Inactive Partners

What are inactive partners?

In the context of channel marketing, inactive partners are those partners who are not actively engaged in selling or promoting your products or services. They might have signed up to be part of your partner program but for one reason or another, they’re not contributing much to your sales or marketing efforts.

Here’s a quick example to illustrate: Let’s say you’re managing a telecom partner ecosystem. You might have a few resellers who were once active, selling your plans and devices to their customers. But over time, they shifted their focus to other brands or simply decreased their overall sales activity. They haven’t logged into your partner portal in months. These are your inactive partners who are technically part of your channel, but not engaging with it much.

Inactive partners can be a challenge because:

• They tie up resources: Even if they’re not active, they might still require some level of management or support from your team
• Missed opportunities: Each inactive partner could be a potential source of revenue if properly engaged and motivated
• Reputation impact: Inactive partners may reflect poorly on your brand if potential customers associate them with your business
• Limited market reach: Inactive partners who are not actively promoting your products or services can limit coverage in certain regions or industries

Understanding who your inactive partners are and why they’re not engaged is the first step toward turning things around. Maybe they need more training or better incentives. Maybe they’re not the right fit for your products.

By identifying and addressing these issues, you can either reengage these partners or make the informed decision to focus your resources elsewhere.

Related content:

Partner Consumption | Partner Engagement | Partner Lifecycle Management | 4 Ways to Increase Channel Partner Engagement