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A partner-led strategy is one of the six key tenets of a go-to-market (GTM) approach, all or some of which will constitute sales strategy and revenue sources. A robust, planned channel partner approach can leverage partner expertise, reach new markets, and build a mutually benefit business ecosystem in which to thrive.
The problem is, that existing partner, reseller, or referral relationships are often loose agreements and an unstructured sales approach that requires review. What’s more, creating a successful channel partner or partner-led strategy from the ground up requires a number of steps, some care in the details, and patience as relationships are identified and fostered.
Six types of sales strategy form the core of the GTM approach and a toolkit businesses can delve into as they explore appropriate and profitable GTM routes. The six strategies are inbound, outbound, product-led, partner-led, event-led, and community-led.
For the sake of definition, GTM partnerships are also called channel programs, and the companies involved are channel partnerships. The “partnerships” are commercial agreements of some form to achieve a sales-related goal. Larger firms will have channel managers or partner managers responsible for creating and nurturing these relationships. In other companies, the responsibility may fall to a business development manager or other salesperson.
It’s worth noting that channel partnership building may require an experienced and charismatic sales professional with the patience to foster and leverage relationships that may take a little time to come to fruition but can also, in the long term, become at least partially self-managed sources of business.
Partners can be classified into a number of types, and the nature of your business will determine whether you focus on one or a number of partner types. Channel partnerships can be a broader term for an entire partner-led strategy but can also be defined and differentiated from other types.
Channel partners - can be distributors, resellers, and even retailers.
Ecosystem partners - are usually businesses that offer complementary products or services in your niche.
Referral partners - these partners receive a fee, commission, or other benefits for referring new customers.
Affiliate partners - consist of online platforms, websites, or influencers who promote products to their audience.
A partner-led strategy is an opportunity to widen the reach of your sales efforts without directly needing to expand sales campaigns and build a presence in new markets or regions.
The first step in a partner-led strategy is to decide if it’s appropriate and timely for your business and if you have the resources and infrastructure to support partners who may need resources and marketing collateral.
Next, you’ll need to ensure stakeholder buy-in and understand if it’s easy to gain partners for your products and services and what the costs and profit margins will be.
Once your research and backing are in place, it’s time to align a partner-led strategy with your complete GTM approach, your RevOps focus, and your overall business objectives. From here, you can define the goals of your partner program and then set KPIs for your partnership management teams.
The right team or team member is critical for a partner program. Partners require support, education, marketing collateral, and long-term management. A partnership team member needs to be process-driven, detailed, and efficient. A partner campaign may also require specialist technology, such as an accommodating CRM or a specific partnership relationship management (PRM) platform. It may be prudent to consider that automation in RevOps as a GTM strategy.
With goals, team, and infrastructure in place, it will be time to push forward and find the right partners as well as to nurture any existing relationships. Allbound says this starts with understanding your ideal partner profile (IPP). Characteristics to consider include:
Then, you’ll move to converting or recruiting these ideal partners. Not only will you consider what they bring to the table, but you’ll also need to confirm your side of the deal and the terms of the arrangement, which may include:
Whilst building as many partnerships as possible is a common approach, it may also be wise to consider quality relationships that deliver sales over a large volume of partnerships that require attention but don’t bring business.
It may be prudent to define partner types and partner tiers and reward each according to their commitment and success. Lower-tier partners may have simple commission agreements, but more profitable higher-tier partnerships can have defined compensation structures and extensive training and feature joint branded initiatives or co-hosted events.
Effective onboarding is important to start a partnership on a solid footing, as well as scheduled contact and reviews to strengthen the relationship and measure and manage success.
The internal team responsible for recruiting and developing partnerships will have their own metrics and KPIs. These will include recruitment and activation figures but also partner engagement over time and revenue efficiency from the partner channel.
It’s also perfectly reasonable to agree on KPIs and targets with the partners themselves where and however appropriate, especially if you have a substantial investment in onboarding and favourable commission structures. It’s also critical to measure, review, and manage internal teams and partners if your partner-led strategy is a major source of customer and revenue generation for your business.
KPIs to consider include:
Your business and industry will define the exact role partnerships play in your business and the weighting of a partner-led GTM strategy compared to, say, outbound or product-led direct sales.
The more important partnerships are to your revenue flow, the more investment and attention they will demand. If you’re launching a new partnership focus, you could start small but prepare to scale later based on the strategy’s performance. Expansion can be achieved by growing internally to develop further partnerships or by nurturing the partnerships themselves to strengthen each one.
Read next: The 6 Primary GTM Strategies to Pay Attention to in 2024
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