Transitioning from a direct to a channel sales model is no easy task. You might think it requires more than just signing up partners, building a partner portal and waiting for deals to flow. Too often, vendors expect partners to bring net-new deals to them immediately and forget that a successful partnership requires mutual investment.

In these trying economic times, it is even more critical for vendors and solution partners to work together as a cohesive team. Since the transition from direct sales to distribution takes several months, what is the best way to build cohesiveness? If you're trying to make the move, but have spent much of your time mostly scratching your head on where to even start, then you'll definitely want to note the five most critical steps (outline below) a vendor must take when navigating from a direct to a channel model.

1.) Do It Yourself First: Make sure you have a predictable and repeatable sales process before engaging with partners. A documented sales process provides a roadmap to success, helping partners navigate every aspect of a sale, including: demonstrating business value, delivering compelling technical evaluations and winning competitive "bake-offs." An up-front investment in sales and technical training actually accelerates the time to productivity.

A repeatable process also includes an understanding of partner programs and related product and service margins. Having the rules change for each deal causes confusion for partners and administrative headaches for you. Just as you want partners that are easy to do business with; they expect the same from their vendors.

2.) Know When and Where to Recruit: Selectively recruit the right partners in the right geographical regions and vertical markets when you are ready to support them. Many vendors make the mistake of looking at their partner programs the same way as their products -- from a "market share" perspective. Choose quality over quantity. Quality partners lead to well-qualified opportunities. Quantity leads to channel conflict.

What are the characteristics of the "right partner?" The right partner has a successful track record with vendors of a similar size and/or market focus and core competencies in your market space. The best partner for a large networking manufacturer seems intriguing, but will likely not provide the focus required to take an emerging company to market.

In starting a partner program, you should look for partners in two areas. First, you should seek partners in geographies and vertical markets where you currently have some success. Everyone wants to be associated with a winner. Starting your partner network in already-lucrative regions can help you give your partners some early victories that will get them excited about your program.
Second, you should search for partners near your sales and support resources. These resources can help get new partners up-to-speed quickly and can provide the ongoing service to help strengthen your relationship.

3.) Train and Train Again: Empower partners to be successful through comprehensive and ongoing training, marketing development funds (MDF) and technical support. Many vendors do an initial training as soon as the partner is signed, then leave the partner to figure out the rest.
Partners need to be kept as up-to-date on new products, new programs and lead-generation campaigns as your direct sales force...and before their customers and prospects hear about them. Most partners do not have the time to invest in regular, formal classes, so educate your sales, support and marketing teams to see every interaction with a partner as a possible training opportunity.

MDF is a crucial program element if your product is not the lead offering that will drive the big sale. Partners are businesses too. By taking you into their portfolios, they are betting the success of their business on you. You need to make the same investment in them.

4.) Solution Sale vs. Point Sale: Set partners up for success with solutions that include high-margin service engagements. Products are easily discounted; eventually all successful products are commoditized. To end-customers, the partner is the trusted adviser. End-customers frequently look not only for a product, but also for installation and configuration, product training and ongoing support to maximize the value of their investments. "Packaged services," because of their low cost of delivery, allow partners to achieve high margins and give them multiple opportunities to touch their customers.

5.) Build Relationships with Ongoing Touch Points: Help partners stay on top of trends to create new business opportunities and encourage your direct sales team to close deals with partners. As much as you want to believe that your sales team will do the right thing and bring a partner into every deal, you do need to give them a little more reason to engage with partners regularly. This can be done with modest adjustments to commission plans, sales contests and organizational focus.

While these five steps are not the only actions you should take to transition from a direct to a channel sales model, they will serve as a starting point to put your switchover on the fast track to success.

Sanjay Mehta is senior vice president at Breach Security, Inc., a provider of real-time, continuous Web application integrity and security that protects sensitive Web-based information. He has more than a dozen years of experience driving revenue growth and strategic business opportunities for technology companies, resellers and system integrators.