Think about it. More and more everything we do isn’t just going online, it’s going mobile. When you think about what you do, read, check, or execute online compared to five years, heck even 2 years ago, it’s baffling.
To that end, do you need a mobile application for your partner program? The answer is a resounding “YES!”. Does your mobile app need to have everything that your partner portal has? Absolutely not. “Just-in-time sales enablement is what partners are looking for on their mobile devices,” says Peter Thomas, President of Averetek. “Suppliers that make this type of content accessible are helping their partners win business in unique ways.”
Here are 5 reasons you need a mobile app for your partners:
1. Stay Top-of-Mind: Your partners now walk into a customer armed with 10-30, yes I said 30, different vendors’ offerings. That means they can’t remember every single value proposition about every single solution especially if a customer asks for something they aren’t as familiar with. As channel professionals I know we’d all like to think our partners lead only with our products but as realists we know that’s not the case. Wouldn’t you like your partners to have your solution value propositions at their fingertips?
2. Make sure partners don’t Over Promise: You know what comes next…under delivering! We’ve already covered that partners have more information than ever to remember. Add to that the promotion updates, the pricing updates, the product updates, the alliance updates. Any piece of information that will change their conversation with a customer needs to be readily available.
3. Give Partners the Competitive Edge: Your partner is their customer’s trusted advisor. They need to look like the hero, they need to be confident with what they are suggesting. Giving them up-to-date information on your program and solutions at all times will enable that confidence and reinforce them as the trusted advisor.
4. Did Somebody say Deal Reg?: If a partner had to wait to register a deal until they got back to the office or got wifi how many deals do you think they’d lose? They have a conversation while in their car, while in the airport, while in the air? Registered, no problem.
5. If All your Friends Jumped off a Bridge, Would You?: Hells yes. If of course, you were bungee jumping. I very rarely use the “ you have to do it because your competition is” but for this one you do. In this online world if partners can’t access your information they’ll access another program. If you don’t have the resources partners want you’re viewed as hard to work with and anyone hard to work with in the channel is being left in the dust!
Why else should you have a mobile app for your channel? How have your partners been using your mobile app? We’d love to hear from you.
Join us next week when we talk about what content and information needs to be set up on your mobile app and how to execute a mobile app.
The post 5 Reasons you Need a Mobile App for your Partners appeared first on Channel Maven Consulting.
