Take advantage of training programs

Every vendor has training programs available for their sales, marketing, and service partners. The trick is to find out what is offered and at what cost. The real trick is to find out what is available for free. Start with your account manager and see if there are any training programs in your area or any training programs near where you live. That's the easiest and cheapest. Training is usually a benefit afforded only to "special" partners. Well, mention that you have a customer or a prospect opportunity and then you will become a special partner. That's the key, mention you have a deal that you are working on and your account manager will afford you the time and dollars to take part in the training.

Do you find the training programs useful? Are these training programs available?

Here is a link to a survey of top training and certification programs.

http://www.crn.com/sections/Special/certification/certification.asp?ArticleID=44023

Do you know you can request special pricing on deals you are working?

There is a hidden job at most manufacturers and that job is called the bid desk. I'm not sure if you know this but if you don't you should ask your account manager. What does this person do? This person will take requests from you to you can be more competitive in the market.  Watch for a detailed review of special pricing request management.

Ask for marketing dollars

Don't be shy with the vendors that you're buying from. Remember, they'ree trying to sell as much product through you and your company as possible. Did you know that they allocate millions of dollars a year just for marketing to partners and marketing through partners. That is you! This is how it works. You run a local marketing campaign. You can run a direct mail campaign, or you can set up a booth at a trade who, or you can offer your sales reps some type of cash or merchandise incentive. All you have to do is put together a plan. The plan does not need to be elaborate it just needs to make sense and it needs to relate back to the manufacturer products you are requesting. Don't think thta HP will pay for a direct mail campaign to sell SUN, it's competitor. Be smart about it. Think about all of your costs. Itemize them. Think about what you are trying to achieve. You might want to generate new leads? How many? You might want to generate new business? How much? By when? Think about these kind of metrics and relate them back to the funds that you are asking for. Sum up your costs and then submit it to your representative for approval. Make sure, once it is approved, to write down the approval number. Some companies will even have an online form to complete with a mini-marketing plan built into it. Good luck! If you need any help writing the plan let me know.

Here is a plan structure you can use:

1. Your company name and contact information

2. Activity type (example; direct mail)

3. Activity costs (don't be skimpy)

4. Describe your event or campaign

5. Total requested amount

6. Performance Objectives

7. What product(s) are you planning to support?

8. What markets are you planning to cover?

9. If you have done this before, explain your successes

Now Reading: The Real Thing

This is a book about Coca Cola, or as the Southerners like to say, co-cola. It's intereseting to me to read about the evolution of the relationship between the bottlers and Coca Cola. By the way, did you know that coca is from cocain and cola is from cola leaves. Together, they made the syrup. Cocaine was removed in the late 1800s because people thought the drink was a dope drink. It's a good read on the history of Coca Cola and the people that ran the company up and down and back up again.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0375505628.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg