Are You Getting Started with Sales Channel Partners? Want a Blueprint?

It takes a healthy amount of optimism to start any new venture. We all need to see the possibilities learn at each step and continually perfect our methods.

The learning path is different for every company for every product. What works for one product may not work for another. Business leaders learn from what Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, and many other large software companies / ISVs are doing in their sales channels and seek to implement these in their own business.

For the majority of businesses, it takes much longer and many painful learnings to determine what works for them.

For growing and established software companies / ISVs getting started in sales channels, or with a new product, the sales channel challenges are similar to early-stage companies.

Six questions for you to consider in getting started:
1) What do you want from a partner?
Determining what you want is not a simple as it sounds. Yes, sure, you want leads, closed deals, and to win new customers. For further detail; across the marketing, sales and delivery capabilities needed for your product, what responsibility do you want your partners to take on, and what capabilities should they have to do this?

2) What types of partners do you want?
Again, not as simple as it seems. Based on the capabilities you want, what are all the different company types you might consider? How do you know you are considering all the relevant options, with no bias of what won’t work?

Does your team have varied opinions about what will and won’t work? AND are these opinions based on evidence with the product you are selling or from other experience? Are you honest with yourselves on the aspects of what you know and what you still have to learn within your business?

3) Is your partner proposition sufficiently compelling?
You may have a super product that customers love, but if you don’t have a sufficient offer for the partner to get involved, then why would they do it? Your partner proposition should be directly related to what you expect from partners, responsibilities, capabilities, and the partner types. Is your partner proposition sufficiently compelling for the partner types you are targeting? How does it compare to the partners’ alternative opportunities to meet their business objectives?

4) How do you prioritize your partner focus?
Although every company type in your industry is a potential partner, they don’t all offer the same opportunity for you to meet your objectives. How do you determine where to focus and how many potential partner types should you consider? Learning what works is a learning process, do be careful in going down blind alleys by choosing just one partner type, and chose two or three. How many of each company type do you ‘test’ your partner proposition with first of all and review?

5) How well have you detailed your partner selection criteria, to enable effective list generation and initial qualification?
There are many layers to specifying your partner selection criteria. If you are seeking global reach with c-suite decision makers, then the selection list is small, yet I would question this being a wish or realistic criteria. Please refer to question 3 above.

Focusing on the right partners from the start can save years of learning for a company in understanding of what their ideal target partner looks like, and why.

6) How do you evaluate a prospective partner’s capabilities in your initial discussions?
If you can answer question 1 above, then what is the discussion with a prospective partner to assess if they are right for you and there is a joint opportunity in working together?

If you are putting too much effort into selling the opportunity to a partner, there is something missing. Your approach needs to be assessing the joint opportunity, as partners, into their customers and market.

If any of the questions above have created an interest in understanding alternative approaches, then learn from Tenego’s experience and the hard lessons we’ve endured over the past ten years with working many large, medium and small companies across the world in helping with their sales channel development.