Program Policies
Five years ago, vendors were asked what percentage of their revenues were being driven by their partners. They did this so that they could better understand their contribution to a vendor’s growth. One-third of respondents stated that 50% of their revenue was being driven by partners, which is one of the key elements that affect a partner’s experience with the people they work with. 75% of respondents indicated that they expect their partner-driven revenue to increase next year. This is great news as it really does speak to how important partners are to a vendor’s own revenue stream.
This metric also demonstrates the incredible growth and power that a vendor has in regards to their partner relationship. It even shows that vendors are now relying more and more on their channel partners to try and drive revenue for the business. Partners, however, are looking for more from vendors than as a one-size-fits-all policy.
Technical Support
Technical support, access to service methodologies and even training will all help the partner to ensure that their customer satisfaction is at the top of their priority list.- Co-marketing, deal registration and other related services help to drive demand, but mindshare follows the money. The more a vendor can ensure profit for a partner, the more partners will engage with that vendor.
Take technical support for example. One out of three respondents said that their access to vendor support is exactly the same as customer access. One-fourth of vendors had to try and go through CAM to try and get the same level of support. When you look at service methodologies, you will soon see that it would be in a vendor’s best interest to try and recognise that a lot of partners would make most of their profit through providing a service to their customers. This would help them to be very successful. Survey results show that a lot of vendors have cracked the code when it comes to post-sale offerings.
Training
Training is another pillar that helps to ensure customer satisfaction. This also needs a great deal of help according to partners. If partners are not trained very well when it comes to a vendor’s technology, then they won’t sell it right and they also won’t be clear on the features either. This ultimately means that they won’t be able to sell or support it at a later date.
That being said, certification and even training need to be done to reflect the current times. Training organisations have had a hard time keeping the curriculum up to date and some people are even starting to question whether online training is even the best route.
Companies should look into evolving and even loosening the requirements that they have. They should do this based on the amount of knowledge and transfer that is happening all the time in the field. Deal registration is also of great importance. 72% of vendors offer deal registration but it won’t be as important when you look at a prioritised service-led model.
Conflict, at the end of the day, is part of life so deal registration could be incredibly helpful as they begin to ruse over who owns the main services in a deal. Vendors must recognise today that they need to try and develop strategies that will mitigate conflict.
The final policy may be last on the list but that doesn’t mean that it is the least. Co-marketing really does help the partners to drive demand but vendors have made it much more difficult for any partners to take some kind of advantage away from co-marketing efforts.
So, the takeaway from all of this is to try and do what you can to make your partner’s lives easier. Streamline and evolve so that success can be driven. When you do this, they will want to engage with you much more.