Building Channel Sales From the Ground Up at CloudApp, a Small Startup

<p>In this episode of <em>SaaS Connect </em>by <a href="https://www.cloudsoftwareassociation.com/"><u>Cloud Software Association</u></a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiasithole/"><u>Sophia Sithole</u></a>, Head of Customer Success and Partnerships at CloudApp at the time of this presentation and now Senior Partner Marketer, Platforms at Zapier, explains what made a small startup abandon tradition to develop a channel sales strategy; how they did it; what worked; what didn't work.</p> <p>CloudApp, an instant video and image sharing platform for companies, had 25 employees at the time, all of whom juggled many tasks; Sophia explains how they handled setting up a channel when they didn’t even have a dedicated marketing team.</p> <p>Discover the steps and processes CloudApp went through and the tips they offer, based on their experiences:</p> <ul> <li>What does partnering look like to you? For example, are you going to share your revenue? Are you going to sell your solution through a reseller or a distributor? Are you going to offer volume-based discounts or any discounts on your product?</li> <li>How CloudApp figured out the answers to the crucial questions that needed to be addressed.</li> <li>How much support are you willing to provide to your partners?</li> <li>Don’t directly compete with your partners.</li> <li>Metrics are helpful to understand your audience and to better figure out what you should focus on.</li> <li>Which channel partnerships worked and which didn’t.</li> <li>The most important thing is to make it easy to partner with you.</li> <li>Understand who is your ideal partner.</li> <li>Finding and building a distribution channel through VARs, and resellers.</li> </ul> <p><em><strong>Teaser Tip: … “The great thing about every lost opportunity is that you get an idea of what your ideal partner looks like, and how to scale.” - Sophia Sithole</strong></em></p> <p>Resources Mentioned:</p> <ul> <li><a href="https://asana.com/"><u>Asana</u></a></li> </ul> <p>Please note: this pre