Successfully recruiting the right partners requires many aspects to be in place. See the article “Sales Channels – Why You Need a Compelling Partner Proposition”. Your Partner Value Proposition is typically the greatest bottleneck in the partner recruitment process. If the strength of your offer to the partner is compelling, then the doors open, and you get the attention of key decision makers.
On getting the attention of the decision makers, it is very important to be clear about how you assess the Partner Fit as a progression of the Partner Value Proposition. The Partner Value Proposition assumes many things about the partners business that now must be verified in assessing Partner Fit. There are many pitfalls at this point, that can waste so much time and money or lose a good partner opportunity.
What do you want from a sales partner? What does an Ideal Partner Fit look like?
1) The right target customers and decision makers; they have many existing relevant customers and always winning new customers
2) Current Product and Services Fit; Are selling products or services of similar complexity or requiring similar capabilities to your products, with a similar deal size and revenue model (or you can adjust)
3) Marketing and Sales Fit; have the relevant marketing and sales you are seeking from a partner
4) Future Plans Fit: What you are offering fits with their plans
5) People and Culture: You can create a good working relationship with them
6) Interest and Commitment: They are interested, and committed to the partnership
Too many seek the Ideal Partner, but what can you and should you consider working with?
1) The right target customers and decision makers
Scenario: They don’t have existing customer relationships, but planning to go after a new market and seeking a product to work with
This can be simply a showstopper as new business can then take too long. To consider it, you need to clearly understand their plans, their capabilities on delivering on the plans and the timeline to success. You need to take into account the many unknowns in the plan.
Scenario: they have the right customer, but wrong decision maker relationships
This is a regular mistake, partnering for the customer focus but not having the relevant decision maker relationship is a challenge. It is not easy for a sales person to walk down the hall to a different VP. Are you expecting a partner’s salesperson to develop and manage two key relationships with a target customer? Is this workable?
2) Current Product and Services Fit
Scenario: They are selling products or services that are more complex and your offering could be an additional offering
Challenges exist if the deal sizes are vastly different. They may not be enough in your offer to interest them.
Challenges can exist if the deal mix of licences and services is different, if they typically expect implementation services and your solution doesn’t need this.
If deal type is a recurring fee and yours is upfront initial licence fee, or other way round, then you should consider matching your sales partners to fit.
3) Marketing and Sales Fit
Scenario: The partner’s business is growing through referrals and within a specific market region
If the sales partner’s plans are not fast enough for you and you don’t seek you winning the number of customers you are planning, then maybe they are not for you. On the other hand, if they bring in deals regular from their existing customers some new and doesn’t restrict your greater market opportunity then it may be ok to progress.
Scenario: The partner’s sales team are very busy and have a strong target focus
Will the sales team have time for your solution OR can you see clearly how your product helps the sales team meet their targets? It’s important to understand the driving force of the sales team, as it will be them who will make it successful or not.
4) Future Plans Fit
This may be simple, if the partner is planning to continue growing in the same direction and if you fit today, you will fit into their future plans. Consider a scenario where they are growing in a particular direction that may take a great amount of their focus and away from the area of the business that works for you. You need to consider how long you may have in the relationship and whether you wish to invest effort in the partner or not.
5) People and Culture: Can you work with them?
Relationships are what makes the partnership really work and continue; the key contact points and the work approach across the companies are key telling points on how well the partnership will work. If people enjoy working together then they are more driven to make it work.
6) Interest and Commitment
We can often have Interest and Commitment and the partner not be suitable and yet with enough Interest and Commitment many shortcomings can be overcome. With the right fit across the key points about, you need to assess if they will be diligent in sticking to the plan they are committing to. Managing expectations on the plan is important to keep their interest. You need to decide if it is better to start slowly and build confidence or whether to push stretch targets and go for it. This depends on the partner’s commitment, resilience and your resources.
It’s rarely a straightforward decision and many things to consider. Bottom line, Partner Fit is about understanding how the sales partner’s company is working today and then to find how seamlessly and effortlessly you can fit your proposition into their business. The less you ask the partner’s business to change the more likely the relationship will work.