How to Build a Channel Partner Program in 2024

What Is Partner Marketing?

Partner marketing is a strategy where two or more companies align with their brand, core expertise, and unique values. If they must get the best market share, creating a strategic alliance might be a way of acquiring what they have always dreamed of.

Through this partnership, business partners can help each other to achieve their goals. Since the success of one partner ensures the success of the other, issues hardly arise.

1. Select Partners

The success of your endeavor lies in how good your partners are. It is paramount you select the right partners for the best result. According to Tai Rattigan, the head of partnerships at Amplitude, one of the most important things is being able to qualify an opportunity.

When you begin this path, you will come across lots of people that want to partner with you. Do not be in haste yet, as you need to ensure they are the right fit for your business. If you’re going to create the right relationship, it will be best to create an ideal partner profile.

That way, you know what to expect and what to consider a turn-off. When it comes to choosing the ideal partner, you might need to use Lincoln’s framework for selecting the best partners. For any potential partner, ask questions should as;

• – Do they have the resources to invest in this partnership program?
• – Are they willing to help your brand reach its goals?
• – Are they technically and culturally fit?

Questions such as these would help you to choose the best ideal partners for your channel partner program.

Do a lot of research; find out if the company aligns with yours in terms of goals and aspirations. Do their clients match up with yours? By choosing the right partners, reaching your goals becomes easy.

2. Grow Your Partners

Just like an affiliate marketing program, numbers are part of the game and often ensure success. You do not need to limit your business with a small niche group. You will experience a boggling growth if you expand your outreach to get more partners on your boat.

There are many ways to do this, and it begins with promoting your program. A mistake most entrepreneurs make is hoping potential partners will come to them. If you don’t indicate or promote your partner program, you might not amass that number you’ve always wanted.

Promotion can begin in the form of an email blast to those already in your network. Other ways to promote your program include sharing a media statement on LinkedIn or distributing a press release for every partner that joins the program.

Since you want more partners to join, creating a dedicated landing page for your partner program would help future partners. Make sure that the program landing page is very comprehensive and unambiguous on its purpose.

Having a registration page is another excellent technique since it allows you to collect additional information about the partner. With such integration, you’re on your way to building one of the most robust programs in the market.

3. Partner Introductions

To get the most from this marketing strategy, you need to build a great relationship with your partners. That way, both businesses can help each other through their strengths. Since it is a mutually beneficial program, it is paramount that partners work together to achieve a common goal.

There should be a dedicated resource where introductions can happen between teams. By working closely together, both partners can understand and help each other in any way possible. Such proximity allows them to build trust and compels them to deliver for the customers.

If you want to receive great product insights, you can utilize customer feedback tools and other means to manage customer feedback. Connect them to product managers and engineers who will help get this feedback from partners. Aside from the usual glamour and excitement, there are often some internal negotiations and meetings. It is a company trying to ascertain if the other partner is willing to work.

When you’re starting with this program, getting your company to work well with partners could seem complicated. In whatever you do, your company needs to consider partners whenever it is making a decision.

4. Provide Materials Needed For Success

After the recruitment and introduction, you want to provide your partners with all the materials needed for your business’s appropriate representation.  By equipping your partners with what they need, they will be able to make consistent marketing materials across all channels.

These materials could include comprehensive training, post-training support, and marketing materials. One of the easiest ways to provide this is through a channel partner LMS platform (Learning Management System).

With this provision, you can create courses and monitor your partner’s progress on the go. You can also host documents and marketing materials that help to create a consistent brand image. When you provide training and development to your partners, it shows that you’re investing in your partner’s success. When you’re able to state expectations early in the relationship, it will prevent any hurdles later in this partnership.

5. Define Shared Goals Across Partners

The goal of your business might not be the same as your partners. So, there is a need to know valuable information and help them achieve it. Remember, this is a symbiotic relationship where every partner invests in seeing each other succeed.

Your partners are not employees of your company. However, they might have similar goals, which could include boosting sales or increasing customer base. If the partnership must survive, both company needs to ensure they generate value.

