Partnerships NOW: Volume 6

Welcome to the 6th edition of Partnerships NOW! We are thrilled to bring you a fresh perspective on partnerships with our captivating theme for this month: Partner Types and Categorization in Channel Programs.

Partner personalization, as we have previously discussed, continues to shape the landscape of business interactions. Yet, beneath the surface of personalization lies the art of categorization—a powerful approach that can supercharge collaboration efforts.

This month, we spotlight strategies for precise partner segmentation and empowerment. These strategies promise to optimize relationships and amplify business growth within the expansive channel landscape. The journey towards successful partnerships is a symphony of understanding, collaboration, and shared goals—themes that echo throughout this edition.

As always, we express our heartfelt gratitude to our esteemed contributors. Their insights and support have transformed this edition into an invaluable wellspring of knowledge, one that promises to inspire and guide you on your path to partnership excellence.

How do you categorize different partner types in your industry, and what criteria do you use to distinguish them?

"Categorization or segmentation of partner types has evolved in the industry, finally! No longer are partners happy to be described by a three-letter acronym that comes with assumptions as to what services and value they offer customers, instead the segmentation offered in modern partner programs reflects the business model of the partner and what they are experts at and in." - Amy Roberts , PartnerPath

What strategies have you seen deployed to segment partners effectively based on their performance and capabilities?

"Segmentation is a very powerful tool within the toolbox of partner strategies. This step holds the potential to be your guiding light, aiding you in deciphering which partners merit your focused attention and which ones could benefit from extra support to thrive within your program. Beyond this, it serves as a discerning lens, helping you cut through the complexities of your ecosystem and identify the elements that truly matter.

Understanding the gravity of resource management, the core principle here is about utilizing your efforts wisely. To help you navigate this, drawing from my expertise, I've found that a practical approach involves identifying key leading and lagging performance indicators that separate the thriving partners from the rest within your ecosystem. These indicators collectively form a reference point against which each partner's performance is methodically evaluated, ensuring that data-driven insights drive your decision-making process.

This methodical approach takes emotions out of the equation, favoring a rational, scientific perspective. Upon successfully segmenting your partners, an opportune moment arises to synchronize your growth strategies with the unique characteristics of each partner group. This strategic synergy sets the stage for you to optimize your returns on investment, harnessing the potential of partnerships that are poised to provide you with the greatest benefits.

In essence, by following this approach, you're not just managing your partnerships; you're embarking on a journey toward strategic partnership excellence." - Jessica Baker , AchieveUnite

"Segmentation by specialization is one of the most effective in providing customers with an understanding of the capabilities of the partner and offering differentiation of the partner - use certification or referenceable customers as a metric." - Amy Roberts , PartnerPath

What are 1-3 ways to align partner categorization with partner program objectives and overall business goals?

"Align the categorization and segmentation to the important aspects of achieving your channel goals: Need scale of service? Ensure you use enablement as a qualifier for higher segmentation. Need brand awareness and lead generation? Use number of leads and deal registration in your segmentation to encourage engagement. " - Amy Roberts , PartnerPath

List common challenges that come up when categorizing partners and ways to overcome them for accuracy and relevancy.

"The proper categorization of partners can feel like a complex task in today’s dynamic partner landscape. The variance in partner business models has led to many challenges. The top issues we see with clients include: a lack of standardization, diverse partner profiles with evolving partner offerings, cultural and regional variances, misrepresentation in business models from partners, and no feedback loop for vendors when misclassification happens.

Here are some considerations to help you properly categorize your partners:

Create clear definitions of terminology – Make sure that the categories or classifications you are using to describe your partners are clearly defined. Many programs use the same words to describe different things, so it is important to provide partners with a clear understanding of what you mean by your categories and how they align with your program. While there might never be a true standardization of categories clearly defining, yours will help partners figure out where they fit. Being clear will also help prevent partners from misclassifying themselves in the onboarding process.

Offer flexible categorization and offerings review – Partners greatly vary in terms of industries, sizes, and business models making it difficult to create uniform categories making flexibility key. Vendors must regularly update and refine their partner categories to make sure that they align with new partner profiles that need to be supported. In addition, partner offerings are evolving which can lead to misclassification if not updated regularly. Implementing a review process at specific intervals to assess offerings and encouraging partners to provide regular updates on their services will aid in keeping partners properly aligned with your programs. Creating a feedback loop for partners allows them to participate in the process and raise a flag if there is a need to provide clarification or changes to how they are categorized.

