Building a channel community to represent your solutions and services in the marketplace takes time, resources, focus, and a commitment. It‘s important to manage your partnerships in a meaningful manner that continues to ensure trust, credibility, and loyalty in the minds of your partners. In addition to the daily interactions that drive channel activity you should consider these best practices to maximize the impact on your business.
Collect and analyze your partner data
- Capture the right data to understand what’s happening within your channel (ie. Is partner pipeline trending up or down? What’s the partner deal win rate? Are marketing programs and resources being leveraged? What’s the utilization rate for the partner portal?)
- Determine what information it’s telling you about the state of your channel (ie. Are partners engaging your sales team in opportunities? What is the license renewal rate? Are partners able to cross-sell and recommend add-on solutions and services?)
- Define key performance metrics and indicators to measure partner trends and behaviors (ie. Calculate ROI for partner lead generation programs. Compare the percentage of new customers vs. repeat business. Conduct win/loss analysis to identify trends and dynamics)
Invest in a partner relationship management (PRM) system
- Conduct research and evaluate PRMs to identify processes to improve partner activity
- Prioritize integration with your customer relationship management system to ensure data is synced to key partner performance
- Confirm all stakeholders will have access to system generated reporting along with sharing partner results
Assign dedicated resources to align with partner tier status
- Get sales teams engaged with partners early in the process to identify and address challenges and issues
- Provide co-marketing programs and online resources to fuel demand generation efforts
- Maintain Service Level Agreements (SLA) to achieve customer loyalty program goals
Set goals for each partner engagement
- Develop agendas for partner and customer meetings to ensure action items are achieved
- Define next steps and create measurable goals for all partner activities to calculate ROI
- Create timelines that align to partner goals and objectives with frequent reminders
Establish peer-to-peer relationships
- Be proactive in sharing sales tips and recommendations to develop trusted advisor status
- Define marketing best practices and encourage partners to promote self-sufficiency in their go-to-market efforts
- Provide technical resource shadowing for partners troubleshooting customer support issues
The manner in which you engage with channel partners is a reflection of the core principles and strategies used with your own organization. It’s important to be consistent in your partner management style and philosophy to set the right expectations and drive towards a common goal. In the words of Peter F. Drucker “Management is doing things right, leadership is doing the right things.”