Steve Stewart: How To Enable A Services-Led SaaS Channel
By Rob Spee, Channel Journeys Consulting
Steve Stewart Headquarters Year Founded Mission Channel Experience LinkedIn
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“I need partners that are willing and able to build a services practice around Smartsheet” – Steve Stewart
For SaaS vendors, a services channel is more important than ever. Transactional sales-led partners may be great for landing the deal. But that is only the first step. You need a services channel to drive customer success that leads to account expansion.
When channel veteran Steve Stewart landed at SmartSheet as Head of Global Channels, he inherited a channel of mostly transactional partners. SmartSheet couldn’t expand their own services team fast enough to keep up with the growth. In this episode of the Channel Journeys podcast, I learn how Steve is building and enabling a services-led channel.
Key Take-Aways
Steve shares 3 critical success factors for building and enabling a services-led SaaS channel:
- Focus on partners who can add value-added services including consulting, custom software development, configuration and implementation, and training services.
- Double down on education and training, and not just product training. Partners need to know how to lead with a business transformation message, drive transformation, and provide business outcomes.
- Offer an online marketplace where service-led partners can package their vertical expertise and uses cases built into solutions that sit on top of your SaaS offering.
Take Action - One Thing You Can Do Today
Steve offered one last tip during my interview. Ask this one question every time you are meeting with a partner. “Tell me about one best practice from one of your other vendors that has allowed you to execute better than anyone else?” And be sure to listen to the complete Channel Journeys podcast interview with Steve.
About The Author
Rob Spee is the founder and CEO of Channel Journeys Consulting and host of the Channel Journeys podcast. Rob applies his channel expertise to help clients create and execute channel strategies to accelerate revenue growth. His global channel experience spans from building channels at startups to vendors and distributors like Arrow, BMC, Carbonite, and SAS. Follow Rob on Twitter and LinkedIn.