How do you recommend segmenting a partner program to provide utility to both your partners AND customer/prospect audience?

I actually think that a critical audience being missed in this question is how you communicate the value of your various partners to your internal teams. Getting cross-organisational buy in to your partnership activities is difficult when you don't make your prioritisation of your partners clear and transparent. Again, having been a part of larger partner organisations previously - I've seen that segmenting your partners can provide a great "carrot" for your partners to get access to better rewards in higher tiers; but this isn't something that I've needed to be concerned with while building a referral and marketing partner programme from zero to $1m in sourced revenue over the last two years. It's probably something we'll need to be concerned with as we grow the programme from a $1m run rate to $5m though!

Don't separate the two cohorts, [you, partner, customer,] create a triangle of which value is produced. The Value that a partnership can offer to you AND your partner includes: - Happy customers realizing additional ROI by using both products/services. [read retention and growth impact] - Sharing customers and prospects between the partners with the goal of helping as many customers achieved that same ROI. [growth impact] The Value of the partnership to the Customer/Prospect - Realizing additional ROI by using both products/services. [better business outcomes, or customer delight] Having a consolidated vision on this will help to align internal teams, inspire natural desire from prospects and customers, and drive more partners to your platform.

I'm not sure that I would say segmenting, but I'd recommend optimizing a partner program for value to both partner and customer. To do that you'd be thinking about at least two things: understanding your customer + aligning with internal teams. Each partner program should be working internally with CSMs, salespeople, and marketers. Having meetings with marketing teams and channel owners to understand what they're highlighting to customers and what they are goaled on, will help you create campaigns that are aligned with internal teams and can go farther. Working with salespeople will help both of you provide value to customers and reach your goals. Salespeople get resources from partners (FAQs on offers, integrations, info on prospect needs, etc) and can use that information to close deals. This is good for your customer and your partner program. CSMs can tell you what customers are looking for + what issues they're trying to solve, which can give you information to use for campaigns and new partner opportunities like integrations or campaigns. Hope this helps but if you were asking something different, please feel free to DM me on LinkedIn and we can think through your question together!