Channel Conflict Resolution Skills That Channel Partners Can Employ Today

Successful channel programs realize that there will always be channel conflicts that arise, especially when there are many active channel members. To mitigate or lessen the impact these may have on the channel and its members, proper training on channel conflict resolution skills are needed. This way, when such things happen, you will know how to best handle the situation and resolve the issue in a way that will benefit both conflicting parties.

What Are Some Channel Conflict Resolution Skills?

A channel captain or those in charge of channel programs must have the capability to effectively resolve channel conflicts as soon as they arise. To do this, you as a mediator must have the following skills:

1. Control Your Feelings And Actions

Having complete control of your feelings and actions will allow you to communicate the issue and discuss its possible causes and suggest resolutions to address the issue coolly. As a result, you talk without intimidating, threatening and punishing either party involved.

2. Manage Stress Efficiently While Being Alert and Calm

Whether you are one of the opposing parties of the channel conflict or you are acting as the mediator, you must muster a coolheaded attitude and manage your stress. Have the presence of mind to accurately read and interpret what transpires during the meeting. These include the verbal as well as non-verbal communication of both parties.

3. Respect and Acknowledge Differences

People will always have unique characters, beliefs, and natural tendencies. Realizing this will help you to be aware of those differences and respect them, too. To show this, you must encourage the use of respectful words and behavior for all parties involved in the channel conflict. This way, you can come up with a proper resolution to the problem quickly and in the best interest of both conflicting parties.

4. Listen To The Expressed Emotions

Not just hearing but actually listening to the emotions being expressed by both parties of the channel conflict will help you mediate better and more accurately. Why is listening better than hearing? Because when you listen, your brain also tunes in the patterns of behavior and non-visual aspects of a given situation. Listening enables you to incorporate intellectual sharpness to deduce the entire matter at hand.

In order to resolve a channel conflict quickly and successfully, acquire and practice these two core skills:

1. Emotional Awareness — This is the ability to maintain a cool head throughout the channel conflict resolution agenda. Train yourself to always put a check on your emotions so you can react constructively. As a result, you don’t react defensively even if you perceived an attack on any of the opposing parties.

2. Fast Stress Relief — This is the ability to release or lessen stress fast and in the moment of heat. Specifically, it is at the point where you can do something that you’ll regret later.

In the end, well placed and executed channel conflict resolutions require you to be an expert at the four basic skills listed above. Having full control of your emotions and actions should provide that impartiality and professionalism to solve the channel conflict quickly and without bias to both parties.

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ForzaDash features this blog about channel conflict management. Click here to read.