Five Easy Pieces to Improve Your Partner Program

Five Easy Pieces to Improve Your Partner Program

Don’t make your partners beg for what they need from your company to support their sales efforts! If you are generating revenue from a partner channel are you maximizing your opportunities? Have you formalized how you are working with partners? Have your sales and marketing organizations been informed and trained on how to talk to partners about what benefits and programs are available to them as your partner?

There are five easy steps you can take quickly to improve how you work with partners, increase partner revenues and provide partners with the programs they need.

1. Talk to selected partners and your sales team to determine what is needed for success
2. Consolidate your research and determine if there are any existing resources that can be easily modified or enhanced that map to the requirements you have identified
3. Develop the programs, garner internal approval and plan the roll-out of the partner program
4. Begin the roll-out process with an internal Webinar or presentation to the sales team and others in your organization that interface with partners. Provide any supporting materials such as collateral or partner kit.
5. Invite your partners to a Webinar to introduce the new resources and encourage your sales team to meet with selected partners one-to-one to present the program details

Here some examples of valuable programs I have developed and rolled-out to global partners:

• Partner case studies with a focus on their customer successes – great collateral for you and your partner!
• Partner newsletter – simple but true. This will give you another contact point, demonstrate your commitment and let you leverage your existing content in a another media
• Partner Empowerment Webinars – once you have identified programs your partners need, you can set up a series of 30-45 minute Webinars to introduce your  benefits programs
• A Partner Kit – consolidate your program information in a “kit” form that may be online, physical or both! I have used a nice portfolio, and included a partner program brochure that highlights benefits. It is a good reason for a personal visit with the partner!
• Personalized URLs for your Major Partners – create individual Web pages for your best partners to highlight the benefits of your partner program, company key contacts, new product and event information and more. It will make it easy for your partner to understand and share the program benefits to others in the organization.

For more information about starting, integrating and improving your partner or marketing programs, contact Larry Fournier on LinkedIn or by email at: fourthman@usa.com.