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The New Buzz Words: Partner Contribution

03.06.24

How a shift in perspective is affecting vendors and solution providers.

The promise, hope and resolutions of a new year are starting to fade. The global economic situation is dubious with some businesses recovering from recession woes while others try to scrape by. One thing remains true: companies both large and small are looking anywhere and everywhere for more leads and deals in the pipeline. We are all looking for partners to contribute more to the sales processes but not in the methods of yesterday. “Partner contribution” is what vendors are starting to value in partner ecosystem management but what exactly is partner contribution and how do you measure it? How will it affect partners and vendor partner teams?

Topics: Industry Perspective

Four Partnering Trends Taking Off in 2024

02.23.24

Don’t just see the future, put it to work in your partner program.

In our annual webinar on channel predictions featuring Jay McBain, Chief Analyst – Channels, Partnerships & Ecosystems at Canalys, we discussed four trends impacting how we engage, empower and evolve partner ecosystems. Consider how these trends may impact or improve your partner program.

Topics: Industry Perspective

3 Takeaways from Impartner Multiply

02.08.24

Make holistic partner program changes while optimizing operations.

Traveling in from both sides of the pond, the PartnerPath team ventured to Miami for the Impartner Customer Conference,  Multiply, this week. As Partner of the Year, we know a lot about Impartner, but there’s always a surprise or three at these conferences. Here are three takeaways that stood out to me and had me staring out to sea contemplating how we can better engage partners.

Topics: News and Programs, Industry Perspective

10 Mistakes to Avoid in Your Partner Program

12.13.23

Here's a checklist of 10 mistakes we see people make in designing and running a partner program. For context, details, possible fixes and some friendly banter, watch the video here.

Topics: Partnering Tips

3 Insights for Better Partner Engagement

11.15.23

One solution provider shares actions to take (or avoid) in your partner relationship.

We’ve been beating the drum about the importance of partner experience for a while now (if this is the first you’re hearing of it, grab a cup of coffee and start here). Every step along the partner journey is critical. The experience must be good to attract new partners. The experience must be good to win over and onboard new partners. And the experience must be good to engage and grow your partners.

Topics: Partnering Tips

A Partner Portal is Not a Silver Bullet

10.18.23

Follow 5 principles for a PRM that improves partner experience

The new generation of partners are digital-first. They want to self-serve partnership information online – not pick up a phone and make a call (do phones still do that?) to then be emailed a fuzzy scanned PDF (which is probably out of date). From onboarding and enablement processes to opportunity registration and marketing, all partner information should be easily accessed from your partner portal/PRM (Partner Relationship Management) solution. However, a basic implementation of a PRM (where you throw every document you have every created online behind a gated login) isn’t going to cut it anymore. Purchasing and deploying a partner portal is not enough to drive success with your partners. An effective partner portal follows the same design principles as the partner program and the user experience should be designed for maximum partner engagement.

Topics: Partnering Tips, PRM

3 Tips to Organize Your PRM

10.04.23

Provide a better partner experience by showing some TLC to your PRM system.

You would be shocked to know the variety of partner portal and PRM systems I’ve worked on, but one thing remains the same: the need for organization. There are many components to a PRM system: the back end, the front-end, the bi-directional sync to multiple other systems. On top of that, there are different individuals, business units and management levels that must come together to ensure a well-updated, easy-to-use, one stop place for partner engagement. Maintaining a successful PRM system may feel like a moving target, but with some organization, you can be a hero to partners and give them a good experience. Here are my top 3 tips for a successful PRM:

Topics: Partnering Tips

Give Partners the Tools to Drive Demand

09.20.23

3 Steps to help partners expand your marketing reach.

In our last annual webinar discussion between Diane Krakora and Jay McBain, Diane quoted desperate vendors as saying: “We don't care about a partner program; we just need them to generate leads. We don't care about customer success; we just need them to generate leads.” That’s short-sighted. Partners need a good partner program and a path to success with your products/services before they’re just going to hand over a giant bag of leads. They’re looking to grow their business and they’re doing that by building solutions for customers that involve your products along with other vendors and their own services. If you want to be a part of this equation, and want partners to develop leads for your products, facilitate your partners’ growth by offering them easy marketing solutions that takes some of the burden of demand generation off their plate.

Topics: Partnering Tips

Starting Off On the Right Foot

09.06.23

Three takeaways from my discussion with a solution provider.

Webinars are not just a great chance for us to provide our audience with great content, but they can be a chance for me to catch up with channel friends. Recently, I had an insightful conversation with Dominic Grillo, President of Atrion Communications (now part of Aurora) about how his organization decides to bring on a new vendor and the rough patches of getting started. He brought 30 years of experience to our chat and I found much of the conversation helpful for vendors looking to successfully launch a new solution provider. Three things really stood out:

Topics: Partnering Tips, Industry Perspective

Math, Physics & Chemistry

07.26.23

Get busy crafting compelling answers to these partner questions.

By now you all know I love data. I love that facts and figures give us insights and trends to change what we’re doing to be better. But you might not know I’m also a math and science geek. An original STEM girl. And that’s why when Anu Bulusu, my guest on April’s webinar, combined data and math and the importance of the partner experience, I knew I found a kindred spirit. She’s a straight-shooting smarty pants founder of not one, but two, very successful multi-regional solution providers.

Topics: Partnering Tips, Industry Perspective