There are three main challenges facing IT vendors in unlocking new partner growth and creating partner preference in a complex and shifting market. In this blog we look at the third challenge – overcoming internal silos.
Challenge #3 – Overcoming internal silos
“Build it and they shall come”… a quote we all know not to be true!
With each architecture and solution group each having their own targets, and the central Partner Account Management teams being overwhelmed with asks from the architecture and overlay teams, how can we collectively make sure the right partners are reached with the right content to drive the actions you need and see the ROI from the programs built?
Planning for success
Firstly, plan how to drive consumption before any content or programs are created, and understand how and who is needed to execute. What are the roles your organisation will play to achieve adoption, the stakeholders you need engaged, and what will your enablement partner do to assist this drive?
Secondly, enablement programs must be tied to a strategic objective that matters to all – including the partner.
This leans on a principle from Revenue Enablement – which looks to reduce friction, inconsistencies and unites all partner and customer facing functions under aligned KPI’s to increase customer and partner lifecycle value.
Designing for success
Ensure your partner enablement programs look at all roles involved within the customer and partner buying journey, and the messaging is consistent across each role and with any internal facing enablement program. Ensure you pay particular attention to any hand-off points between the different roles, and the roles know how they interact with each other in the process to accelerate the customer experience and purchasing process.
Increasing partner lifetime value, effectively and efficiently
A journey to a revenue enablement structure is no mean feat and something that undoubtedly takes time but by viewing the partner as the customer and mapping out the “customer journey”, we can start to understand how we can target our digital and human engagement and enablement more effectively and where we can reduce complexity and friction.
This will also enable us to create a “customer enablement journey” that uses a combination of communication channels, content and formats across all stakeholders to increase the overall understanding of the partner and propensity for that partner to select our solution offering and set a longer term preference.
Read our first blog exploring “challenge one: how to do more with less” and our second blog “challenge two: how to create partner preference in a crowded market ”.
Talk to us to find out how we can help you unlock new growth from within your partner channels or why not see how we helped Cisco enable the channel to take action at scale.
