What are the best practices for scaling your partner development framework?

Identify where your customers are already spending time and their attention. What are the watering holes? Which of the 28 spheres of influence do they turn to? From there, you can work backwards on who those organizations and people are. Develop a list and a reason for reaching out. Start by looking at the value the client gets from the interaction. Then the partner's business benefit from the partnership. Then your benefit. It's critical to work back in this manner because if you start with your own needs, you'll always think "revenue" when in reality the value will differ through this process.

In 3 previous roles, I started my first 30 days by asking every partner in the ecosystem (and prospective partner) what would make us the most valuable partner they work with, what their expectations are, and where their other partners miss the mark. 10/10 times the partner will tell you exactly what you need to know to build the most valuable program full of the exact resources they need to be successful. Then go internal and ask your team leaders the same questions about their experiences in working with the partners.

Scaling partner development is vital for business growth. Key practices : Strategic Goals: Define clear objectives. Segmentation: Tailor approaches for different partners. Recruitment: Systematic onboarding with training. Relationship Management: Dedicated managers. Training: Equip partners effectively. Collaborative Marketing: Extend reach with joint efforts. Tech Integration: Ensure seamless systems. Performance Metrics: Measure success with KPIs. Incentives: Implement rewards. Feedback Loop: Gather partner insights. Scalability: Grow efficiently. Compliance: Ensure adherence. Optimization: Regularly refine the framework. Global Adaptation: Consider regional differences. Crisis Plan: Resolve issues effectively.

If you have an existing network of partners, the starting point should be interviewing them on what their experience has been from working with your company. Let them speak on the good, the bad and the ugly and then ask them to give their top three goals with partnerships. If you are starting from scratch and need to build a completely new programme, my suggestion is to do benchmarking within your industry, talk with peers working in partnerships and if you know what type of partners you want to go after (technology partners, consultants etc.), then reach out to them and find out what would make them want to refer clients to another business.

Defining your objectives for the partnership, what you want to achieve, but also what each partner gains from it is essential. A partnership must be a win-win collaboration. Draft a partner agreement with deliverables on each side and do not hesitate to make requests if it feels unbalanced.

Something that I found useful for my partner projects with organisations is a partner evaluation template that I call partner bullseye. Essentially means, you structure your partners / contacts in verticals by types of partners (depending on your business) and evaluate your level of engagement based on your current or targeted relationship status: 1. Co-creation / strategic 2. Inclusive 3. Informative 4. Passive It’s usually possible to do in a first 45-90 min workshop. And best reviewed every 6-12 months.

Prioritizing high value partnerships is key. Not all potential partners are a good fit. Pursue great fits - where great value can be created!

Organize your partners by general categories... consultants, influencers, content creators, integrators, etc. Then, organize them based on public parameters like size, revenue, funding, following, and so on. It's also recommended to add a "heat mapping" of potential value that can be translated to your clients through the partnership. Develop this list to help you prioritize who to engage first, as well as developing your core message of value for outreach to develop a partnership.

What has helped me categorise partners and find the key ones to put our focus on, has been using a matrix where you score partners compatibility with your company on the following points: 1. Strategic alignment - Do you have the same goals for partnership and for your businesses? 2. Customer alignment - Do you serve the same customers? 3. Product gap/improvement - Will the partnership improve customer offering? 4. Time to value - how long will it take for partnership to pay off? 5. Brand recognition - Will the partnership leverage your brand? 6. Resources & engagement - Probably one of the most important points. How willing is the partner to invest required time and resources to nurturing and leveraging the partnership?

Prioritizing partners is the holy grail of successful partnerships. Focus on “quality over quantity”. Tiering is a great way to set expectations and deploy resources internally. The structure of tier can be formalized depending of the IPP and industries of focus. If your partner program is one that contains self serving partners via partner portal. Make sure to provide enough enablement content on the portal to keep their FAQs on auto-pilot. If data says 80% of the revenue comes from 20% partners, the latter helps making sure that the 20% revenue is not lost.

Your joint value proposition needs to be concise. A good rule of thumb for a framework is to focus on describing a current problem the customer faces, what happens when it's not solved, and the outcomes (value/benefits) when it is solved. You can start by doing this individually for your companies, and then combining it with your partner. Too many value propositions are either too general or they do not capture the true value of the partnership as a solution to problems. AVOID simply describing what the partnership accomplishes. FOCUS on the pain and outcome of relieving that pain.

To the point Will Taylor has made here, the joint VP is vital. I think it also helps with scaling - as more and more people in your org are empowered to scale partnerships, a north star joint VP saves a lot of wasted time on "wouldn't it be cool if..." territory. There's a simple acid test build it - does your cool idea align to the VP? If not, move on

This is the beauty of a partnership. Owning your value proposition, what yo bring to the table, but also being able to create collaboration and cooperation on common ground, recognising and honouring what a partner brings too.

Let’s be real: it’s not possible to regularly and successfully reach the hundreds of people in your partner ecosystem without some level of automation. You’ve got to hit the perfect balance between automation and the human touch. 30%-60% of the partner manager’s job involves repetitive messaging interactions, and automating these tasks frees you up to focus on the parts of your job that require authentic human interactions to solidify and maintain great relationships.

By implementing a PRM that is fully integrated into our internal systems we have been able to streamline our process. Leads that are put into the PRM by partners are then fed to Salesforce to protect partner leads without manual intervention. We also automate communication for SPIFFs, product updates and upcoming events to our existing partner community. This allows our partner managers to focus their 1:1 interactions with the most productive or most promising partners.

