One of the things I look forward to each month is the Communitech Sales Leaders Peer2Peer in Kitchener-Waterloo. The October session was great and featured Jennifer Kerr, Sr. Director Global Partner Program from OpenText. Jennifer talked about her ideas and experiences with a successful global partnership. Here are some of the highlights that I took from the session.

Market Segments for Your End Users

One of the keys to rolling out a partner strategy is understanding how you plan to acquire end users. You may want to have named accounts and direct sales based on the size, vertical, or location of the account. This can be based on the economics, how customers typically buy, partner coverage, and overall company strategy. Once you have that in place you can determine how you can work with partners to help close business.
 

Partner Program Segmentation

Not all partners are the same and they don’t want to be treated the same. Segments could be created around referral, reseller, training, implementation, and many more. Be consistent with the requirements for each of the segments. This includes setting expectations for both the partner and your organization. This could include revenue targets, support time frames, training, and many other items.
 

Partner Tiers

There are many ways to evaluate a partner. The easiest is based on the revenue that drives the sale of your product or solution. Jennifer suggested other categories including training and loyalty.
 

Supporting Your Partners

There should be tools, processes, and information to help your partners with their sales and support efforts. This could include on-line training, partner portals, sales and marketing resources, and much more.
 

Partner Reviews

There are many ways to have partner reviews. These could include partner dashboards, regular reporting on goals, and annual reviews.

If you are interested in Sales and Sales Leadership and located in the Kitchener Waterloo region sign-up for the P2P meetup.