What are the best practices for setting channel partner performance targets?

1 Assess the partner's profile

Before you set any performance targets, you need to understand your partner's profile, such as their strengths, weaknesses, goals, resources, and challenges. This will help you tailor your targets to their specific situation and capabilities, and avoid setting unrealistic or irrelevant expectations. You can use various tools, such as SWOT analysis, partner scorecards, or partner surveys, to assess your partner's profile and identify areas of improvement or opportunity.

2 Define SMART targets

SMART is a widely used acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. These are the key criteria for setting effective performance targets that are clear, trackable, realistic, aligned, and deadline-oriented. For example, instead of setting a vague target like "increase sales", you can set a SMART target like "increase sales of product X by 10% in Q3 compared to Q2". SMART targets help you and your partner monitor progress, evaluate results, and adjust strategies if needed.

3 Align targets with strategy

Your performance targets should not be isolated from your overall channel strategy and objectives. They should support and reflect your vision, mission, and value proposition for your partners and customers. For example, if your strategy is to expand into a new market segment, your targets should focus on generating leads, creating awareness, and building relationships in that segment. Aligning your targets with your strategy helps you and your partner stay focused, consistent, and coherent.

4 Communicate and negotiate targets

Setting performance targets is not a one-way process. You need to communicate and negotiate your targets with your partner, and ensure that they understand and agree with them. This will help you build trust, commitment, and accountability with your partner, and avoid any confusion or conflict later on. You can use various methods, such as joint business planning, partner contracts, or regular meetings, to communicate and negotiate your targets with your partner, and address any questions or concerns they may have.

5 Reward and recognize performance

One of the main purposes of setting performance targets is to motivate and incentivize your partner to achieve them. Therefore, you need to reward and recognize your partner's performance, and show them that you value their efforts and contributions. You can use various types of rewards, such as financial incentives, discounts, bonuses, referrals, or recognition programs, to reward your partner's performance. However, you also need to ensure that your rewards are fair, transparent, and consistent with your targets.

6 Review and revise targets

Setting performance targets is not a one-time activity. You need to review and revise your targets regularly, and adapt them to changing market conditions, customer needs, partner capabilities, or channel strategies. You can use various tools, such as dashboards, reports, or feedback surveys, to review your partner's performance and measure it against your targets. You also need to solicit and provide feedback to your partner, and discuss any issues or challenges they may face, or any opportunities or best practices they may discover.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?