Detailed Review – Certified Channel Manager Course
Introduction
The following is a detailed review of the Certified Channel Manager Course available through Chanimal University. It was conducted by Hector Rosales, a Channel Manager for Crunch (retail POS system), and a former Channel Manager for Call Center Studio (call center software). He was one of the original beta testers for the new online Certified Channel Manager Course–these are his notes.
This should be valuable for anyone considering the course and wanting to see how it might help them. Click HERE to see the course curriculum.
Hector’s Background
Hector has managed channel marketing and channel sales (VARs, Alliances, Affiliates)–including setting up several channel programs from scratch (agreements, deal registration, affiliate software, margins, levels, mdf & lead policies, LMS, and two partner portals).
He has managed recruiting and enablement with newsletters, recruiting emails, recruiting direct mail postcards, multiple recruiting and promotional videos, and has progressed partners from initial product demos through on-boarding orientations, initial marketing meetings, helped them create product landing pages with SEO, set up their promo email campaigns, and helped them with product demos.
He also helps with channel sales with joint sales calls, partner model calls, in addition to alliance setup and recruiting. Prior to channels, he lead a call center team in recruiting and training, plus sold direct–managing a 20 person team. He has won several sales awards, is a proud Texan and father of two.
General Initial Impressions of the Certified Channel Manager Course
- What is your impression of the layout and look and feel for the channel manager course?
- Clean layout, the menu is easy to navigate and shows your progress. I like the overview I get under the “your courses” tab–it shows all of my courses, progress, and test scores.
- What about the Initial Pricing?
- Showing the price comparison for other course prices really shows the discount you receive through Chanimal. It’s a much better price plus you get a free elective. The orange background on the pricing grid makes it really stand out and easy to find.
Pre-Amble – Introduction
Great introduction to who you are, and the program purpose/ overview. The video is my favorite, great graphics , color scheme, and transitions. The voice tone in the video is very welcoming as well.
Lesson 1 – Terms
The video in this lesson is one of the most important for new channel managers. You hear and use these terms a lot, and it’s a must to understand what they mean. Also great graphics, love the “am ferm texas” quote in one image lol. The PowerPoint looks great as well. Great example from your own experiences. This course was very long but contained a ton of information that is imperative for new channel programs. Quiz was easy to complete, all questions were covered clearly.
Lesson 2 & 3 – Indirect Channel & Alternative Channels
Good information for anyone deciding if they want to start a channel program. Really explains the benefits. Rolling the numbers is great for a managers/ executive to understand the worth. Great coverage on other channels. I like the additional link to the strategic alliances.
Lesson 4 & 5 – Competitive Analysis & Preparing For Change
This step takes a lot of time and work, but it’s a must-do. For me, it made me more knowledgeable in the market since I was able to learn what each competitor did well, didn’t do well, what they offered or not, etc.
Great for executives and upper management, if the whole team doesn’t have the right mindset, there will be some issues. Great breakdown here–and the information in this section is a must-have for executives and owners looking to grow into a channel sales company.
Lesson 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9 – Program Elements, Profiling & Portal
Good breakdown of the different elements and why you need them. Great information, easy to follow, and explained in depth. Competitive matrix is one of the most important items, glad this is touched on and provided example in the reseller kit.
Great points here on how to setup the portal, what to place outside and inside. What do resellers look for- show benefits front and center. Nice examples of actual portals.
Lesson 10 – Partner Application & Profile
Very easy to follow, great information for new channel program being set up. For me it was helpful reviewing the certification program slides since it lined up with where our partner program was currently.
This provided me with great details that I can actually use right now. Lots of examples that you can use for a LMS. Thinkific, Teachable, Learnpress, Learndash. Great adding this so someone doesn’t have to open google and search for other systems.
Lesson 11 – Leads & Deal Registration
Love the lead capture form example with the business card idea, I’ve done a similar approach a few years ago, works well. Explaining the deal registration is great for new channel managers.
Probably 90% of new partners ask me during our partner orientation “why do I need to register, what is it for” so knowing the benefits for both parties is huge.
