7 Steps to Optimize Channel Partner Enablement

For most B2B go-to-market (GTM) leaders, 2023 accelerated a trend that had, until recently, only been lurking in the background—the diminishing effectiveness of direct sales and marketing teams. The traditional reliance on tele- and email-based account management, free trials, and automated motions have the unintended consequence of decreasing the openness or receptivity of the buyers they target. Today, buyers are less receptive than ever to answering a call, much less meeting with a person or organization with whom they do not have a pre-existing relationship.

To counter this dynamic, GTM leaders have predictably turned to their channel partners and the teams that support them to provide essential pathways to expand market reach and drive the top-line growth required to achieve targets.

A Comprehensive Guide to Channel Partner Enablement

Effective channel partner enablement is crucial. It enhances relationships and drives strategic outcomes, such as expanding account relationships and increasing the leverage of commercial organizations.

In this guide, we explore the seven steps of channel partner enablement that ensure these relationships are as productive and profitable as possible. From customizing partner programs to leveraging advanced data analytics, these imperatives can transform your partner strategy into a powerful component of success.

1. Tailor Partner Programs
2. Craft and Quantify Compelling ‘To-Partner’ Value Propositions
3. Personalize Content Around Partner-Oriented Use Cases
4. Leverage Data as a Collaborative Asset and Differentiator
5. Optimize Channel Partner Coverage
6. Analyze Partner Performance, Engagement, and Activity
7. Develop Ongoing Communication and Feedback Loops

1. Tailor Partner Programs

A well-structured partner program is essential for building new and nurturing existing relationships. One sure sign of an effective program is its ability to be tailored to meet each partner’s diverse needs and expectations. While this was once a fairly straightforward exercise, the proliferation of partner roles and capabilities has blurred the lines between historical partner classifications such as ISV, VAR, GSI, MSSP, etc. In the new age of partnerships, agility, supported by clearly defined and simple program structures, best drives alignment and motivates partners to execute their roles effectively.

Best Practices:

• Understand Partner Profiles: Segment your partners based on their market position, size, and typical customer base. This segmentation will allow you to tailor programs that align with the most prominent business models and partner capabilities.
• Design Tiered Incentives: Implement a tiered program structure that provides partners with the requisite financial rewards and non-financial benefits for meeting different performance thresholds. This promotes healthy competition and ensures partners of all sizes can benefit and grow.
• Perform a Program Health Check: Conduct a comprehensive evaluation of your partner program every two to three years to ensure it’s working as designed and effectively driving the desired partner behaviors and outcomes. This health check helps identify areas of improvement and ensures the program remains aligned with market conditions and strategic objectives.

2. Craft and Quantify Compelling ‘To-Partner’ Value Propositions

Creating and clearly defining compelling value propositions for partners that resonate at the organizational and individual levels is crucial for the success of any channel partnership. This means articulating both the higher-level strategic benefits that partners gain from the program (i.e., increased revenue-enhanced product offerings, etc.) and breaking down what the partnership might mean for the individual contributors (i.e., sales incentives, exclusive training, etc.), all while providing the quantifiable data to back up the claims and benefits. This approach helps partners see the tangible gains from the partnership, driving them to engage more fully and align their efforts with the shared goals of the collaboration.

Best Practices:

• Build ‘Partner-Centric’ Value Propositions: Put yourself in the shoes of the partners you serve to refine plans for helping them achieve their business goals. Stakeholders often nuance these goals, and there is seldom a ‘one size fits all’ solution. Partner research surveys are often helpful in developing ‘Partner-Centric’ messaging frameworks.
• Think Organizationally and Individually: In addition to outlining organizational benefits, emphasize how the individuals within the partner company can achieve success from the program. This might include access to exclusive training, tools that make their jobs easier, or performance-based financial rewards.
• Celebrate and Highlight Success: Use case studies and testimonials from existing partners to demonstrate the real-world benefits and ROI of the partnership. Seeing peers’ success is often a powerful motivator for existing partners and has the added benefit of attracting new partners.

3. Personalize Content Around Partner-Oriented Use Cases

Personalization seems simple but can be challenging to execute. When referring to partner enablement, personalization should provide the right type of information and access to the right resources tailored to the partner’s specific needs. When implementing a personalization strategy into your program, focus on partner-oriented use cases that deliver highly relevant assets that directly support the partners’ sales and marketing motions and strategies.

Best Practices:

• Start with Identification: Kick off the personalization process by conducting thorough analyses to identify the most relevant and widespread use cases for your partners. This often overlooked but critical step is fundamental for prioritizing where to invest precious time and resources for driving personalization at scale. Regularly revisit and refine these use cases based on evolving product, buyer, and partner dynamics to ensure they align with actual partner needs.
• Support Content Utilization: Creating content that aligns with the most prevalent use cases and supports partner needs based on scenarios (i.e., sales scripts, marketing assets, training materials, battle cards, etc.) is only half the battle. Once built, systems must be in place that cater to each use case. This might involve specialized training sessions, dedicated support personnel for complex issues, or even white-glove marketing support for certain high-priority partners and use cases.

