B2B businesses are focused on driving their growth with the help of channel partners. In a channel/partner marketing benchmark survey conducted by DemandGenReport, 96% of respondents said that they expect revenue growth with the help of their partner ecosystem. To capitalize on channel partnerships, it is imperative for B2B businesses like yours to put extra effort into handling their channel partners, enabling them in innovative ways and working towards retaining them for healthy business relationships.
Optimizing Channel Partnerships to Drive Business Growth
Every
partner program needs to be unique. No matter what kind of channel partner program you have, you can optimize it to get the most out of your
partner ecosystem. Let's look at five ways you can make your channel partner program work better.
Increase Trust and Close Communication Gaps
Not all partners fit into a tiered system. Tiering partners based on revenue and other criteria may tamper with the
partner experience (PX) you want to offer to your partners. Instead, focus on every partner’s strengths and challenges. Find out their go-to-market strategy, their team dynamic, their marketing and sales tech stack that helps them drive demand and leads, how they address their growth challenges, their goals for the year and how you can help them achieve those. Once you have the answers to these questions, you will have a clear idea and approach of how to help your partners do more for your partnership.
Build Trust and Eliminate Communication Gaps
The foundation of every channel partnership is trust. Right from partner recruitment to partner onboarding and enablement, partners expect support if they face any challenges. They want transparency and honesty in communication. Use automation to constantly keep in touch with your partners. Keep them informed of new developments, develop training programs that meet their needs, and empower them to sell more. Get to know the partners’ preferred communication channels, create value-added content to demonstrate your commitment to the partner program, and remain in touch with partners over email through newsletters and other updates to let them know that they are appreciated.
Your Program Should Be Partner-centric
Look at your partner program through the eyes of your partners. Let their needs guide your interactions through email, phone calls, or meetings. The certifications your offer, tools, and training should add value to their sales strategy. Work towards making partner onboarding smooth, offer training and enablement resources liberally, create solutions that align with desired business outcomes, and extend indiscriminate support to your partners. All this effort can help your partners understand your commitment to the program and motivate them to work harder to sell your products.
Bottomline
The success of your partner program depends on how you communicate with your partners, the effort you put in to make the partnership work, and how well you understand your partners as they do their bit to bring you the
business growth you desire.