Categorizing partners accurately and relevantly requires a combination of clear guidelines, continuous monitoring, iterative improvements, and effective communication with partners. Regularly reassess the categorization system to ensure it aligns with the evolving landscape of partner offerings and industry trends." - Raegan Wilson, MBA , Spur Reply

"Categorizing your partners based on revenue contribution alone was once the 'go-to' segmentation in programs, this creates a problem of the same few names cropping up at the top of every program and does not ensure you have good coverage of the mid-market, other countries/regions or drive innovation in industries where those who might not reach the multi-million revenue numbers offer huge value to your customers." - Amy Roberts , PartnerPath

"The biggest and most obvious challenge we are seeing is partners do not fit into just one category. Partners can, and more often than not do, have multiple sales motions with a vendor that will fluctuate depending on the situation. In a simple scenario, you may have a partner transacting as a managed service provider on one deal, and then switching to a referral motion on another deal. Instead of trying to pigeonhole partners into only one category, or create multiple account records for that one partner, it is important to create flexible categorization criteria that can allow for overlap. This includes a deep dive into how you are setting up your fields and organizing your data within your tools.

Another challenge that has long existed is within global partner programs. Partnerships across regions and cultures might have unique dynamics even within partners that share the same category. For example, a reseller in an emerging market may be held to different standards than one in an established market. You can overcome this challenge by acknowledging that one size does not fit all, working with local teams to better understand the partnerships in their region, and developing a partner framework that accounts for the nuances.

And finally, partners are evolving and new partnership models are also emerging. This in turn means partner frameworks either need to adapt or miss out on new revenue streams. It is important to stay proactive, adaptable and have open and frequent communication with your current partners to ensure you are aligning your partner program goals with their own efforts.?" - Gina Batali-Brooks , Is Inspired

How do you tailor your enablement strategies for different partner types to ensure their success in selling your products or services?

"Most partner programs lack consistency and relevance to partners due to inconsistent execution. Random acts of enablement are often left to the channel manager. Enablement efforts should be tied to customer needs and partner requirements. Suppliers should focus on partner competency, skills, and process adoption based upon the partner's business model." - Meredith Caram , JSG

How do you see technology like PRM helping to enable different partner categorization strategies?

"Partner Relationship Management (PRM) can automate key processes in partnerships, by acting as a central hub to facilitate personalized partner categorization strategies. Based on the types of partnerships, the process execution can vary based on the category, specialization, and tier a partner is tied to. This can include:

• Segmentation and personalized targeting
• Marketing and sales execution
• Learning, training & development
• Incentives programs
• Reporting to provide insights for data-driven decision making

By leveraging PRM technology, businesses can optimize their partner ecosystem and drive mutual success with partners across different categories." - Brian Galicia , 微软

"Your partner portal offering, segmented content, and learning journeys based on your categorization of your partners is invaluable to supporting the automation and digitalization of your program at scale and ensures the new generation of decision-makers in your partners are able to absorb the right information on their own timescales and in their preferred medium (digital first)." - Amy Roberts , PartnerPath

"Partners shouldn't have to spend their time figuring out what to do when they are beginning a new partnership with a supplier. Most onboarding experiences are less than ideal due to the variety of content/materials and most portals lack a content strategy. Utilizing a PRM, such as Impartner's platform, allows suppliers to share their vision, execute a unified content strategy, segment their partners, and have a partner-centered journey. The channel management software technology allows suppliers to provide partners with the information the partner needs to know to be successful. " - Meredith Caram , JSG

"In the present, PRMs can gather partner profile data to allow for categorization based on a number of factors such as selling motion, capabilities, geographic location, etc. In turn, it can use this data to provide more personalized experiences for partners across its enablement, communication, and collaboration tools. PRMs can further the trust between the partner and the vendor by providing more transparency.?Partners can get an accurate view of how they measure up to current criteria within their category using real-time data points, such as the number of registered deals, the number of certifications achieved, etc. In turn, partners and the vendor can develop mutual success plans to further their goals based on the data provided.

As the partner landscapes continue to evolve, we are going to see PRMs, and their integration with tools like CRMs, play a critical role in helping to support the flexible framework partnering is morphing into. PRMs are already developing critical technology to allow partners to self-select what kind of role they want to play within a deal. We are also seeing PRMs evolve to allow multi-partner deals where referral, reseller, service, and distribution partners can all be involved in a seamless interaction. " - Gina Batali-Brooks , Is Inspired