The old saying, “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door” was never more wrong than it is today. Gone are the days when you could build a great product and hope to have customers flock to you by sheer word of mouth. In this crowded marketplace, you need to find ways to put your product into the hands of users; the more the merrier. Channel partners could play a vital role here.
What would Google have been today if not for early partnerships with Yahoo, AOL or Sun Microsystems1? Those partnerships gave the company the visibility it needed, and helped users adopt to a new way of doing things, paving the way for later success.
Channel partners help companies tap into audiences beyond the reach of paid marketing and sales activities. For example, hotels and resorts would prefer if vacationers booked rooms directly with them. But they also understand the cost of missed opportunities; of not being present where their customers are, whether on travel sites or vacation blogs. That’s good enough reason for recognized hotels to partner with travel sites like Expedia and Booking.com.
Here are four key steps to building long-term partnerships:
1. Selection
Choosing the right partner to work with is an important decision and must be taken wisely. You may have many potential partners to choose from. How do you narrow down the selection and choose the right one?
To begin with, partners must complement each other and have the right cultural fit. Your partners need to be as committed to selling your product as you are. They must willingly invest their time into understanding your business. Both organizations must benefit from the partnership.
Every business has its ups and downs and you need partners who are willing to go with you all the way. In the event of a vigorous industry downturn, for instance, companies may need to change their business models in order to survive. It is essential that you have partners who are willing to change too.
Take the case of Xerox. When its print business began to decline, Xerox transformed itself from being a mere hardware seller to being a solutions provider. Many of its partners willingly adopted the change and transformed themselves into value-added partners to their customers by providing managed services as well as document management and workflow solutions. This helped them grow their businesses significantly2.
2. Outcome Planning
It is essential in partnerships to leave nothing ambiguous. Mapping out what success looks like is essential to a favorable outcome.
Agree with your partners on shared goals and objectives and build out a detailed plan as to how you hope to achieve them. Set out each one’s expectations clearly and what contribution each would make. Keep all dealings transparent with the understanding that the success of one partner contributes to the success of the other. The famous adage that says, ‘if it can’t be measured, then it won’t be done’, is the rule of thumb here.
3. Working Together
When teams work together, information gets shared seamlessly. Co-branded events, for instance, bring the company and its partners together in ways that can’t be done otherwise. The partner would get to see how salespeople from the company interact with customers, how the product stacks up against customer expectations and how to respond to queries. Company salespeople, in turn, understand first-hand the issues that partners face and how their process needs to accommodate that. A project like this will bring teams together and help build mutual respect and trust.
A good way to ensure that your channel partners stay enthused is to provide them with valuable resources and sales tools that they can use effectively in the field. They should be treated as an extension of your sales organization with all the benefits of being part of the same team. By educating and empowering your channel partners you can make the relationship valuable for all concerned.
4. Staying Intentional
Once the ink has dried on a contract, most partnerships dissolve into a series of transactions. However, it is often noted that successful relationships are intentional relationships. Research by Alliance Best Practice has shown that “relationship quality is the pre-eminent factor in predicting channel partner success. In short — better the relationship, better the results."3 So, how do you make your channel partnerships ‘better’? By paying attention to them and by doing periodic assessments to see if the relationship is on course. You need regular ‘check-ins’ to determine whether fit is a cause for concern and if the partnership is still beneficial to both. These periodic assessments help determine if there are issues with alignment and allow for early course correction. Without this, it is likely that the partnership could derail over time.
Channel partners can help promote the growth and earnings of a business. It’s a relationship that businesses need to nurture with care.
Achieving Success with Effective Partner Management
Channel partners are instrumental in extending your reach and driving growth in today’s competitive marketplace. By carefully selecting the right partners, planning outcomes, working collaboratively, and maintaining intentional relationships, you can build strong, long-term partnerships that benefit both parties.
If you're looking to enhance your partner management strategy, reach out to MarketStar. Our partner channel services provide the expertise and support necessary to foster successful partnerships, helping your company grow and thrive in a dynamic market. Partner with MarketStar and create growth opportunities for your business today!
References:
http://firstround.com/review/From-Zero-to-10000-clients-in-Two-Years-Using-Channel-Partners/
https://channelpartner.blogs.xerox.com/2015/01/05/from-local-to-global-a-channel-partner-success-story/#.W0cuCS-B3Vo
https://medium.com/salesforce-for-sales/the-pyramid-of-channel-sales-partnerships-471e53305b1b
