If you lead a tech business, you may think that referral partners are not suitable for your partner program. Referral Partners are not just for local small service businesses, and certainly should be considered by enterprise B2B solutions providers.
You may think that Referral Partners typically don’t provide the same consistency as resellers and don’t solve all your needs in your target markets. Referral Partners can be part of the mix of different partner types provide all your needed capabilities and without increasing your partner commission budget.
Some points to consider for having a Referral Partners as part of your Partner Program:
1) There is a larger number of potential Referral Partners
The capabilities you seek in a referral partner are easier to find than a full reseller or implementer. They can be trusted advisors to your target decision-makers with credible and domain knowledge in your space.
Small companies and even individuals can be credible referral partners, even for big deals.
In partnering with larger companies, starting them as a Referral Partner can be a lower resistance and faster path and build the relationship from there.
2) Faster time-to-engagement decision cycles for Referral Partners
As less training and partner onboarding is required, Referral Partners can decide and engage their contact base very quickly. On the flip side of this argument, Referral Partners may not commit to being proactive sales partners and have a low data-flow.
3) Carry greater influence
As many Referral Partners are trusted advisors who understand their clients’ needs and advocates for their clients, their recommendations can carry more weight. Many referral partners can also be former executives in the industry and have many relevant decision-makers relationships.
4) Require less management
As Referral Partners are at the start of a sales process, they require a low-touch management style involving your marketing and maybe sales.
Referral Partners can fit neatly into your company’s existing marketing campaigns, expanding your reach with their influence into their contact base.
In a low-touch Referral Partner management approach, you need systems such that partners can be self-service and participant in group communications.
5) Provides leads for your direct sales or reseller partners
Your direct sales team love referral partner leads, and resellers jump with joy when their vendor partners send them leads.
Referral partner leads carry greater credibility and sales teams don’t need to work so hard to earn the trust of the decision-makers. This referral partners credibility eases your sales discussions and accelerates your sales cycle.
Even if you are selling a large enterprise solution, Referral Partners can add to your overall partner program adding reach to your marketing. Referral Partners can be easily integrated into your business working seamlessly with your direct sales and reseller partners.
Do watch out for further articles in coming weeks on referral partners and partner program development.