Driving Channel Sales: Best Practices For Partner Offboarding

A well-known axiom in sales is “Hire slow, fire fast.” B2B sales leaders know that if a sales rep is not performing after a year and hasn’t shown any signs of improvement (despite coaching), then it is time to fire the rep and move on. Channel sales leaders should follow the same philosophy when dealing with underperforming partners that lack growth potential. Often, however, underperforming partners are allowed to languish in a supplier’s program because the hard costs associated with keeping them are minimal and the process of offboarding is perceived as complex and potentially problematic. In this report, we present a framework for implementing a formalized offboarding process that not only mitigates potential business and legal complexities associated with terminating partners, but also leaves the door open for a potential return.