Strategic Alliance Magazine Q3 2021 - 26

PARTNER ENABLEMENT
" There is a trend to automate the joint sales and marketing,
but in parallel to this, it's important to have that strategic perspective, "
said Rinfret.
And while the industry has been deemphasizing in-person
training and certification for quite some time, the pandemic
combined with the success of partner journeys may have
accelerated this trend.
" If we do it right with social media campaigns, webinars, and
targeting the right personas with the right messages, we could
approximate the results we would get in the old world where
there was a lot of face-to-face interaction, " said Thomas. " The
ROI on some of these more targeted methods that we have for
engaging customers in the marketplace seems so much better.
Why would you abandon them 100 percent? You probably say,
'In the future I'm going to do both.' I'm going to do a lot more
of the virtual stuff than I did pre-pandemic for now. "
Focus and Click: Prompts, Attaboys,
and Collaborative Opportunity
Of course, as easy as these partner journeys are for end users, a
tremendous amount of labor and painstaking detail goes into
developing them.
" There's a lot of work that goes behind the scenes to it.
Designing the curriculum is the easy part, then you have to
figure out what is the series of communications and triggers
and prompts and attaboys. And at what point do you send
someone a tchotchke for their efforts? Or, at what point do
you want to schedule a conversation with a human advisor? "
said Watenpaugh.
One of the greatest challenges is finding that right balance
of creating a focused journey without limiting the collaboration's
possibilities. After all, partners may not look at the
resources on your portal beyond what you prescribe, so you
have to be sure you have given them every tool that can help
turn over every stone and look under every rock. Rogers recommended
that vendors and their partners reevaluate journeys
every so often.
" Do [your communications processes] liberate free thinking,
so to speak, and allow the partner and us to creatively assess
new opportunities, not stick to the same old thing over and
over again? Flexibility is always a critical component, especially
when you're automating a journey. Journeys are always
open-ended. "
" You don't want to be too rigid and
say, 'Just talk to the chatbox.' "
And as much as you want to free up your partner managers to
focus on value-creating activities by creating repeatable and
scalable processes, you still need to have humans available to
roll up their sleeves when partners encounter obstacles.
" You don't want to be too rigid and say, 'Just talk to the
chatbox,' " said Rinfret.
Very Much Alive: Journeys
Result in Greater ROI
Some platform vendors have measured the effectiveness of
partner journeys in hard numbers. Watenpaugh relayed a
story of one that compared the results of partners that participated
in a journey with others that were onboarded the
traditional way.
" The partners that got put into that journey were driving 50
percent more revenue in the first year. TLC works, " she said.
" That first 90 days of the partner's experience with you can
determine their lifetime value. "
" [Partners] who can step in and
represent us well take care of the
customers. The next thing you know
those customers are not only renewing,
they're upselling and getting more. "
More than just hard numbers, more efficient and effective
enablement instills in partners that " do-or-die mentality " of
taking care of joint clients " like it's the last thing on Earth, "
said Rogers. " Those who can step in and represent us well take
care of the customers. The next thing you know those customers
are not only renewing, they're upselling and getting more. "
A good journey determines whether partners faithfully
receive your value proposition with open arms or go their
separate ways. n
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Strategic Alliance QUARTERLY | Q3 2021
Strategic Alliance Magazine Q3 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Strategic Alliance Magazine Q3 2021