Before you start working with your partners, ensure you have to define common goals, including revenue, ROI, etc. After identifying these common goals, seeks for ways you both can make money and satisfy customers or clients.

One of the ways to offer value to the partners is through revenue share. In this case, partners receive a certain percentage as commission for the sale. Other mediums include tiered models and dual incentives. If you’re able to define your partners’ goals, they will feel respected and involved in the process.

6. Effective And Regular Communication

If you must achieve the goals set by your company and your partners, there is a need to be in constant communication. With effective communication, all partners can perform better without hurdles. You probably use an enterprise tool or continuous performance management software like Jira and Jira story templates to maintain an open channel.

Through communication, each partner knows the latest development and process on any project they are handling. There are lots of mediums or channels which you can use to communicate with your partners. It could be through a newsletter, a Slack or Facebook group, or perhaps use the LMD to post announcements and discussion forums.

If the distance is not a barrier, you can invite them for a regular in-person meeting. Automate the process of taking notes that you can refer back to by using meeting management software. Always be in communication with your partners, and remain in touch with partners struggling to attain their goal. You should never allow a lack of success to emerge in this partnership.

7. Enablement

For a successful partnership, there is a need for every partner in the program to work collectively. As they say, if you don’t put it in, you don’t get it out. Through technical training building and sales training, you’re able to make your partner worthy of your partnership. If there is a product you wish your partners to help sell, ensure they know a lot about the product.

In other words, your partners need to be experts in your products.  Unfortunately, lots of companies use to mess this process. For the best result, ensure they have used the product and can appropriately market it.

It is done through technical training to get them up to speed. Although this won’t happen overnight, it helps to ensure that your partners are capable and benefit. Also, partners can share timely and relevant information.

You can also organize sales training since your partners are most likely to sell your products on your behalf. With a partner enablement program, partners can include intense business training. Many companies wonder how much they should handle or perhaps invest in bringing partners up the speed.

8. Evolution of the program

When you take ownership of the program and put conscious efforts, you will create a never-ending improvement to the partner relationship.  You can harvest lots of incredible ideas through one-on-one interviews, Skype, or any other medium.

To ensure you’re on top, gather feedback from all partners or anyone involved in the partner program. Learn from your most successful partners, and share with your partners everything ethical to share.

When you’re transparent in all your dealings, your partners will always trust you to help. Be a leader, a champion for the partners. If your partner program is not growing as it should, it means that something you or your partners are doing wrong.

Benefits Of A Channel Partner Program

Growth Acceleration

The biggest challenges businesses encounter – scaling their revenue and amassing more customers. Hiring lots of salespersons or reps might not be the solution, since they will have the same 24 hours as the rest of your employees.

Also, hiring more can cut down on your margin, something you might want to avoid. But with a partner program, one channel manager can pair with multiple channel partners and, without wasting time, pull in massive revenue.

Companies that have used this technique to drive insane growth include HubSpot. When you work with partners who are excited to achieve the common goals, you find yourself not spending more on talent.

New Market

Aside from scaling your business growth, a channel partner program will help your business tap into a new market or customer segment. Reaching these milestones on your own would have been impossible.

If you’re planning to expand internationally, partnering with a company in your targeted international market would be ideal, since it gives you the chance to break barriers and rise.

Reduces Cost

Through a partnership program, your company can reduce the cost of acquiring customers or employees. Many businesses agree that customer acquisition cost is a vital metric measured by all sales teams. But such an issue is nonexistent with a channel partner program.

By building a channel partner program, you leverage your partners’ talents and resources to develop your business. If your partners have access to a target market you wish to reach, such a relationship will ensure you never struggle.

A Strong Relationship Between Customers And Partners

Another incredible benefit of a channel partner program is the excellent relationship that exists with customers and partners. In today’s business world, the most reliable partner programs put links first in everything. Through this relation, companies create a stronger bond with their customers and partners.

Conclusion

If you’re planning to build a channel partner program, rest assured that it is a decision you won’t regret. This marketing strategy will ensure your business grows pretty fast. Before you even realize it, it has become a gigantic corporation that you’ll be proud of.

If you’re a business and you’re yet to build a channel partner program for your business, now is the ideal time to begin.