Partner enablement is the key to increasing sales through the indirect channel. But, how do you effectively enable your partners—worldwide? This quarter, we’re exploring key strategies to enable your partners.
Our March edition of the hawkeyeChannel newsletter focuses on delivering critical programs that delight partners while achieving your business objectives, like deal registration and partner rewards. We also talk about our most recent alliance—with CompTIA’s MSP Partner Community—to extend greater collaboration opportunities. And don’t miss the upcoming events designed to help you get the most from your channel!
Shari Marion-Hoff
CEO and Chief Channel Strategist
Key Tips To Enabling Your Partners—Worldwide
The Challenge
We all know that rigorous analysis of partner performance matched with regular partner segmentation and tiering should be standard practice, but the obstacles
to using partner analytics to optimize channel investment often seem daunting.
The typical roadblocks are many and often include a lack of reliable, timely or consolidated, well-organized data; disagreement around the accuracy of data
and/or which performance indicators to measure; and a lack of senior management buy-in or sponsorship. These roadblocks may sound familiar. They often make it
difficult to capture that key insight that you so desperately need to increase revenues and optimize channel investments.
How do you overcome these obstacles to establish a rigorous, actionable partner analytics regimen that enables channel sales, marketing, and operations teams
to seize this critical insight?
The Opportunity
The key to channel success lies in identifying partners with high potential and providing them with the right tools and resources so they become bigger players.
This in turn enables you, the technology vendor, to more deeply penetrate key markets.
Our experience with the development and implementation of partner analytics programs for leading technology vendors has taught us that there are specific essential
factors that contribute to success. Here are key tips to ensure that you don’t miss important insight about your partners.
- Focus on actionable data to drive partner initiatives and program changes.
This not supposed to be an exercise in quantum physics or analysis paralysis. You do not need elaborate business intelligence software or a staff with doctorates in analytics. You need a few people with business intelligence expertise and channel knowledge to collect, report and analyze the data. Focus on core measures and actionable reporting—and resist the attempt to add nice-to-have analysis and reports. Then, leverage the business intelligence you have gained by moving the data into action. Having assembled and reported standard partner performance measures and acted upon them enables you to leverage this business intelligence for other purposes, such as partner revenue forecasting using trend line analysis.
- Adopt standard performance measures and reporting formats.
It is vital that you establish certain standard partner performance measures from the outset that enable your organization to identify actionable trends in partner and program performance. Adopt key measures such as period-to-period revenue performance comparisons, quarterly trends, individual partners’ trends, and performance by Pareto distribution, performance by partner classification or tier, etc.
- Create a central partner database and enlist the support of critical departments.
Creating a central database that contains partner revenues and other attributes takes time, effort, and coordination. Enlist the support of key stakeholders from IS, finance, channel operations, channel sales, and marketing to determine which data source(s) are most reliable and can be assembled into a standard database or CRM system. This effort may involve a multi-phased approach, starting with the data that is easiest to obtain—such as sell-in sales data from distributors. Create a plan to collect and add partner data over time, like partner attributes related to solution and market expertise, accreditation, geographical coverage, and more. Focus on core data that provides the foundation for meaningful partner and program performance.
- Gain consensus and executive sponsorship.
Above all, a meaningful effort to drive partner initiatives and programs based on actionable data, universal performance metrics and standard report formats takes considerable consensus, coordination and executive sponsorship that should not be underestimated. Start by creating a plan with clear objectives that includes initial and follow-up action, quarterly reviews and reporting standards. Define which departments and representatives should be involved in this effort and their responsibilities. Only then should you present your plan, its goals and objectives and the resulting outcomes to the senior management team. Ask for executive commitment and sponsorship from the VPs of channel marketing and sales as well as the CFO. Insist on quarterly multi-departmental reviews to review progress. Stress that this is a long-term commitment and that the intelligence gained from this exercise will only become more meaningful and actionable over time. (Note that meaningful trend analysis requires a minimum of five solid quarters of accurate partner performance data to yield reliable results on which to take solid action).
Learn more: Contact us at team@hawkeyechannel.com to request the white paper, Best Practices in Ranking and Prioritizing Your Partners.
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Make Your Deal Registration Program Work For You
More than 75% of technology vendors offer deal registration programs to their partners. But even as programs and tools have evolved, not all partners have been eager to take advantage of these programs. Find out why—and learn how you can make your deal registration program work most effectively for you.
» Read the white paper
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Network Leader Gains Key Insight Into Its Pipeline
Runaway administration costs and lack of global pipeline visibility plagued this technology vendor. Using hawkeye’s channelDeal solution, the vendor’s active partner participation more than tripled and its total number of transactions processed grew five-fold while the time it takes to administer and manage the program has shrunk considerably—within three short years.
» Read the success story
» Read the data sheet
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Global Technology Leader Increases Service Revenues—And Product Sales
After deploying hawkeye’s channelRewards solution to more than 8,000 channel partners at 1,450 companies around the world, this technology vendor has realized over $500 million in incremental service revenue. And not only do its partners sell more services, they also sell more product.
» Read the success story
» Read the data sheet
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New Collaboration Opportunities Abound
Today’s market dynamics demand that technology vendors and partners of all kinds collaborate more effectively to satisfy the needs of end users. The PartnerConduit Network (PCN) is designed specifically to keep you and your channel partners ahead of the curve. This unique, multi-vendor, partner-centric collaboration platform enables participants to increase sales by pinpointing the right vendors and partners at the right time to deliver end-to-end technology solutions to customers.
As today’s complexities and demands continue to soar, you and your partners can rely on us to help you navigate these waters more effectively—and profitably. Our new alliance with CompTIA’s MSP Partner Community reinforces our commitment to make collaboration an easier—and more profitable—business proposition for you. Welcome to a whole new world of collaboration opportunities to help you make inroads into—and better serve—the growing managed service market.
What can this new alliance mean to you?
By participating in the PartnerConduit Network (PCN), you have innovative tools and resources to grow your business through enhanced reach and efficiencies. Our new alliance with CompTIA’s MSP Partner Community puts greater cross-collaborative and networking opportunities within reach. It’s all part of our continued commitment to help you and your channel partners achieve growth through collaboration while delivering better results for customers.
Reach. Expand into new markets and geographies by locating new partners outside your current ecosystem. Tap into a robust network of MSP partners—over
5,000 and growing—to help you stimulate growth in the burgeoning managed services market.
Efficiency. Make your partners more profitable—with fewer resources—by easily managing all of the facets of your channel in a single location. Reward partners more effectively using PCN’s exclusive Collaboration Currency™. Easily manage vendor alliances and joint solutions through a single source.
Profitability. Increase channel revenue while reducing operating expenses and capitalizing on a lower cost of operation than more traditional channel solutions.
This alliance opens the door to CompTIA’s MSP Partner Community, a renowned online education resource dedicated to managed services for IT professionals—from comprehensive, on-demand courses to an MSP benchmarking tool and access to experts. It’s just one more way that we help you to optimize your channel revenue—and propel your success.
So, visit the PartnerConduit Network today—or contact us at 877-222-9514 for a demo—and discover where it can take you!
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