Services
Channel partner programs
Do you have an existing channel partner program that needs a boost? Or are you considering developing a program as a new route to market?
If you’re already operating an indirect program for channel partners, you’ll appreciate that they can be a fruitful and advantageous route to market. The benefits are well documented and aligned with your business goals; your partners can help you break into new markets, accelerate time to market, increase brand awareness, etc., and so can be a smart move as part of your overall marketing strategy. Programs can also present themselves in many shapes and sizes, whether integrator, referrer, dealer, distributor, MSPs or reseller (or a combination thereof), so choosing the proper framework and initiatives for your potential partners is essential and must be clear.
How do I engage partners and keep them engaged?
This is a million-dollar question. In our experience, it could be easy to become complacent, but there is no room for the ‘build it and they will come’ mindset. If you’re already running a channel partner program, you will recognise this, and if you’ve not yet started, be cautious.
Like us, your partners are busy running their businesses, and you may fall off their radar if you don’t engage them correctly. If you can get the onboarding, enablement, incentives, and technology mix right, you’ll be on the path to an engaged and proactive ecosystem of channel partners.
Are you choosing the right partners?
Have you just opened the floodgates to get the program up and running, or are you strategically choosing channel partnerships you know serve the end user in your desired markets? Aligning your channel with your technology stack is paramount. If that means a smaller, more manageable ideal partner base rather than casting the net wide, you will have a closer segmented route to market and partner ecosystem. Let’s face it: You’re just duplicating effort for possibly little return if your new partner demographic is tenuous at best.
Education & Platforms
Whether it’s a straightforward ‘come and grab’ partner portal for marketing materials to your more sophisticated SaaS through partner marketing platforms, up-to-date, engaging and relevant assets are imperative. If you went back to your favourite clothes shop week on week and nothing changed, imagine how bored you’d get, so much so you probably wouldn’t bother going back. Apply this analogy to your content, assets, and campaigns for partners, and you will see why some people can become so disengaged.
Through a mix of the right high-quality content, assets, and relevant campaigns, you can address the challenges of your partners’ end customers. Plus, with the clever use of MDF, KPIs, and deal registration, you can encourage and steer partner sales team activity in line with goals and targets and reward them through properly aligned lead generation and distribution, better enabling their market reach to gain new customers.
Concierge
Add to this a ‘white glove’ concierge service where you proactively offer to help those partners aid their marketing efforts, and your program is starting to look like a fully operational marketing business unit. If you’re not offering that concierge piece, consider the benefits you and your partner community may bring to the sales process.
We would hedge a bet that many of your partners don’t have dedicated marketing teams, or even if they do, they’re too busy to plan their campaigns around your product or solution. By helping them bring campaigns to life to their customer base through bespoke design and even pressing the go button, you’ll add more value than they knew was on offer and build a successful channel partner program.
Partner Marketing Expertise
So, suppose you’re operating a channel program now or looking to create that business model and value proposition for types of channel partners. In that case, it’s imperative that it has dedicated resources and that you’re investing in partner marketing experts with the right skills who understand the target market. At face value, you may feel that’s not too challenging, but true partner marketers hold somewhat of a superhero skillset that may not appear particularly obvious. These include:
- Effective ‘to’ and ‘through’ communication metrics
- Strategic thinking and messaging around customer experience
- MDF budget management
- Pricing and data modelling
- Expert business unit leaders and facilitators
- In-depth understanding of value-added resellers, channel sales and partner relationship management
So what’s the key to a successful channel partner program?
No one plan will suit all, but if you can get the basics of your program right, then it’s a case of finessing and developing it over time, ensuring you’re covering all bases for your channel audience and customer satisfaction.
Investment in your program is paramount, and we can help you build, build upon, and shape a dynamic channel partner program that makes you stand out and delivers success.