Sarah Kang

Approach this like a sales pipeline. Identify partners that will be a value add to your partner ecosystem and start the outreach process. Make sure you have assets to explain the value proposition of your partnership program. Why should these partners want to work with you and what’s in it for them? In terms of onboarding, ensure you are detailed and thorough. If you are looking to scale, create an onboarding checklist that will detail everything a partner will need to get started with you. As you start to develop a relationship with these partners, get their feedback on the partner recruitment and onboarding phase. This will help you switch up your strategy if needed.

Training partners on your products / services is extremely important, but remember, nobody knows how to sell your products and services like your sales teams. I believe the most effective way is to provide enablement materials to partners. The goal is to get them comfortable with speaking to your offering and opening the door to a conversation with you. Enablement materials can be in the form of sales decks, one pagers, email templates, case studies or key metrics to share. Another enablement tool is recorded sales pitches with prospects, if you have permission to share on all sides. Once you feel like your partner is comfortable speaking to your offering, the next important step is how to hand off a referral. This is a great time to introduce your partner as the subject matter experts. Here your partner will be able to take over and go a little deeper as you have already set them up for success.

I cannot stress enough the importance of partner training. It is impossible for a partner to support with referrals or any initiative at all if they do not know what you do. You have to ensure you are providing adequate training to your partners in different forms. Everyone learns differently and we want to ensure we are enabling all the right people at their company. Which means different types of digestible enablement materials. Not only do you need to provide training to partners on your offering but you need to also share insights on your “better together story”. The reason being, when your partner sets out to make introductions on your behalf, they will likely be faced with many questions and in some cases some objections. They need to be equipped to handle these types of things when they come up. This will help to ensure we are showcasing the value of our partnership to our customers and prospects.

This really depends on what you are trying to achieve with these partners. However usually it is important to highlight an overview of your product / service, but remember to speak to that “better together story”. Really think about showcasing what your value is together to customers. You should also include information on how to communicate with each partner and any relevant resources they can use.

Once you have gone through the discovery phase and you have indicated a mutual partnership fit. The onboarding and enablement phases are extremely important. These phases will be different for all partners depending on your partnership goals. During the onboarding phase identify metrics to measure your success. This can be done through creating some kind of mutual success plan. Here you can share all enablement materials (one pagers, sales decks, case studies, stats) in one central hub. Include information on your ICP for them to refer back to. As well as indicate next steps to keep us on track. Setting a communication cadence as well as outlining communications methods will be critical as well. In a sales role, think about the attention to detail and level of dedication we provide our customers with during onboarding. We want to ensure these customers are set up for success from the beginning and a partner should be no different.

Some metrics to track partner adoption are partner sourced net new revenue and partner influenced revenue. If you are seeing these metrics are performing well with certain partners, it's a good indication that you have successfully enabled that partner to sell your offering. As well as your ICP’s are aligned and customers are seeing the value of both of your services. You must track metrics for all your partners as each one of them will have different goals established.

It is important to be on the same page with a partner to start. Ensure through discovery and onboarding that you have clearly identified goals, ICP match and clear documentation. Once you have an integration built, it is important to work closely with your partner to market this launch. You want to ensure your customers will know about this integration which is a value add to their business. Engage in co-marketing initiatives, ensure your internal teams understand the features and benefits of the integration and ensure your mutual customers are set up correctly to leverage the integration. Education of the sales team will also be valuable so they can explain the benefits of the integration to all new prospects.

Relationship building is key to scaling partner adoption. You want to ensure you are maintaining the relationship as well as continuously enabling your partners. You want to share all successes and all ways to improve with each other and your respective teams. It is also crucial to share what your expectations of your partners are and vice versa. This way you can support each others goals and initiatives, deepening your relationship and showcasing results to your leadership teams.