Those of you in the Northeast might find this hard to believe, but spring is right around the corner and with spring comes spring cleaning. No, no, not your closet, your garden and your garage…your Partner program.
Clean that Closet
The general rule: if you haven’t worn it in a year, toss it! The same can be true for Partners. If they haven’t been active in a year it’s time to find out why and decide if it’s worth reactivating them. The best way to do this? Give them 6 months to reengage by completing a certification, registering a deal, building a business plan or all of the above. Some Vendors may feel it is okay to have inactive Channel Partners in their program, but at the end of the day it’s a drain on your resources. If they really are checked out it means they’re leading with someone else’s products, so why would you want them getting all the benefits from you as well?
Weed the Garden
If you have any type of portal, marketing automation tool or resource center you know that content tends to live there for months without anyone checking expiration dates. This is a great time to weed through your content, make sure it’s still relevant and additional information hasn’t replaced it. You don’t want Partners using old content with customers. Partners are also already overwhelmed with information, the last thing you want to do is make them sort through outdated information.
Sweep the Garage
Okay this analogy isn’t landing as well, work with me here! If it’s been a long time since you reviewed your Partner Experience it’s time to take a step back and review. When we analyze the Partner Experience we put on the Partners’ shoes and go through all of your resources, platforms, incentives, communications, you name it. It’s important that on a regular basis you look at all of these elements from the Partner’s perspective and decide what needs to be more user friendly or a refresh of functionality and user interface.
Refresh your Communications
Now that I’ve ditched the analogy altogether, it’s a great time to also refresh your communications. If you haven’t yet, download our eBook on communicating to Partners without Bombarding. Spring is a great time to review your communications plan “to”, review metrics and see what you should be doing differently. Add some social media if you haven’t yet, get your executives blogging, and cut back on blasting emails. This includes updating your Partners’ contact information and ensuring you have correct and current roles so your emails are sent to the appropriate people.
Did we miss anything? What are you doing to clean up your Partner program? Let us know below!
