Symantec Partner Sales Program

Symantec Partner Sales Program

 Background on the Program

“Symantec is the global overall market leader in Endpoint Security, Email Security, Data Loss Prevention and SSL Certificates” IDC | FROST & SULLIVAN

As a business Symantec requires extremely talented and skilled sales teams to deliver their high standard products and services. Committed to their channel strategy they wanted to provide partners with quality sales training making it part of Symantec’s overall programme of excellence and best practice. Working with Masterclass they developed a series of workshops to help their reseller partners grow their sales skills, not just their product knowledge.

The Masterclass courses for Symantec’s sales channel include skills, techniques and strategies for: Telesales; Influencing Decisions; Selling IT Solutions in a Crowded and Competitive Environment; Financial awareness; Time management; Negotiation Skills; Selling in the Boardroom and at “C-level” Vendors undoubtedly want to provide good training to partners on products, but specific sales skills that help partners reach a level of excellence are critical too. This is what VARs and partners get from Symantec through Masterclass: the tools they need to become exceptional sales people who exceed goals, not just reach them. Symantec jointly fund the cost of the training, which clearly demonstrates the level of commitment to this endeavour.

Few vendors have been willing to commit these kinds of resources toward a subsidised training programme – even today, when competition is fierce in a fast-moving and consolidating industry. When feedback from partners and the results of the Masterclass bespoke programme were taken into consideration, the program showed a solid financial return on investment and an approach that does more than provide goodwill.

Desired Outcome

  • Equip sales teams with high impact sales tips and techniques
  • Provide support at all levels from telephone sales to advanced account management and Boardroom Selling
  • Ensure sales teams have clear objectives and structure to their sales calls
  • Leverage input from solution partners

Roll Out

Masterclass, one of the UK’s leading training specialists with a track record in vendor and channel sales skills, was chosen to develop and manage this channel initiative. Since its launch the programme has provided 31 partners, of varying sizes, a dynamic range of sales training with over 350 sales personnel attending. The courses have been a mixture of scheduled “open” courses and individual partner specific courses addressing the particular needs of an individual business.

There have been six curriculum sets of scheduled sessions so far. The original concept behind the programme was to add significant weight to the statement on the corporate website that specialised sales training and support was available to Elite and Premier Partners. The programme’s overall aim has been to assist Partners meet sales targets, increasing revenue together with the addition of raising the Veritas Symantec profile as a vendor visibly supporting its channel sales partners.

Making A Difference

The Symantec program’s success is attributed to the interaction of Masterclass trainers with the resellers and the support received from Symantec. This ensures that what is delivered is not based on what is perceived their partners need, but actually by listening to the partners and delivering the kind of training which the sales people need.
Some partners use the training extensively and now using Masterclass as a major part of their induction for new hires. It is a sound investment to enable high impact sales.

The Masterclass workshops are all aimed at sales and related sales topics, covering the varying stages of a sales executive career. Masterclass in partnership with Symantec have significantly helped achieve long term sales effectiveness and revenue generation.

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