20 Lessons in 20 Years: Lesson 2 – Value Your Employees As Much As Your Clients

Early in my channel career, I had the opportunity to work for a true channel expert, Ron Rohner, founder of Rohner & Associates. During my time there, I learned many valuable things from Ron, but one of the most important was understanding the difference between a value proposition and a business proposition.

A value proposition answers: “Why do you want to buy our services?” But a business proposition addresses : “Why do I want to sell your offering?” In the channel partner world, it’s all about the business proposition.

This distinction became the foundation for how I think about serving both our clients and our employees.

For our clients, our value proposition is straightforward: You work with people who are from the channel. They’ve walked in your shoes. They’re going to immediately add value from day one, so you’re not spending your valuable time and resources educating your supplier on the services you’re trying to get from them.

We deliver this expertise at a competitive price and get you to market quicker, ensuring a faster return to revenue. It’s practical, it’s proven, and it works.
But here’s what I learned over my 20 years running Channel Impact: you really need to have a very strong value proposition for your clients, but an even better business proposition for your employees.

Our business proposition for employees is different from what our competitors offer. We welcome people to Channel Impact as channel careerists, knowing they bring tremendous value and expertise to the table. We work hard to hire only true experts in their trade so we can deliver on our client promise.

But when you attract people like that, you need to make sure you retain them.

I built Channel Impact based on what I valued as an employee when I worked for one of the largest technology firms. I wanted to give our employees access to benefits similar to what I had in the high-tech sector—benefits that my family would use and I would use.

Healthcare That Works: We selected top-notch healthcare insurance companies and pay a generous portion of our employees’ medical premiums. You’d be shocked to know that many of our competitors pay 0% of employee premiums. To me, that just isn’t right.

Planning for the Future: I know I want to retire someday, so I made sure our employees get access to a retirement plan with an employer match every year.

Respecting Real Work-Life Balance: The traditional accrual and debit time-off system felt disrespectful when people work 50-60 hour weeks (and let’s be honest, 40-hour weeks are a joke in channel jobs). So in 2014—far before the industry moved this way—we switched to unlimited time off. My thinking was simple: I hired you because you’re an expert who’s amazing at what you do. Let’s show you the respect and trust that you have enough judgment to know when you need time off.

To this day, I’ve never had an employee abuse it.

Protection When Life Happens: We provide long-term disability because I thought, “What if I get hurt and can’t work?” I wanted that protection for myself, so I made sure our employees had it too.

Great benefits are important, but even more crucial is treating people with respect, showing them you value them, and creating a community where they feel valued, part of a team, and rewarded for the difference they make.

The secret to having great employees and retaining them isn’t just offering competitive benefits—it’s creating an environment where people genuinely feel valued and part of something meaningful.

The reason Channel Impact has been successful is our people. We have amazing employees—some who’ve worked with us for almost 20 years (literally our longest-tenured employee). We’ve had folks retire from Channel Impact. We’ve had people work here for 3-4 years and then move on to incredible positions as CMOs, Senior Directors, or Channel Chiefs.

It’s wonderful to see people leave Channel Impact, thrive, and build amazing, successful careers. Several have told me that working here was a launching pad for their future careers. I’d like to think that’s because we value our employees and give them opportunities to work with great technology clients in a supportive, community-building environment.

Here’s the truth I’ve learned: while it’s certainly important to have a great value proposition for your clients, it’s equally important—if not more important—to have an even better one for your employees.

At the end of the day, your employees are who take care of your customers. They’re who shape your brand. They’re the ones delivering on every promise you make to clients.

Invest in them like you mean it. Treat them like the experts they are. Create an environment where they can thrive. Because when your people succeed, your clients succeed—and ultimately, your business succeeds.

Your employees aren’t just delivering your services—they ARE your services.