Selling Through Someone Else: How to Use Agile Sales Networks and Partners to Sell More

Preface

As Accenture has worked to help organizations of various shapes, sizes, and industries improve their growth and operational performance, one tenet has become abundantly clear to us: The selling (getting it sold) and service (keeping it sold) agenda for most companies is increasingly complex and, as such, delivering growth is a massive challenge for virtually every organization—large and small, in all regions of the world.

With sales models that have experienced, at best, incremental change in the past several decades (despite sweeping changes in technology and customer behaviors) it is not hard to imagine why companies can't keep up. Yet there are organizations that are succeeding in navigating their way through the complex web of vendors, competitors, service providers, distributors, resellers, and customers that play a part in their ultimate growth. Many of these organizations share a common trait: They have adapted their sales models with the times. They have embraced what we call Agile Selling models that are based, at least in part, on selling through someone else—that is, a broader mix of intermediaries, other channel partners, and even customers that extend companies' reach and growth. Agile Selling is the model of choice among the leaders in industries that have the most complex distribution channels and that thrive even with a highly independent partner network. Other companies have much to learn from these leaders' experiences.

In studying and working with companies ...