Is your partner enablement engagement happening by default or by design?
Updated: Jul 14, 2022
We have all been there. We have kicked off a training session or started an initiative for our partners without taking too much consideration to how these fits into an overall engagement cadence with our partners. Nothing wrong with initiative and without it nothing would happen.
Several leading IT Vendors and SaaS companies run their partner engagement strategy in silos and as ad-hoc initiatives. Tons of great outcomes are delivered; however, a considerable amount of the effort is wasted.
With a few simple steps you can dramatically improve your channel partner engagement and herby their commitment resulting in improved business results.
Consider this; the likelihood is big you participate in events, you run webinars, you do round-tables, you do demo days, you invite partners to lab days, you might have online learning and content you are sharing. This form part of the partner journey you are inviting your partner sellers to follow, however as outlined often it is not too well thought out.
These interaction points can be classified in three main categories:
1. Spot Engagement
2. Tactical Engagement
3. Programmatic Engagement
These categories differ in engagement style and form as well as in purpose. From demand and pipeline generation, to deal closure to up-sell and cross-sell. All play an integral part of the partner journey you are outlining in order to maximize your returns.
As mentioned above the general practice for many of the legacy IT vendors is to do most of this ad-hoc and unconnected.
What many corporations are missing is the defined engagement strategy, but more importantly the glue to bring it all together.
A few recommendations:
1. Outline your channel engagement and touchpoints. Why, how and with what cadence are you engaging with your partners.
2. Assess each engagement points impact and understand how you capture the insight from your partner at each point. (If you already do capture, record, and consolidate the insight across all you are in a league for yourself).
3. Begin to outline how you can make Spot, Tactical and Programmatic engagement part of a partner journey rather than disconnected points in time.
4. With an engagement journey outline in place build a process or invest in the right channel tech software to allow you to extract and consolidate the knowledge and partner insight at every step. This will give you and your team immense power in driving outcomes with your partners and allow you to better craft an optimized partner enablement journey.
You have the data already, it is just about harvesting it’s value.
Reach out to us for a discussion and learn the best practices we see emerging in the market.