What is an "Agent Program" and Why You Should Have One

For years, companies such as InfusionSoft, Microsoft, SalesForce, Intuit and others have used an "advanced" business model to take advantage of the inherent desire for some their clients to become experts at generating results for clients using their products, software or systems.

Companies who have employed it create a vibrant Agent Channel; one that starts slowly and mushrooms into hundreds of people paying the company tens of thousands of dollars to become certified in their products.

An agent program starts with signing up third parties, usually individuals or small partnerships, to represent your company’s products and services. The more robust programs "certify" that participants can install, customize (if appropriate), integrate, and deploy your products.

The reason an agent channel (I refer to them as a “Power Tribe”) is important to your company is because an effective certification program can bring many of the benefits of a traditional sales channel to your company without the overhead associated with building one.

A well-run agent channel/program typically does not create channel conflict. Most of your agents will focus on improving their skills with your product to build their reputation in their local business community and grow their (your) customer base.

Some Agent Programs take the place of an outside sales force or a "rep" network. While Agent Programs can be used to sell, that's only one small part of what they are capable of accomplishing. With time and attention, your Agent Channel can extend your reach both locally and internationally, without the expense of a traditional expansion.

I build Agent Channels for my clients; we call them Certified Consultant Programs. When I build them, they deliver four or more recurring revenue streams that grow over time. The skill in creating these type of programs, come in three specific areas; the business model, the setup of your tech and the culture of your tribe. Without installing a positive, life-affirming culture, your program will degrade into a boundary-less mess very quickly.

What Is Your Channel Strategy?

If you offer your products to other company's mailing lists, as in affiliate marketing, you are sharing the revenue generated for the right to market to that individual network of people controlled by another company.

If you sell products through dealers or resellers, you offer a share in the revenue of the product being offered in exchange for completing the sale. Some companies rely completely on ONE CHANNEL because they don't want to cause channel conflict or because they don't know how to market through alternate channels.

Those companies who deploy multiple channel strategies are careful not to cause channel conflict; in a perfect world, there's no friction between channels and no reason why one group of resellers can't comfortably live with all the others.

The typical example would be a company that sells direct to their customers, yet also has a retail presence. Their retailers may purchase products through a distributor or directly from the company. The pricing model would then look like this:

1. Direct to end-user - No Discount
2. Retailer - 30% discount
3. Distributor - 50% discount

In this example, there is no conflict; each has a different way of reaching customers, and each method is independent of the other. Distributors (50% discount) sell in bulk to Retailers (30% discount) who then sell to end users (0% discount) which will leave room for each to make a markup.

You may have multiple affiliates who are getting discounts similar to distributors, but distributors may not care because you are restricting affiliate sales to their list of clients/customers. If you provided a 50% discount to an affiliate who then turned around and sold products to retailers at a 30% discount, that's Channel Conflict, and this can destroy long-standing relationships and companies.

Enter Your Agent Program, Your New Channel!

As with any other channel, you are allowing your Agents to sell your products so they can earn some money, but they add value in some very significant ways. Sure, they may make a small markup or commission, but their true revenue source comes from their added value.

They install and service the product, train staff how to use the product and in some cases handle warranty or "factory service" for your products as well. They may offer coaching services or product consultation, installation on advanced strategies your products may enable, and they earn a percentage of the coaching or consulting revenue you generate by deploying them. Similar to a traditional VAR channel but different in one very significant way.

Here Comes The Shift....

What would happen if you were to recruit these Agents who would be willing to pay you tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege of selling your products and a renewal fee every year?

If you charged just $10,000 per agent enrollment (and the numbers can be much higher) then having as few as 20 agents would generate $200,000 in 90 days or less, if you never recruited more than your first group. Usually, my clients launch enrollment programs several times a year. By year two, there can be as many as 100 + Certified Consultants and the revenue reaches over 7 figures.

I conceived of our agent program when my software company, Timeslips Corporation, was unable to provide local service ourselves and asked for the assistance of an actual client. And that single client engagement gave me the idea to certify other clients who wanted to become paid consultants.

The desktop version of Timeslips was powerful, but there was a substantial learning curve associated with the product and a great many tips and tricks that enhanced a customer’s Timeslips’ productivity. Relatively quickly, a community of gurus began to form around our certification process.

Over time, support for our agent program grew, driven by the desire of members to limit competition in their particular markets by establishing a barrier to entry and simultaneously enhance their reputations as Timeslips gurus. This also had the effect of creating a new revenue stream for the company. And as the agent program grew, we began to penetrate more verticalized and micro marketing niches, opportunities we would never have uncovered on our own.

Also, agent programs can extend beyond setup and optimization. They can also encompass customizations and integrations, and these are growing opportunities in for software companies, training companies, and coaching/consulting firms with proprietary processes and systems.

What Agent Channels Are Not.

Agent Programs or Certification Programs are not simply selling a test and then declaring someone is "certified" which as I've proven, will lead to nothing more than a bunch of mediocre people destroying your brand.

Certification programs must be run with the precision of a sous chef creating a complex suite of interlocking dishes for many diners at the same time. It may look easy but a program well done really lives on the far side of complexity, appearing simple and streamlined.

Back when I built my software company, I made so many mistakes creating my agent channel of Certified Consultants, that I almost destroyed our reputation and could have become embroiled in legal problems had I not shut down the program and then interviewed each client who had a bad experience. Then, I spent almost a year rebuilding the program using all I learned to create a more holistic, nurturing environment which heavily supported the growth of each individual in the program.

At the time I sold the company, we had reached a population of 350 Certified Consultants which became my 3rd largest sales channel, was responsible for generating hundreds of new support contract sales and allowed my little company to have a presence in all 50 states.

I’ve worked with many other companies recreating this initial dynamic we first discovered at Timeslips. It's called PowerTribes and now that I've done it several more times, my clients are beginning to reap the benefits of using the methodology I perfected so many years ago.

If you would like to find out just how big an impact an Agent Channel can make by certifying your best clients, go to: www.PowerTribes.net and see how it's done.

Mitch Russo, former CEO and President Business Breakthroughs, Int'l - a Tony Robbins and Chet Holmes company is also the founder of Timeslips Corp which sold the Sage, PLC as the leading time tracking/billing company in the software industry.