While a number of organizations are investing more in their partner programs, many partner marketing teams are still struggling to achieve ambitious goals with limited resources. To learn how alliance organizations can improve their strategies, Michael Latchford, vice president of strategic alliances and partner marketing at TechTarget, recently spoke with Kevin Rhone, head of channel analysis at consultancy Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG).
Here are some takeaways from their conversation
To define reasonable steps for success, you need to clearly establish where you are starting from.
With ambitious goals, it can be particularly difficult to show meaningful progress. But to gain support from top-level sponsors, you usually teacher database need to show progress. So you need to have a full understanding of where you are in terms of alliances and partnerships and ensure that everyone has the same level of information. You also need to help your clients’ partner marketing teams make this assessment by answering a series of key questions, including:
Are you attracting and retaining
– How to best align ideal partner profiles with target customer segments?
– How can you increase partner engagement and the share of their contribution?
– Are your partners ready to succeed in the high-growth segments you are targeting?
– Could your partners sell more effectively to increase revenue faster?
– How do your partner programs compare to those of your competitors (who recruit the same partners)?
The aim of this assessment is to understand where progress has been made to date and where there is room for improvement. From this, a reasonable benchmark can be established.
A strong and clear value proposition remains fundamental
While it may seem obvious, too little investment how to advertise a drain cleaning company? see the step by step is made in the value proposition of a partner program at launch. To attract the partnerships you need now and in the long term, a program’s value proposition must continually resonate with potential partners. Based on ESG’s experience, this means focusing on the key questions potential partners have. In practice, ESG uses a five-point methodology to help clients develop impactful value propositions and set the stage:
– Impact on sales growth – How big is the asia phone number market opportunity and do our customers want this solution? Is it easy to articulate when selling?
Fit and synergy with the partner’s business
How does the solution fit into the business? Is it easy to implement and operate within our organization?
– Financial return – How will this partnership make money for our company? What is the cost of participating in and supporting the partnership? What ongoing investments will be required?
– Differentiation – How does this partnership distinguish us from other partner groups offering similar competitive solutions?
Scalability of customer relationships
How can this partnership help support the long-term relationships we have with our own customers?
No matter how big your program
As partnerships become increasingly competitive, it can be tempting to increase volume. But be careful, doing so exposes you to the risk of lower “average success” due to the difficulty of managing the establishment of consistent and differentiated values at scale. In program start-up mode, instead of prioritizing a volume target, it is recommended to focus on a smaller number of partnerships – say one to three. This is a more strategic approach because it allows you to focus on developing an effective value creation model. By keeping the number of partners manageable from the beginning, you can optimize program elements before taking on the additional challenges that come with scaling your Partners business.
Keep an eye on the constantly evolving field of partnerships
Markets can change quickly. So it’s only natural that partner preferences within those. Markets will also evolve at a similar pace. This also means that a partner program shouldn’t remain static – it needs to be able to adapt to the demands of its constituents. Therefore, to remain competitive with your partners, it’s important for marketers to always keep an eye on the landscape and adapt quickly to changes.
ESG has identified two
The first is the growing interdependence of suppliers. They are interacting more with each other and forming alliances for the benefit of partners. The second is the shift away from reliance on the transactional resale model.