3 Areas of the Channel Partner Program that Support your Relationship with Channel Partners

An objective of a channel program is to develop something that is attractive and demonstrates how easy it is for partners to work with your business.

Having a channel program in place will enable channel managers with more time to recruit and manage partners. As a channel manager, focusing on individual partner growth will help guide partners to uncover the full potential of your products or services, enabling the company to achieve a leading market position.

To elevate the potential of channel partners, the channel program needs to support the relationship between the company (channel managers) and channel partners. Supporting this relationship can be done in these 3 areas:

• Recruitment
• Ramp-up and Enablement
• Management and Growth

Recruitment

A partner program needs to be enticing, it needs to be capable of motivating potential partners to seek interest in your partner program. Attracting potential partners and then showing them what your partner program has to offer, will eventually lead to gaining new and talented partners who have a strong belief in your company and the products and/or services you offer.

A virtual Marketplace, for example, is an attractive program feature that partners may gravitate towards. Offering partners 24/7 access to support documents is also another appealing tool that will support and attract partners. When searching for a partner program to join, an important element that partners look for is support. Ask your self- What kind of support can you offer partners from the recruitment stage and beyond?

Ramp-up and Enablement

Your partner program should motivate channel partners to invest in the ramp-up phase. In this phase, partners are new and may not have as many leads as other partners. You partner program should be designed in a way to motivate them to be persistent and overcome the learning curve and their initial lack of customer references.

The partner program can help support channel partners by offering training tools and support. A learning management system (LMS) for example, is a great tool to help partners learn more about your products and/or services. Developing partner playbooks is also a feature that partners can use to accelerate their ramp-up time within the partner program. Using the partner program to provide channel partners with the mechanisms they need to succeed will not only motivate them to want to learn and grow quickly, but it will also ensure that the partners are receiving the training they need to be successful.

Growth

Finally, your partner program should support and enable channel partner growth. It should motivate partners to keep growing as a partner and ultimately provide you with an increased revenue.

Having channel partners who are constantly growing as an individual partner will not only provide you with more revenue, but it will also build your company a solid position against competitors in the industry. Continuously offering partners support at every stage of the partner sales lifecycle is a great way for partners to keep growing. It also develops a trusting relationship between the company, partner program, and the individual partners.

The Relationship Between You, the Partner Program & Channel Partners

All activities conducted within the partner program that supports the success of the channel partners are also activities that support and strengthen the relationships that you, as a channel manager, have with partners. Like any relationship, the most important elements are support, communication, and availability. Develop a partner program that caters to these elements to create a strong relationship between your company and channel partners.

Read more:

• How to Power Up Channel Partner Relationships