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Someone asked recently if I had some information on how to differentiate their partner program from other partner programs. Very interesting question. My answer was, not exactly. Many of my posts have some information on how to design a program to attract a certain type of partner, but to truly differentiate your program you need to start with the end in mind. Don’t jump into creating a differentiated program without first deciding a) your target market, b) the type of partner you want to recruit to reach that target, and c) what that partner would want or expect out of a partner program.
For instance, if you create a program that is all about one-on-one support of your partners – sales, marketing, technical – but the type of partners that would be best suited to sell your product or service are completely self-sufficient, then your differentiation is totally missing the mark.
Once you’ve identified your target market, decided on the partner profile that would best serve your target, and figured out what they want out of a program, take a look at your competition and see how they have differentiated themselves. Are they providing excellent pre and post sales support? Do they have the largest margins? Will they help you sell services to increase your margins? Whatever they are doing (or claiming to be doing) find something else that you can do better. That’s important, don’t claim to do something better if you can’t. If a feature of your program is not on par with other vendors in your market segment, don’t claim it as your value proposition. Don’t say you have the best technical support if you have two guys sitting in a room reluctantly answering the phone or responding to emails withing 48 hours. 48 hours?! Do you know how much business an end-user and thereby your partner could lose in 48 hours? Now, if you have 24 by 7 technical support as well as partner message boards with assistance, and your support team uses chat THEN you can say you have the best technical support.
All this seem like a lot of work? Well that’s why only a few companies have what they claim are “world-class” channel programs and even fewer actually have them.
How are you differentiating yourself? Are there programs out their claiming to differentiate something they shouldn’t be?
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Great point Heather. I’d also say that any program should mirror the differentiation the company has in the market. I always start with “what makes your company so special” and then translate that message to the program. It’s not only making sure the program matches the target – the program has to match the sender.
As we all know today – the brand (and that is more about what the customers say than the company) needs to permeate everything.
Great post.
I would vote for keeping yur programs “as simple as possible, but no simpler.” I’ve worked with several of the high-end business software partner programs and the one thing that held most of them back was a complexity that made them hard to navigate for all but the most well-healed of Partners. (Those who could afford to keep people on staff simply to manage the relationship with the vendor and all of the administrative tasks that went with it.)
I remember one program that required you to fill out so many forms regarding your marketing programs, just to meet the vendors expectations, that the average Partner had little time left to actually market.
Thanks so much for the great comments both of you. Paul I absolutely second that, if the company is known for being creative but the partner program is known for being thorough and having a lot of standard competencies they’ve missed the mark.
There is a lot going on behind the partner program that unfortunately creates the need for the formality of business plans and marketing plans. The hope is if the partners want the MDF and Co-op enough, they’ll make the effort. If they can’t produce a business plan then how do they expect to provide an ROI and get the funds for their marketing programs?