If you know that you are operating a partner program or if you know that you need to try and manage your program much more efficiently than you are right now then here is some information to try and get you started.
The KPIs You’re Tracking Right Now
Partner Numbers
When you ask someone to describe their partner ecosystem, they will probably tell you how many hundreds of partners they have in APAC, EMEA and North America. This is a measurement of size, and it is already a known fact that executives do have a soft spot for ecosystems but it should be noted that this is not a measurement of performance or quality at all.
Revenue
When you look at revenue through partners, you will soon see that at a base level, this is the amount of revenue that your partners will bring in when they purchase products from you and resell them. When you look at the progressed level however, you will find that it is about tracking the revenue that has been sourced by the partners. Stepping things up yet another level, you should also be tracking the influence that your partners have at every stage of your campaign.
Deal Registrations
The adoption of any kind of deal registration has to be done through favoured metrics. You have to look at the number of deals that have been registered, the size of those deals, how long each deal takes to close and more. When you are able to look into this, you will also be able to see how many deals each partner is pursuing as well. The problem is that this number does not represent the true action that they are taking.
Training
It is a known fact that a lot of vendors do require a certain level of training in order for them to progress someone up the program level. This metric is a fantastic way for you to find out how committed a partner is and when you add a twist to this, you will soon find that you can also correlate the number of people who have been trained as well. When you are able to relate this to customer satisfaction, you will soon see how the whole thing can come together.
Partner Satisfaction
A lot of vendors try and conduct a survey every single year to find out how satisfied their partners are. This can be done in the form of a formal survey or it could be done during a one-on-one session. This however is still a measure of past performance and it really does not provide you with a good roadmap of where your partners are likely to invest.
The KPIs You Should Be Tracking
Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is so very important. A few vendors are in fact doing this but they only usually track it on their top tier partners. You have to know which partners are selling, marketing and even configuring customers at all times.
Marketing Effectiveness
Every single vendor out there wants to have partners that they can market. The problem is that not many vendors are looking at how effective their marketing campaigns are. ROI is very important to track because if you don’t you could be losing out on significant amounts of money and for no reason at all.
Partner Profitability
If you have no idea how profitable your partners are with the solutions that they have then how do you possibly know that they are going to be investing in more training, sales activities or anything else of the sort?
Partner Engagement
Partner engagement is a factor in how successful they are going to engage with the company or organisation you operate. The more engaged they are, the faster they will grow. This is much easier to measure when compared to profitability.
Partner Experience
When you combine or even expand profitability and engagement you will end up with your total partner experience. This will give you the chance to measure your partners and the people who you work with, much more efficiently.