There’s an old joke, maybe an Irish joke. A tourist stops his car along the roadside to ask directions from a local, who responded, “If I were going there, I wouldn’t start from here”.
Hindsight is great. New knowledge is often a slap in the face for silly mistakes.
In this article, I am sharing part of what Tenego call ‘Partner Fit Evaluation’. Partner Fit is a major topic of discussion in Tenego articles and webinars, as we believe it is the most important aspect of making a partnership work. Partner Fit is questioning “How well does your product really fit into each partner’s business?”
Now we’re getting down to basics in the items below assessing each partner company’s capabilities. The following areas are typically quickly assessed in a spreadsheet with defined scoring criteria, that point the direction for more in-depth evaluation.
Five Points in Reviewing your sales channel partners in seeking improvements:
1) How strong is your partner in gaining Access to your target customers and decision-makers?
-How many customers does your partner have of your target customer type?
-Does your partner have commercial relationships with your target decision-makers? The relevant decision-maker is essential, as relationships with the wrong decision-maker is a challenge.
-AND the ability to generate many ongoing leads within the region and industry sector focus
2) How strong is your partner’s credibility with your target customers and relevant decision-makers in addressing the needs you solve for your customers?
-Does the partner sell comparable solutions or services that demonstrate this credibility?
-Do your partner’s salespeople have sufficient relationship and relevant domain expertise to ask the right questions and be credible?
-Would your target customer regard the partner as being credible in your space?
3) How strong is your partner’s sales people’s capability along your sales process?
-Would they be able to assess your customers’ needs and qualify them as potential target prospects?
-Would they be capable of introducing your solution?
-How well do they know what business problems your solutions solve and the benefits gained
-Could they present and demo your solution and create opportunities?
-Can they produce proposals and close deals to win new business
4) Product Fit: How well does your product fit into the partner’s business?
-How prominent might your product feature in your partners’ business plans?
-Can your product be part of every customer engagement or how often might it come up?
-To what extent will your partners’ salespeople be continually thinking about selling your solution
-Will your products sales be part of your partners’ weekly sales meetings?
5) What is the pace of your partner’s business, in generating business for your product?
-How many new customers do your partners require to meet their own growth targets?
-What type of services are your partners seeking and how much of what your product requires these services?
-To suit the partners business objectives, to what extent do they see your partner proposition fitting with their needs?
-From the partner’s point of view, how does your proposition compare with your competitors and alternatives?
These five points provide a general overview of the approach that can cover many aspects depending on what you need and the partner company type.
The Partner Fit exercise requires not just a prepared set of questions but a desire to understand the partners business and then understand how well your proposition fits, without being forced.