Partners: Critical Allies For Innovation, Growth And Opportunity
By Mike Kuehn, TITUS
Adding a partner program or partner focus to an organizational sales model is by this point table stakes. These critical allies can help vendors break into a new geography, strengthen offerings within a particular vertical, increase brand recognition and diversify and grow revenue.
In the last few years, developing a partner program has become a highly valued and challenging way for vendors to set themselves apart from competitors. But while every vendor runs to establish a program and court partners, the challenge to stand above competitors has become more difficult as the IT challenges partners look to solve for their customers become more complex. Partners want innovative technology that aligns to their expertise and solution practices (security, cloud, etc.) and solves real customer problems. This enables them to differentiate themselves from competitors and deliver the rights solutions for their customers’ most complex IT challenges.
In building a partner-focused company and 100 percent channel sales model, I’ve learned three things that go beyond good technology and make a vendor attractive to partners.
- Build Trust
Partners are customers and an extension of the company. They need to be treated as such. Building and nurturing personal relationships is vital. Moreover, partners must have confidence they are working with a predictable, trusted organization that is laser focused on customer success and by extension, their success.
Trust also comes through transparency, which means it is crucial to have clarity on your model. You’re either all in (i.e. 100 percent channel model with no direct deals) or you’re not really partnering. It’s difficult to build an effective program without a strong partner culture throughout the entire organization.
- Keep It Simple
This sounds like common sense, doesn’t it? Well, you’d be surprised as to how many intricacies go into establishing an effective partner program, which sometimes results in a process that’s both complex and difficult to navigate.
Be it VARs, Sis, or MSPs, partner organizations have one thing in common — their top priority is growing revenue through solving key IT challenges for their customers. These organizations don’t have the time or resources to wade through a sea of complicated benchmarks and requirements to determine what tier of partnership appeals to them or is even feasible for them to meet.
Partners want a simple, straightforward path to program membership. Successful programs make it clear what tiers of partnership they have, the requirements for each and the benefits offered by each. Make it easy for partners to understand the revenue expectations at each level, certifications and other enablement offerings available (and the time required to complete these), and the benefits members of your program will receive. The bottom line – make it easy to do business with your organization, easy to position and sell your solutions, have reps who are accessible and technical help easily/readily available.
- Go Beyond Enrollment
I like to say that the partner who registers deals for you is the one you’ll live and die with, which is why I place so much emphasis on creating a positive relationship that doesn’t end once they’ve enrolled in your program. This is possibly the most challenging yet most crucial element of a successful partner program — creating a consistently positive experience past partner enrollment.
What is the most important way to ensure partners stay positive about your program? Straightforward, mutually beneficial deal registration. Many programs enable a high rate of deals through special pricing, which may increase the volume of deals brought in, but it can negatively impact deal margins for your partners. As I wrote earlier, the top priority for partners is expanding and growing revenue, so if they see your program as a barrier in doing this, they won’t be motivated to do business with you.
Many customers prefer to deal with one partner who can address the entirety of their IT challenges (for example, engaging with a managed security service provider (MSSP) to deal with their whole security practice, looking at everything from data to network and endpoint). With IT challenges becoming increasingly complex, partners want to work with vendors that can provide information and insight as to how their solutions can meet these challenges.
Successful partner programs understand their partners’ marketing capabilities and enable their partners to use the marketing programs they provide, including providing enablement offerings that are easy to access and offer quick insight and value. These programs make it easy for partners to pull up information while they’re on-the-go or at a customer site via mobile phone or tablet and add current content on a regular basis. By providing this type of content in an easily consumable manner, you enable your partners to be effective marketers, crystalizing the value proposition they offer customers.
Here’s the bottom line: a partner program that is targeted, straightforward, and consistently executed past enrollment is an essential aspect of any vendor’s indirect sales model. The tips offered here are a good basis but be sure to consistently communicate with your partner community to understand what’s working for them and how you can constantly add or revise elements to improve your program.
Happy, successful partners lead to more venue opportunities for you and for them. It’s a win-win.
About The Author
Mike Kuehn is CRO at TITUS.