A Co-sell Strategy that keeps you in the Game

When working with partners, sometimes a “lights-on” co-sell strategy is necessary to either get you in the game or stay in the game while we work on a more strategic co-sell strategy.

In our blog Defining Your Co-sell Experience, we talked about the importance of an infinite mindset. To be successful in co-sell, you must recognize that you are playing an infinite game.?In an infinite game, you define your own strategy; there are no fixed rules; no set beginning and end; people and partners can join at any time.?There are no winners or losers.?Instead, there are partners who continue forward toward their vision or partners that simply drop out.?

Every organization will experience growing pains, shifts in priorities, turnover in people and resources, and budget constraints. It’s in these changing or challenging times where it’s easy to “drop out” or pause your co-sell activity with your cloud partner.?Rather than abruptly stopping all the great momentum you’ve worked so hard to build, we work with partners to implement a “lights-on” co-sell strategy.?

Our “lights-on” strategy helps partners make sure they still show up and don’t lose their brand exposure with your cloud partner’s co-sell program and receive benefits and support from their cloud partner—sometimes we use it in the beginning phases of establishing a co-sell practice inside a partner’s organization.?This enables us to build brand awareness, strengthen relationships and develop engagement between the two sales organizations—while we build out operational framework and partner sales enablement.

At times, a “lights-on” strategy is necessary, but it should not be used long term. Over the years, we have guided partners on when to use a “lights-on” strategy while we help them operationalize and build their co-sell operations.?It is common to transition in and out of a “lights-on” strategy to adjust to business fluctuations until the timing is right for more strategic co-sell initiatives with your cloud partner.