Lesson 12 & 13 – Marketing Meeting, Margins
Short and easy to follow. Great showing a live sample of an actual marketing meeting.
This is a critical step in creating a partner program and it takes a lot of work to research/ determine margin. This info is extremely helpful for anyone looking to create a channel program. I’ve never heard of the points system so I learned something new. Great examples throughout the video/ PowerPoint where you are breaking down the margins, and showing the math on how to calculate.
Lesson 14 & 15 – Product Positioning & SEO
I really like the graphics used for all of the positioning examples, playful and gets the point across well. This was a great refresher for me who has been through this process.
This is one of the most beneficial lessons in my opinion. There is a ton of information in this video. The added zip files you can download, the pdfs, and additional links are huge benefit. The user is getting so much data that they can use long term.
Lesson 16, 17 & 18 – Retail, Affiliates & Alliances
Good information for a channel managers who want or need to expand into retail space. Great graphics.
Good examples of larger companies making great return from their affiliates. This course is very useful for me since we just recently started working on our affiliate program, links, and banners.
Again, good information here, we were approached by a company who wants to form an alliance with us. I haven’t touched on this too much before this course, but glad this was covered
Lesson 19, 20, 21 & 22 – Recruiting Strategy & Tactics
For me it was good to learn about outsourcing someone for recruiting , great way to grow quickly. Great adding the example companies so someone can look them up. Good showing the cost (margin) for any partners acquired through one of these alternatives.
Love how you cover multiple ways to recruit and different sources you can utilize (VarCity, LinkedIn, SaaSMAX). Useful information for any channel. I personally would like to learn more about recruiting though LinkedIn.
Post card example was great, I like the images showing way too many letters in their mailbox. We’ve heard it before, people get too many emails to go through each of them, so this method has much better response.
Good real life example with CDW, makes it much easier to understand.
Lesson 23, 24, & 25 – Orientation, Marketing Meet, Motivation
Great coverage on the partner worksheet, extremely important to manage your partners and ensure they are moving through the process. Great information- well said, they don’t need follow up, they need someone to help them. Good examples on how to offer incentives or “wants” to your sales team.
Lesson 26 – Refining Your Channel
Love the accent in the intro. Lol. Great information for a channel that is further along in its stages. Most of this information was new to me, so I learned a lot in this section.
Lesson 27, 28 – Channel Sales, Closing
VERY useful information for anyone who does not have a sales background or much experience in sales. Glad you touched on the approach, that’s one of the most important steps.
Always be closing. Great information again here, no issues found, very useful for anyone is sales. Great tie down question examples.
Lesson 29 – Channel Operations
Great overview of what to expect when starting a new channel–good for executive in charge, and the overall flow of how to move partners through the process and the general time lines of when new stages are to come. Great breakdown on the ROI slides.
Lesson 30 – Finale
I really like the recognition in the video, and the fact that you have access to all of the materials for up to a year. This is very helpful. The final quiz was a summary of all the past course combined, questions/ answers were all from other test so not hard to complete if you were paying attention and retaining the information.
Final Thoughts
- How was the Certified Channel Manager Course overall?
- It was great, not hard to navigate at all, and actually very engaging. I did not find myself getting distracted or bored.
- Impression of the certificate?
- It looks amazing, very high quality, great delivery time, very nice holder it came with. Getting frame this week!
- Overall recommendations and thoughts?
- I loved it, there was a lot of new information that I learned from this course, some of it lined up perfectly with where my channel is now and gave me information that I could use in my current stage. It was also great to just go back and review information that I already knew and act as a spot check to make sure I am doing everything correctly.
Hector’s Top Five Take-Aways
Reasons To Take The Certified Channel Manager Course
- Great refresher for someone with channel experience
- Contains all of the information you need to start a new channel program
- Great resources that are available for channel managers to refer to
- Gain more credibility with Certified title
- Very Easy to follow, not overwhelming at all
Become a Certified Channel Manager ™
