Starting your own B2B SaaS channel program isn’t easy, to say the least, and if you want to get the best result out of your marketing then you first need to make sure that you are in the right mindset to try and tackle all of the things that you need to do.
Take a look below to find out more.
Be Clear & Honest
It doesn’t matter whether you are trying to pitch a program that you have to your own internal team or whether you want to try and engage in a conversation with one of your partners. You always need to make sure that you are talking to them with a high level of clarity and that you are always doing everything you can to make sure that you are forthcoming and even honest as well. You will need to ensure that you are as clear and as honest as you can be, not to mention that you also need to detail all of your intentions and even your program statuses as well. You also need to make sure that you handle your program statuses and even your goals as well.
If you know that things are not set in stone at the minute that isn’t a problem because you know that you can show your intentions and what you have planned for the future. It would also be an idea for you to try and define the “why” for your idea as well. For example, you could explain everything that you need to explain, but if you don’t explain why you are doing this, you can’t expect your partners to understand the full focus of what you are trying to achieve.
Defining Your Expectations
In order to define your own expectations, you will need to do everything you can to try and understand the motives behind what you are trying to do. This could lead you to ask some hard questions. You may even find the conversation uncomfortable but it is very important that you push the issue so everyone can reach a high level of clarity and understanding. If you don’t do this then you may not be able to achieve the goals that you have set out. The next thing that you need to do is try and understand the spectrum between your employees and your customers.
Of course, you should also know that when you take a look at the spectrum between your employees and your customers, you should think of your employees more like customers. In other words, you should be working with them to try and give them support and you should also be invested in them on a day to day basis. You should do everything you can to try and think to yourself, what have you done for your partners? You should also make sure that you don’t treat your partners like they are second best, because they are there to support you, and you are there to support them.
Circumstances
A lot of SaaS companies forget that there is a huge difference between the circumstances of their channel partners and their own business. For example, if you have a self-funded small business then this will probably derive a lot of revenue from professional services. It’s the difference between spending your own money instead of someone else’s money. There is a huge difference between these two points in terms of the risk and if the partnership fails then the start-up that is backed by VC will probably go on to survive but the one that is funded by the people will feel a huge impact if something does go wrong.
Aligning Your Goals
If you want your partnership to work then you need to make sure that both partners and parties are working towards the same goal. A better approach would be for you to think about who you are, what you want to build as a SaaS company and the program that you want to try and develop as well. You need something that can help your partners to grow and succeed, and most of the time, this means that you need to provide your partners and even your potential partners with hundreds of sales training materials. This could have nothing to do with your platform but it could have something to do with how your partners sell their services to their customers so it is certainly something that you need to consider when the time does come for you to get started.
Your Allies
The first time you look at the idea of a channel program, you may have some basic questions from those who are inside the company. They might not understand the concept of it or even the implications and this can cause real issues for you at a later date. Of course, you will need to do everything you can to help to educate your extended team so they can put the right human resources in place so you can get your channel marketing done to the highest possible level. It is more than possible that you will have some people who are in your team that is not set on the idea of channel marketing but instead of dismissing their claims you need to do everything you can to make sure that you deal with these claims effectively.
You will want to engage those who do not believe in your system so they can then go on to be supporters. If you have people who are not set on the idea and you move forward without dealing with these claims effectively then this can cause you issues at a later date. Of course, the same rules apply to the people who you work with as partners because they might be even less familiar with your concepts so that is another thing that you have to think about when the time does come for you to get started.
Of course, if you have any questions about SaaS or if you want to start up your own channel marketing then I would be more than happy to work with you on that so you can get the best result starting today. Contact me today to get some more details.