What is a Strategic Channel Manager (SCM)?
If you’ve ever found yourself wondering… “What’s the difference between an SCM and a CAM?” We get it. There’s confusion and overlap between various sales titles used at different organizations. What’s more, titles are often changing and adapting to industry trends.
The fast-growing, competitive nature of the SaaS industry has created an environment where new titles are needed to accommodate for completely new positions. What’s more, (slightly) different titles – à la Sales Development Rep vs. Business Development Rep – are created to sound more relevant, modern, and in line with company values and culture.
If you’re new to all this sales jargon, look no further! We’ve got you covered. Keep reading to find out exactly what a strategic channel manager does, average salary for SCMs, career outlook, and available SCM jobs.
In sales, the acronym SCM usually stands for Strategic Channel Manager. SCMs help facilitate the relationship between their company and a partner company, developing and maintaining relationships with these business partners, and generating revenue goals from their efforts.
Strategic Channel Manager Job Description
Strategic Channel Managers (SCMs) generally help facilitate the relationship between their company and a partner company, assisting the partner in reaching their sales goals while simultaneously growing their channel partner network.
For example, at Kixie, we work with a range of integration partners (ie, HubSpot, Pipedrive, etc.) who promote Kixie’s telephony service as a solution to their respective customers. This widens our potential customer base, while also providing the partners with top-notch telephony solutions to offer their customers.
What does a Strategic Channel Manager do?
Strategic Channel Managers often play a large role in companies that rely on a business-to-business go-to-market strategy, as they acquire new partners and sales channels via other businesses. They are responsible for developing and maintaining relationships with these business partners, and generating revenue goals from their efforts.
SCMs create sales methodology and demand generation strategies to help their partners succeed, as it’s a win-win situation when new channels and partnerships generate new deals. Additionally, SCMs give guidance to channel sellers and may manage a team of channel specialists at their organization.
Strategic Channel Manager Salary
SCMs make an average of $108,779 per year in base pay in the US, with an average additional $18,497 per year from performance-based compensation (source: Glassdoor). Salary varies depending on the size of the company and the location.
SCM Career Outlook
With the abundance of automation, software, and online marketing tools available on the market today, it may be worth wondering if sales positions will still be growing in a few years.
If you’re looking to grow your career in the sales industry, don’t worry – as the market outlook for channel managers is positive! 5% growth is projected for channel manager positions through 2028, or an additional 20,800 job opportunities (source: Zippia).
Strategic Channel Manager Jobs
Looking for available SCM jobs? Here are a few resources to help your search:
- Strategic Channel Manager Jobs on LinkedIn
- Strategic Channel Manager Jobs on Indeed
- Strategic Channel Manager Jobs on Glassdoor
Which sales role is right for me?
The right sales role for you depends on your experience and expertise, but sales can be a good industry to get your start if you are entering the job market for the first time!
Some key characteristics of great sales and customer support professionals include:
- Excellent interpersonal skills
- Great communicators
- Passion for what they are selling
- Willingness to roll up their sleeves and get the job done
- No fear calling and following-up with potential clients
- Positive attitude
- Creative and passionate about helping others
- Ability to multi-task across different platforms and forms of communication
- Ability to work well under pressure and with a team
Does this sound like you? Kixie is hiring, and we’d love to hear from you! We are looking for jovial, hard-working colleagues to share our journey as we change the landscape of business telephony.
