Channel Partner Marketing Tools
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the Axe” – Abraham Lincoln
Having clear communication across all channels is essential, and having the right tools is especially important if you are a remote-first team. Here are six tools that every channel partner marketer should be using every day to juggle their team, clients, and sales leads most effectively.
Microsoft Teams saw a huge upswing in users during the pandemic, rising from 20 million in November 2019 to 44 million in March 2020, followed by a further 75 million by April. Already have Teams? No doubt there are some incredible functionalities you are missing out on – for free! Our favourite Teams features are:
- Have small group discussions with breakout rooms. Great for when there’s a need for large groups to break into smaller groups for more engaging discussions.
- Cut the background noise (PC Only). Go to your profile picture at the top of Teams, and then Settings > Devices > Noise suppression. In the menu, select High for an even stronger suppression of background sounds. So, whether your roommate barks at the mailman or does gymnastics outside your door, Teams has you covered with a blanket of quiet.
- Transfer meetings between devices. Seamlessly switch devices while in a Teams meeting. Join a meeting from your phone in the morning while grabbing a coffee, and then easily transfer to your computer when you arrive at your desk.
- More online collaboration with Microsoft Whiteboard. Try integrating Microsoft Whiteboard into your meetings with new features that make it easier than ever to keep the creative process going while meeting online in Teams.
- Teams Conference Calls. Connect with anyone (even if they don’t have Teams) through video or audio call with one link or meeting request.
Do you always feel like your to-do list is missing something? Can’t keep on top of memo’s coming through email? Asana allows you to track, manage, and connect projects across any team. Set reminders, tag colleagues, and give due dates. If you work closely with clients on projects, you can give them ‘guest access’ to assign them tasks and to allow them to see how the project is tracking. You’ll never have to dig through your email (or brain) again. It also syncs with Microsoft Teams – making it super simple to set tasks for yourself and others from directly within the Teams App.
Time tracking isn’t just for over-worked consultants, or lawyers who need to bill every second of their time. Time tracking allows you to gain crucial insight into your business and transform how you work. One of the main reasons Transcends use Harvest is not for hourly billing, but to ensure each of our projects is profitable. Knowing how many hours we put into each project guarantees we know how much we should be charging each time. Many businesses don’t realise that some of their activities are actually unprofitable. 1
Forgot your business’ banking password? Boss asked you to access an app for which you don’t know the password? Not sure if your password is strong enough? Want to use multiple passwords for better security but don’t want to remember them? Invest in LastPass! Having a password manager has transformed our way of working. Since we all work in different locations (#digitalnomad), we aren’t communicating at the same time, which means if someone else knows the password you need at 2pm, you’ll have to wait till their workday starts hours later. LastPass is super easy to set up, and is only $2p/month. Settings can be changed and personalised, so everyone has access to the company Canva account, but only you have access to your banking details. Winning!
HubSpot is no secret – most people know about it. Though did you know you can get an incredible number of benefits for free? Track sales leads, implement an inbound strategy, integrate with other platforms (e.g. WordPress), create a meeting link, and automatically update customer information through email integration.
There are too many features to go into detail about, so we chose our newest favourite: The Meetings Tool. With this feature, you can connect your calendar(s) with HubSpot, send a link to your prospect, and allow them to choose a time that works for the both of you. This has saved us an incredible amount of time – we send a link instead of going back and forth on email with potential times that often don’t suit.
Call Plans
A call plan is an easy way to plan for and manage outbound activity to guarantee you have the conversation you need.
“Having a call plan leads to a 20% increase in conversion rates”2
Having a call plan can increase the caller’s confidence in how to direct a sales conversation and decrease non-productive time (mentally and physically).
“Failing to prepare is preparing to fail” – Benjamin Franklin
With a call plan, always ensure you have an End in Mind (describe the problem, the why, and the proposed solution – i.e. what you are selling), an opening statement, questions you want to ask, and a list of the customers suspected key beliefs (i.e. what key beliefs must the client hold to agree with the target goal?). When there are multiple people from your team joining the call, it can also be a great tool to collaborate on to ensure you are all on the same page, know your roles, and come across to the client as a well-oiled, productive team.
These are just a few of the tools we use to keep our team connected and organized. Want to tell us about an upcoming project or how we can work together? Reach out to us directly at hello@transcends.ca
1 https://www.getharvest.com/resources/why-is-time-tracking-important
2 https://www.act-on.com/blog/teleprospecting-why-your-organization-should-have-a-call-plan/