Building repeatable automated processes is key to growth and shows your success as an industry leader bringing pre built solutions to the table to expedite the timeline.

Your team must 100% feel empowered to manage their book of partners with complete autonomy. It's the leaders job to ensure they feel confident enough to do so. Part of that is operating with transparency to your team so they understand the objectives of the business and how they deliver value to those objectives through their work, the other part is ensure they know the product and enablement material as well as anyone in the business. Not only are partner managers sellers, but they are an extension of the sales enablement and product marketing team. Spend the time teaching & learning the business and the product.

There's partnership acumen and general business acumen. If you want truly scalable partnerships, your teams have to be able to found partnerships on solid business fundamentals. Technical and tactical proficiency of articulating the value at stake in the opportunity and setting in motion the things that need to occur across functional teams is critical. Here's a few things to think about training on: - Creating a business case with a financial model of investment and anticipated impact, ROI, and benefits - Building context and buy-in with other internal functions - Actively coaching partner organizations to match your pace and enabling them

The internal buy-in for partnerships is absolutely key for succeeding. To make sure that things are moving along, I tend to have the following check list for my self in leading partnerships: 1. Internal enablement - Does our organisation about the partnership and how it works? 2. Partner journey & offering - Do we have a clear step-by-step process for acquisition, onboarding and nurturing of new partners and is the entire partner team following this process? 3. Partner enablement: Do we have ease to use sales and marketing materials for partners to use in their promotion of our services?

Investing in employee training can yield significant results. According to ASTD on average, companies that provide comprehensive training programs to their employees experience a 218% higher income per employee than those with less extensive training. By providing them with the necessary skills, knowledge, and autonomy, you cultivate a culture of collaboration and excellence. This not only enhances partner relationships but also boosts partner retention, ultimately strengthening your organization as a whole. Utilizing credible platforms and communities like Partnernomics, The Channel Company (CRN), Channel Futures, Crossbeam and Partnership Leaders is a great place to start.

Training and empowerment are crucial for team performance in any partner development framework. Here are some quick facts to illustrate the importance of training and its impact: -Companies that invest in employee training have 24% higher profit margins than those who don’t, according to the American Society for Training and Development - According to a study by IBM, well-trained teams improve customer satisfaction by 10-15%, directly impacting partner retention rates - career development opportunities could reduce employee turnover by up to 25% - Adobe’s Kickbox program shows that empowered employees submit 29% more innovative proposals Invest in your team’s for sustainable partnership development.#EmployeeTraining #PartnershipDevelopment

According to a survey by McKinsey & Company, companies that regularly measure and optimize their partner programs reported an average 15% increase in partner-generated revenue year-over-year. Before you dive deep in to PRM's and a world of metrics, start off simple. Establish internal KPIs and create internal champions, create dashboards accessible to your team, including sales, that show sales impact, leads, renewals etc. Then look to build out wider dashboards that track overall partner-related KPIs, such as partner acquisition, activation, revenue, satisfaction, and retention. By sharing real-time data and insights, you enable meaningful impact evaluation and collaboration with other departments.

Data is necessary for partnerships to gather more resources internally. With so many moving parts, it's easy to get lost and then lose the understanding of which levers pulled actually move the needle. First decide what the business KPIs are for the partnerships team and work backwards to determine the surrounding metrics that help to impact that. For example, it's not just closed-won revenue... it's also the close rates for partner deals, the conversion rates from top, middle, and bottom of funnel, the deal size changes, average deal cycle changes, etc. Track this data to inform your program and build the business case for more resources.

One additional step: shout your wins and metrics from the rooftops! Partnerships teams are often small and can be overlooked compared to e.g. marketing or sales. That's why you'll need to put in extra effort to promote your results and wins across the wider company.

Data drives decisions! You have to have business relationships at every level, in every department the partner has and share metrics openly. Doing so creates trust and a intertwined relationship, and frequent meetings to measure success are welcomed readily, without avoidance. Share the data with those groups, as repetition = retention. The Why?: your excitement about the partnership. Show how many people are certified on the JVP, deals registered, comments from the field. The Who?: Why this data is important to THEM, and how it relates to their role. The How?: Explain the partnership framework mutually established and how these KPIs relate to them. Show performance and brand awareness metrics.

A few additional ideas: - Talk to Sales and CS to understand what comes up most frequently, both as needs/requests as well as issues and challenges - Look your competitors and analyze who they partner with and assess any gaps and competitors of their partners - Map out a competitive analysis based on those partners and craft a unique approach to a partner ecosystem - Speak with these technologies and ask them candidly what they are looking for in a partnership, what could be improved with existing partners, and how you may stack up as a potential partner

Keep relationships professional but personal. In the realm of business, relationships are the bedrock of success. They extend far beyond the transactional confines of contracts and deals. Trust is the linchpin that binds individuals and companies together, fostering collaboration and reliability. Yet, it's the emotive connections that truly set businesses apart. Emotional ties create a sense of belonging and commitment, resulting in employees who go the extra mile and customers who remain loyal. These relationships are weaved with stories that transcend the business brief, tales of shared experiences and challenges that humanize the corporate world. In this intricate web of bonds, lies the true strength and longevity of any enterprise.

It is important to factor in the timelines that are required to close each partnership. Some partnerships necessitate certain levels of due diligence. In other instances, some partnerships can only be executed via a third party such as an agency. All of these have impact the time horizon to close your desired partners.

Please, don't underestimate the importance of having internal teams such as sales and customer success aligned with any partnering strategy. For example, if the plan with a specific partner is to engage with mutual clients about a new use case then customer success teams need to be onboard and motivated/incented to make introductions and engage with the client.