There is a new key trend that we are seeing relating to the future of the channel, specifically the growth of new partner relationships and ecosystem.
We bring you five ways you can maximize your chances of forming a successful alliance partnership.
1. Dig deep into the business case
You should spend significant time understanding what does the customer needs, dig deeper into their problems, workflows, and roadblocks. Then, find the appropriate company to create a co-solution with that solves the customer’s problem.
2. Expect arguments
Alliance partnerships are like marriages, so expect arguments. You must learn to listen attentively and seek to understand before being understood.
3. Focus on execution
Work diligently with your team to execute the plan, learn from it and pivot if necessary. Execution is the key to the success of any alliance partnership.
4. Field enablement
It is critically important that the sales team is on board and understands the value they need to deliver to the customer, how to deliver it, and how to leverage their partners to do so.
5. Integrate alliance organization into the sales motion
Alliance organization should be part of the sale and have similar metrics & compensation packages as the sales teams. According to Bob Schwartz, at Veeam software, they have a team that only works with the partners and are compensated based on the success of the partnership.
Vishal is the Director of Content Marketing & Social Media and leads our Alliance Aces Community. He has been in marketing for 14+ years and writes about ecosystem cloud, alliance strategies, and digital transformation.
