Glide Apps Head of Experts, Brett Haralson profile picture

Brett Haralson

Head of Experts at Glide Apps

7 questions answered
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Glide Apps Head of Experts, Brett Haralson
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Partner Program Strategy

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Question
My SaaS vertical has a strong ecosystem of services providers that we want to provide implementation/support/strategy for our customers. How do I go about building a certified services/experts partner program?
Answer
This is a fantastic question - and I love this. Start your Partner Program, and detail what they get for joining. What’s in it for them? Remember: all of this can be inspired by them! You can see how I structured Glide’s Expert Program here: https://www.glideapps.com/experts-program “Certified” will require some level of education and a pass/fail test. The easiest way for this is to build education around your SAAS with learning components. I would also add one more condition here - something that requires your partners to have "skin in the game". For example, to become a Glide Certified Expert you need: -Pass the highest level of certification from Glide University -Upgrade 3 clients to a paid team OR purchase the Agency plan You can see here how I made it clear on how to be a Certified Expert here: https://www.glideapps.com/docs/reference/account/experts One side note: The design of a whole and complete partner program takes time. You DO NOT have to build it to completion for a launch. Build it as you go, and always test to see if they are adopting and make adjustments on the fly. The more they are asking for more features and perks - these become your roadmap for level 2. I’ve been at Glide for a year now - and I only have 2 levels to the Experts Program. Level 3 will probably come this year.
Partner Program Strategy
Service partner
Question
What are the 3 most important things to kicking off a successful service partner program?
Answer
I couldn't just list 3! Sorry! :D 1: Ask what they want. It’s great to have some ideas, but validate with your partners. Ask them what would be interesting, what do they need to grow their business? What can you do to help them grow? Where are they struggling? If you could change one thing with a magic wand, what would it be? 2: Find your stars. Find your IDEAL partners and create a very close relationship with them. Involve them with everything and start EVERYTHING with them. This is needed for the next one. 3: Create an online community. This is so valuable - I cannot stress this enough. We could have an AMA by itself on how to do it - but this could be the main source of value for your company in the coming years if done correctly. This is important because you want them to connect with each other and provide a feedback loop to you. This is how you guage interest in ideas, have discussions about what you might implement, and a great place to celebrate feature releases to an audience that is as excited about it as you are. 4: Build what they need. I answered this in another question - but this is critical. When you ask what they want, listen. When you announce a feature request that was inspired by them - tell them it was their requests that kicked this into production. Their feedback should be your roadmap - and they NEED to know it. 5: Don’t over-promise. It’s really hard to take a perk away once you’ve given it. Start small - and if you want to increase a perk you can always add it later to a higher tier.
Partner Program Strategy
Service partner
Question
What partnership enablement material do you need to build to go-to-market with service partners?
Answer
This can be achieved in many ways. Here are some for you: -Co-branded assets that enables them to sell as a partner (certification badge, branded pitch decks for your product, a page that lists them as partners, etc). -Blogs that promote WHAT your partners are doing to make your customers successful. https://www.glideapps.com/blog/no-code-experts -Social campaigns around what your partners are doing and how it’s impactful! Successful use cases can be really powerful here. -Build something with your partners to close the gap of customers that aren’t converting. Be creative here. Example: We are testing a way to build for our enterprise customers directly with some of our partners. At Glide, we found that some inbound traffic of businesses fall off because they don’t want to build for themselves, but they want our product. This is a perfect example of creating a motion that speeds up the delivery of what the business wants: a custom software solution. Hope these help :)
Partner Enablement
Service partner