Being part of the Sandler Partners community is more than the 200+ Provider portfolio, supportive community, and strongly negotiated agreements. Partners also gain access to technology, tools, and sales support teams, which are constantly being evaluated and improved to meet your needs. This 2023 National Summit session was created for those new to the community, interested in learning more, or long-term Partners ready to be re-introduced to the tools and resources necessary to help them work easier and achieve more.
Taking the stage to share how their teams are contributing to the community was Cesar Navarro, VP of Technology, and Innovation; Drew Kenworthy, Vice President of Financial Operations & HR; Gerry Davis, Senior Vice President, Sales Engineering; Tina S. Dyksterhouse, Vice President of Marketing; Courtney Murrow, Senior Director of Partner Experience & Services; and Caleb Tucker, Senior Vice President, Channel – West & Deep South.
“We’re adamant about protecting your business, whether that’s having those strong agreements or commission validation program,” states Drew. “Empowering you to grow your business and maximize your sales potential. We’ve really been leaning heavily into tool (development), particularly ones you can white label to bolster your brand. The Sandler (Partner) landscape is wildly different than it was just a few (National) Summits ago, (with) a number of powerful tools, all at your disposal.”
“We’re going to reintroduce you to some of these,” begins Cesar. “because we have a lot of recently built tools as well. If you caught Alan’s Opening (Remarks) <<link to the opening remarks blog >>, we want to make sure everyone is aware of these tools! (They can) really help you go into the cross-sell, the upsell, and into those large opportunities as well.”
On the topic of sales support, Caleb outlined how your main contact should reach out to you frequently. If not “You can always go to (your Sandler) Portal to see who your Channel Manager is,” he adds. “They should be your day-to-day, week-to-week contact for how to get integrated with Sandler (Partners).” Every Partner should have access to the Sandler Portal, you can always Request Sandler Portal Access or try and Log in (request a password reset if necessary). “They’ve probably been reaching out to you,” continues Caleb, “set up a 15-minute call, tell them about your business, and ask them questions. If you want to move into more complex sales, reach out to the Sales Engineers, they are available to each of you.”
“A common theme today will be to leverage (your Sandler) Portal,” says Courtney. “Every Provider in the portfolio has a dedicated page in the Provider library, with a lot of information (sales processes, solution information, contacts, etc. – including), escalations, support, and dedicated resources, it’s all in the Portal for you. The validity of the information is important to us, and we update it often.”
“We’ve got a great team (of Sales Engineers) scattered across the country,” declares Gerry, “they are there for you to use, (and) pull into opportunities. If it’s a technology you’re not used to, pull us in. There doesn’t have to be a magic number, if it’s more complex, the easiest way to teach someone how to sell, is to let us help sell it with you. Typically, we can uncover other opportunities along the way as well!” (note: leveraging Sales Engineers, and sales resources will not negatively impact commissions.)
“The Marketing Center is powered through the Portal, it is your one-stop shop for all things marketing,” says Tina. “Partners who want to engage in marketing, they (may) have lists, but don’t want to spend the thousands of dollars on a platform, or (may not) have the internal marketing team to create the content. For that, we created the Marketing Center. It houses the content and campaigns you can use to market to your potential customers. You can learn, and see a demo, by attending one of our monthly ‘Marketing Center 101’ sessions.”
Many of the panelists, your experts, stated how they rely on Sandler Portal tools to help Partners – something you have access to 24/7/365. Additionally, several tools have recently received enhancements helping you save more time, increase accuracy, provide more details, and in many areas, feature your own branding! To take advantage of all the updates, enhancements, and new resources/tools that are coming, make sure you’re receiving and reading communications from your Sandler Partners team. The session included more examples and details on how to leverage the many assets you have as a Sandler Partner. Watch the recording to get the full story.
The replay for this session is available, watch now, it goes deeper, providing context for the conversations. We also outline how starting with just one of these very specific solutions can lead you and your customer down the path to expanding the sale across multiple categories, while reinforcing your importance to your client as their technology expert.