All company needs to know if the partner or distributor is focused on selling companies products. Also, is important to actively promote your solution and make the most out of the opportunities you are offering the channel.

In the past the vendor asked the partner to invest up front. To pay for training, to buy stock and to use the products in house. As you know, these times are over. This is due the fact that in some geographical markets the business deals are still won trough the channel and that vendors would like to make it as easy as possibly for a new partner to sign up in the current competitive environment.

Further you need to understand the channel partner. Your partner will take a risk committing to you as a vendor – especially if your brand is not the strongest. The channel will invest resources such as technical, sales and marketing but what makes every partner most nervous is that they will expose themselves by introducing a new (and for them unproven) solution to their existing clients. They might have nourished a client over many years and despite all your confidence in your own solution your partner will remain nervous until the end user client will provide the partner with positive feedback.