Why your B2B business needs a better partner channel approach

In this edition of #PositiveBusinessHabits, I turn to the important subject of partner channel development.

The virtual world we live in is great for finding the things we need at the last minute and having them delivered to our respective doors same day. Nevertheless digital business comes with large downsides too, particularly for suppliers. One of the most damaging consequences of the always-on world is that traditional outreach marketing has become a largely blunt instrument unless you have a massive war chest to play with! Perhaps then, instead of trying to find new customers yourself, the solution is to make more use of relationships with organizations and stakeholders that already hold the keys to unlock the bolted-shut doors to your marketplace.

Most every B2B business has a partner audience waiting to promote their products somewhere

I can't recall ever meeting a B2B business that didn’t have the potential to harness value from working with partner organizations of some form.

They come in various flavors:

Sales channel partners--You might find your ideal partners are retailers, wholesalers, agents, or consultants in your industry that have something to offer in terms of access to geographical markets, industry skills, or goodwill within the buying audience, etc.

Affinity partners--Alternatively, affinity partners are organizations that target the same buying audience but sell something completely different (Think about accountancy firms that have boardroom influence).

Industry partners--These are organizations that operate within your industry and possibly service another area of value upstream or downstream in the supply chain when compared to your offering.

Professional organizations--These are trade associations, research and analyst firms, communities of interest, not-for-profits, journals, etc. that share a common interest in your subject of interest.

Broker, Recommendation, and Review sites--These are online intermediaries that sit between your business and the buying audience.

Tips to making your partner channel work

It's not easy making a sales partner channel work for your business. These are some tips from the Tomlin&Co. team on how to make it work for you.

#1. Establish a partner scorecard and performance framework

It matters to your business and that of your partner that you can measure success and advise on how to achieve more. It comes down to working out what to measure and how to measure it. Modern digital partner scorecarding systems reduce the need to employ an army of account managers and partner administrators. They automate Quarterly Business Reviews and many of the admin tasks that underpin appointing, managing and supporting partners.

#2. Build a community of partners

When you adopt a community-led approach to your partner channel, you will find your partners themselves will start to help and support one another. This pooling of knowledge and resources reduces the direct support burden on your own business. It also improves the overall health and performance of your partner network.

##3. Collaborative a digital community ecosystem and integrate partner education, events, resources, and marketing tools into it

Most partner systems are framed on a 'we give, they take' architectural model, where partner sites look similar to a standard website--perhaps with a bit of white-labeling of logos on leaflets, etc. Vendors create marketing tools and publish them to an online brochure store... and, hopefully, these resources get used by partners now and then! This is a missed opportunity. Nowadays, partner sites can take the form of a collaborative community forum, where everything the partner needs can be found in the digital community ecosystem, with partners gaining the significant added benefit of being able to engage with other partners.

#4. Work with your partners to build communities of interest in your buying audience

You can also take 'community building' a step further and work with your partners to build a customer community of interest. Use mechanisms like subject-matter-led online virtual events to attract participation in these stakeholder groups.

#5. Mix face-to-face and virtual engagement to minimize costs and maximize results

Face-to-face events for partners are great but they are also very expensive and geographically limiting. Thankfully, new virtual conferencing platforms like Remo and Microsoft Mesh make it possible to go beyond boring virtual ‘chalk and talk’ webinar formats to produce engaging, two-way collaborative learning and networking experiences when done well.

Further reading:

Other recent blog articles by Ian Tomlin:

Why B2B companies are moving to circular marketing

Why being authentic matters in marketing