Partner Recruitment is a process and not a game of luck. Business success is a team sport requiring a strong balance across the team to achieve success. Companies starting in sales channels depend too much on hiring a Partner Manager to manage current partners, recruit new partners and create an operating partner program. Even with long days, very few people have all the capabilities and experience needed to execute well on all the full process. Success in channels requires a range of capabilities and learned consistency across the key factors.
In business, the ease in selling any product increases with:
1) the number of outspoken happy customers
2) clarity in the customer proposition in meeting the customer needs
3) clarity in how the product is positioned with or beats the competition or alternatives
4) the greater the fit of the product to meet the customers’ needs
5) the ability of the marketing and sales team to listen to the market, get the message right speaking to the real customer needs
Shortcomings in the above points are usually overcome by capable individuals, being able to adjust the message on a case-by-case basis. This doesn’t address the process at a systemic level and creates an over-dependence on key people. Your partner recruitment process should seek to optimise your key people’s time while placing the best expertise at the right stages of the process.
On your Partner Recruitment pace, many will believe that the key factor affecting the pace of growth is the challenge of getting to speak to partners. At the early and growth stages of sales channels, the pace of your Partner Recruitment is very likely dependent on your company’s ability to effectively onboard and manage your partners.
Success Factors: Sales through sales channels works better with greater strength in the following success factors:
1) Market Size of Potential Customers and Partners
a) The greater the number of customers, the greater the overall market opportunity
b) The greater the number of potential partners, then the greater the options you have for go-to-market and for you to choose better who to work with
Finding the partners at the right time for their business can be a challenge. The more potential partners you are speaking to and nurturing along the process then the better chance you have of meeting your partner recruitment targets.
2) Strength of Customer Value Proposition
a) Why should a customer buy your product?
b) Is your customer value proposition easy to explain?
c) Is your customer value proposition instantly clear?
d) How compelling is your customer value proposition that a customer or potential partner will want to hear more?
e) How well have you defined your qualification questioning to draw out the customer needs to fit your customer value proposition?
f) How do your Customer References and Case Studies help reinforce your Customer Value Proposition?
3) Clarity in Competitor Positioning
a) How well do you position against the alternatives to your solution?
b) How well have you defined the customer scenarios where you are clearly better than the competition or alternatives?
c) How well have you defined your qualification questioning to draw out the customer needs to fit your competitive positioning?
d) How well do you understand your bullseye customer focus, defining the ideal scenario where you will win?
4) Strength of Partner Value Proposition
a) Why should a company partner to resell your product?
b) Why should your customer focus and customer value proposition be of interest to the potential partners?
c) How does your customer proposition help potential partner companies meet their business goals?
d) What is the business case in your partner proposition that motivates your partners to change their plans and work with you?
e) How do you use Partner References and Case Studies help reinforce your Partner Value Proposition?
5) Quality of Messaging
With almost 60% of marketing and sales costs spent on getting to the point of credibility with a prospective customer:
a) What is the likelihood that a simple email of your message will get a response?
b) How strong and proven is your messaging to help partners gain new business?
c) How strong is your messaging to get across your customer value proposition, competitive positioning and your partner proposition and get a response?
d) Do you have clear email subject lines, key benefits with minimum content to secure interest? Alternatively, do you have blocks of text attempting to cover all bases?
6) Strength of Partner Fit
On the basis that Partner Fit is about really understanding a potential partner’s business and then seeking to understand how your proposition fits within their business:
a) How well do you understand what you are looking for in a partner?
b) How well do you understand the potential partners’ business to see how your product fits within their business?
c) Do you have the clarity of your requirements defined across marketing, sales, delivery and support such that you can assess their business a partner’s business?
d) Are you truly partner focussed in seeking to understand what will make the partner’s business successful, or are you looking for a voluntary sales team? Do you appreciate that Partnering is a two-way relationship?
e) Do you know the essential capabilities you require in a partner and what weaknesses you will support?
7) Partner Enablement and Supports
The success of your product depends on how well your product fits into the market and how well you execute. This includes how you enable your partners to execute. With an understanding of a partner’s business:
a) How well is your training material and capabilities in helping the partner get started in sales with their existing customer, with marketing and sales to new customers?
b) How well resourced are you to help the partner engage with their initial pipeline to build confidence in the relationship?
c) What is your sales expectation with the partner in the first twelve months?
d) How will you manage, or support, the partner? Are you setting and managing revenue targets or activity targets?
e) Is your ethos to work together with the partner to achieve joint success OR is meeting targets the partner’s job?
The success of your channel success is across the areas above, and although you may have an outstanding product, weaknesses in other areas may be a risk to the overall success.
Your predictable pace of growth can be determined by how you resource your partner recruitment process.