What sales materials do consulting partners generally need to discuss your product with their clients?

The best way to find out what partners need is to ask what would be most helpful as they bring your product to clients. To start - make it easy for your consulting partners by creating a co-brandable version of a pitch deck your sales team is using! It can also be worth your time to compile value proposition statements, use case examples, and customer stories for the top industries your company sells to. In addition – giving your partners the product access and enablement to be able to demo your product directly to clients goes a long way!

Consulting partners need sales materials that help them effectively communicate your product’s value, differentiate it from competitors, and address client concerns. Here's a breakdown of key materials: 1. Overview Deck: presentation explaining the product’s value, features, benefits, use cases, and pricing, while also tying in the company's story/expected longevity. 2. One-Pagers: concise summaries of key features, integrations, pricing, expected results, and FAQs. 3. Case studies and testimonials: whether hosted on your site, or dedicated review sites like G2/Capterra, provide consultants with examples of how the product added value/solved problems for relevant clients. 4. Resource hub: a location that showcases how how to onboard and optimize your solution(s)/service(s). 5. Partner playbook: step by step guide on how to sell your product, and when to engage with your team. Battlecards, pricing, team contact info, etc. 6. Co branded marketing: customizable collateral.

We recently built an extensive Partner Battlecard that hits everything they need to know about our product as a little 'cheat sheet'. Things we cover on the battle card: 1. Pain points we solve for 2. Use cases for each industry 3. Competitive landscape and snippets on how we differ
 4. ICP and pricing We’ve gotten great feedback from partners, locating everything they need on one pager quickly. We even went as far as printing them out, so whenever we're onsite running enablement, they have it right there.

1. Sales Narrative Give your partners a story to tell, just as you do your own sales team. They need a value proposition, or a “better together” story if they are a key integration partner. Sales narratives should clearly define your ICP, include discovery questions, and provide specific use cases. I find that collaborating with your sales team and product marketing team can be the most helpful in crafting this message. 2. Demo Kits The best way your partners can sell your product is by using it. Bonus points if they are a customer themselves, but providing a demo environment can be just as effective. Teach them how to set up their demo environment, and the best flow for a demo presentation. The more they practice in their demo environment, the more comfortable they will be speaking to the product. I highly recommend giving them the ability to provide feedback to the product team as they learn more about the product and UI as well. 3. Competitive Intelligence The number one product question you will get from your partners is: “how does this compare to [insert competitor’s name here]?” It’s the first question your partners will get from their customers, especially if you are in an established market. Provide them with quick hitting shareable battlecards that show comparisons of key features between your product and your competitor's. 4. Case Studies Let your customers speak for themselves. Case studies should speak to key use cases your product solves for, and demonstrate where your product wins for that ICP. These are great resources for your partners to share directly with customers.

We provide our partners with foundational sales materials like positioning guides, messaging framework, and ideal customer profile documentation, where to each profile, they find the most adequate messaging. This helps partners understand how to tailor the product pitch for different customer personas, to then add value to their own solution. We also share valuable use cases that partners are also encouraged to use in pitch meetings, nothing resonates with potential customers more than hearing about other enterprise accounts that have solved similar challenges. These materials equip our partners to confidently discuss our solutions and drive meaningful conversations with their clients.

In the past I've found enabling consulting partners to be one of the trickiest parts of program design as every partner is different in how they communicate with clients. Out of the gate, I think the partner needs to have a clear value proposition, a set of customer stories to tell, a succinct competition positioning statement, and straight forward pricing materials.

Top 3 are: 1. A 2-pager with an overview of our product and our jvp with that partner 2. Mutual case study 3. Use case features and benefits (1 pagers or videos)

When we built a program for consulting partners in a prior role, we built a matrix to identify where we would focus our efforts. Once we had prioritized a few consulting partner relationships we worked to understand from them, what best practices were the most effective for content and enablement. The point being, one can guess what resources a partner is going to need OR you can learn with the partner about what works best for them. This does not mean to show up empty handed but rather, get an understanding of what great looks like, from them, then replicate and enhance. You do not need to reinvent the wheel.

The Caspio Partner Portal provides our consulting partners with all the collateral they need to discuss our offering and their joint solution with their clients: presentations, pricing sheets, case studies, value propositions, demo apps, and more!