What is a Channel Partner?
Paul Bird sheds light on the definition of a channel partner. A channel partner is like an indirect seller. They’re selling on behalf of somebody else.
Peter Ganza, Director of Marketing at Magentrix, recently sat down with our resident Channel Coach, Paul Bird, to answer some of the most common questions individuals have been asking online.
What is a Channel Partner?
Paul Bird: “Channel partners can take a lot of different forms and names but traditionally a channel partner is like an indirect seller; a real estate agent working for a broker. They’re selling on behalf of somebody else. In the IT space, these are agents, resellers, independent software vendors all working through either the direct company that’s selling (a product/service) or working through somebody else.”
Paul described it well and is basically saying that a channel partner can be anyone selling something on behalf of another company. Most commonly this is referred to as an “indirect sale or seller”. Every industry has some form of a channel and in some cases they rely solely on indirect sales - meaning they do not sell direct to the customer.
A great example of this would be a company like Walmart. They, along with many other big box stores, are mainly resellers of other company’s products. With such a vast and complex supply chain their product providers are constantly jostling for placements in-store and co-marketing opportunities. These providers would be considered “channel partners”.
In this ten-part series of Google's most frequently asked channel questions, we also answered what is channel sales and what is a channel management system.
Do you have anything to add to this topic? Feel free to share and comment below. What does your definition of a channel partner look like?
