appointment.

Voicemail

Your voicemail should include your company name and clearly communicate the purpose of your call. Let them know how to contact you and tell them to expect and email with details on the reason for your call. A voicemail should always be left when you are unable to reach your contact.

Knowledge Base

Every calling project should include a knowledge base for your callers to reference. Within this document you should include answers to frequently asked questions and details about the potential partnership. This way your callers won’t be caught off-guard and will be able to provide enough information to set an appointment.

Blast Emails

Prior to launching your calling campaign, you’ll want to send an informative email blast out to your entire target universe. This will help to shake out potentially interested prospects. Anyone who opens or clicks on this email should be made priority when the calling phase of your campaign begins.

Fulfillment Emails

These emails are meant to provide more detailed information on the benefits and terms of a potential partnership. These should be sent out to anyone you leave a voicemail for or talk to live.  Make sure to include some kind of premium content that provides value to your audience.

Follow Up Calls

Any time you are referred to a contact, have a live conversation or identify a decision maker, you should continue to follow up with that contact. Placing a bi-weekly call and following up with an email will ensure you stay at the top of the mind of your prospects.

Nurturing Workflows

When the calling phase of your campaign is over, you are likely to still have unresolved records.  For those that have shown some kind of interest, you should place them into an email workflow.  This will continue to nurture your prospects with additional information and ensure your campaign doesn’t leave any leads on the table.