Thanks to the internet, almost every business sells directly to customers.
Beyond direct sales, your company can discover powerful opportunities to find new customers, expose new product opportunities, and diversify revenues.
It happens through partnerships and indirect distribution channels.
Not every company is ready to sell through 3rd parties
The process, competencies, and experience when you sell directly to customers, seldom translate to a successful indirect sales strategy.
Companies who succeed with partnerships and indirect channels understand:
- Partnerships don’t appear magically – your product or service is only a small part of the value you offer to a partner
- Partnerships aren’t transactional – they require your company to nurture relationships
- Partnerships don’t work on ‘auto-pilot’ – they require active management to grow and succeed
How do companies build successful partnerships and indirect sales channels?
The best companies who are looking to build new partnerships and indirect sales channels:
- Create value for the partner and their customers
- Build and grow relationships with all stakeholders
- Invest in people and resources, and create management systems to monitor, improve, and grow the partnership
The best companies ensure their business is “partner-ready”.
We help companies get “partner-ready”
Based on decades of experience, we help companies grow revenue, expose new product opportunities, and diversify risk through various partnership strategies.
A key component of our process is to help companies get “partner-ready”. Our clients are positioned for success as they execute or improve their partner-focused strategies.
“Partner-Ready” has three key components
- Company culture
- Right people in the right roles
- Processes, systems, and data
1) Company Focus and Culture
Your company may want to find new customers outside your direct sales channels.
That desire isn’t enough. A partner-focused mindset is integral to success.
Our process helps a company understand its culture, and implement any changes that allow the company to maintain its identity and values, yet adapt to a partner-centric business model.
2) Right People in the Right Roles
Identify and select team members with the right skills, experience, and mindset for partnership roles (this is critical)!
Team members must have:
- Strong interpersonal skills
- Ability to negotiate and build relationships effectively
- Understand the nuances and dynamics of partnerships
Many of these skills can be learned, and our “partner-ready” process can cross-train your team to ensure they’re equipped for a partner-centric mission.
3) Processes, Systems and Data
Implement the right systems and processes to ensure a successful partner-centric strategy.
This includes:
- Establish partner onboarding processes
- Identify performance metrics and reporting gaps
- Create internal tools to measure KPIs and other success metrics
- Build external tools to provide partners with real-time visibility into performance
- Train teams on partner management (aka “governance) between the company’s partnership leads, and executive sponsors.
We help create the systems and processes that provide the foundation for partnership success.