4. Leverage Data as a Collaborative Asset and Differentiator

Over the last decade, the prevalence of data, technology, and supporting analytics has exploded; it seems as if almost everything related to the marketing and sales process is counted, stored, and analyzed. Channel partnerships, therefore, should be more valuable than ever, with mutual clarity into account bases, pipelines, and near-instantaneous sharing of insights—yet most partnerships do not work this way. A lack of mutual trust underscored by concerns over data security and the perceived risk of losing proprietary insights and information often creates strategic deadlock between partner and provider, where each party shares only just enough information as necessary to receive the requisite compensation—in other words, transactional partnerships.

Integrating mutual data into the partner enablement program is crucial for transforming partnerships from “reactionary” or “transactional” to “proactive.” In doing so, organizations can improve their operational efficiency while enhancing the partnership’s overall value and encouraging long-term collaboration and shared success.

Best Practices:

• Establish Clear Agreements: Draft formal agreements that clearly outline what data will be shared, how it will be used, and what safeguards will be in place to protect it. This should include defining the purpose and acceptable use of data, the methods and frequency of data exchange, and the duration for which data will be shared.
• Use a Phased or Tiered Approach: Begin with sharing non-sensitive, less critical information (e.g., aggregate/summary data, market trends, or product performance metrics) to build confidence. Only once a foundation of trust has been established should you move towards sharing more sensitive customer data. This should be done slowly and deliberately—often starting with a single, trusted partner (and may be further bisected by product/region)—before a programmatic roll-out.
• Leverage an Objective Third Party: In most cases, involving a neutral third party can help ease concerns by managing the upkeep, matching, anonymization, and exchange. This could be a trusted consultant or a data-sharing platform that ensures compliance with all agreed terms and maintains the confidentiality and integrity of the data.
• Enhance Collaborative Technology: Use technology that enhances collaboration between you and your partners. Shared workspaces, real-time communication platforms, and integrated supply chain systems can help streamline operations and improve transparency.

5. Optimize Channel Partner Coverage

Optimizing channel partner coverage ensures that partnerships across the ecosystem are effectively engaged and supported throughout the partner lifecycle and customer sales processes. Though concepts of coverage, sizing and deployment, and territory assignments or compensation alignment are critical levers of success for leaders of direct selling units within an organization, they tend to be less prevalent for channel organizations (this is especially true when related to enablement). This dynamic is mainly due to organizations being more accustomed to the immediacy and attribution of direct results when managing their own sales teams, where outcomes are easily measured, transparent, and more responsive to change than their indirect counterparts. On the other hand, channel partners inherently add incremental layers of complexity, making it harder to prioritize and optimize partner coverage effectively. As a result, many channel organizations fail to incorporate this powerful lever in their overall enablement strategy.

Ensuring that partner account managers and commercial teams are executing consistent processes is crucial for the scalability and effectiveness of partner enablement programs. Regular training and consistent processes are essential, especially in maintaining alignment across various teams.

Coverage optimization starts with confirming the right types of job roles and commercial functions are in place (e.g., partner account managers, partner marketing managers, channel managers, etc.) and subsequently equipping those personnel to execute consistent processes and maintain a regular cadence of enablement activities. By refining coverage strategies and securing buy-in from sales leadership, organizations can often enhance the overall effectiveness of their channel partnerships, leading to increased sales and a stronger market presence.

Best Practices:

• Sales Leadership Buy-In: Secure buy-in from sales leadership to ensure enablement efforts are supported with the necessary resources and attention.
• Utilize Partner Segmentation to Inform Coverage: Segment partners based on key criteria such as tier, relationship strength, capability, market potential, strategic value, etc. Use this segmentation to guide the role requirements and ensure resources are effectively deployed.
• Consistent Globally Extensible Execution: Develop operating procedures, milestones, and engagement standards for partner managers that drive valuable partner interactions. This consistency helps build trust and strategic alignment and has the added benefit of keeping management up-to-date and well-informed.
• Flexible Engagement Models: Recognize that different partners may prefer different levels of engagement. To accommodate these preferences, offer various interaction models, from self-service portals to personal account management.

6. Analyze Partner Performance, Engagement, and Activity

Regardless of the type of partnership (e.g., tech, channel, strategic, etc.), a clear understanding of partner performance, engagement, and activity is essential to understanding productivity partnerships and the effectiveness of enablement efforts. As the partner technology stack has continued to expand, partner organizations increasingly leverage advanced technology and tools to gain better insight into how their partners behave.

These tools include sophisticated CRM/PRM systems, comprehensive Business Intelligence (BI) applications, specialized engagement tracking software, and cutting-edge predictive analytics platforms that curate detailed insights into how partners interact with online portals and individual pieces of content, and predict future performance trends that allow for improved enablement strategies and tactics. By integrating these powerful analytics tools into their operational framework, partner programs move beyond simple observation, enhancing partner relations and improving future interactions.

Best Practices:

• Tools Must Support Strategy: Partners expect modern, easy-to-use, and easy-to-navigate tools —these are now largely table stakes in partner enablement (typically inclusive of Portals, PRM/CRM systems, data analysis tools, and marketing automation platforms). However, these tools should be thought of as additive to the overall enablement strategy rather than the answer to all challenges.
• Assign Ownership to Measuring Engagement: Using analytics tools to monitor how partners interact with provided content and resources often sounds too good to be true, and many organizations struggle to find tangible value despite a plethora of data. Establishing clear ownership can help alleviate this concern and ensure that the data collected does not go unattended.
• Customize Support Based on Data: Utilize the insights gathered from analytics to provide customized support to partners, helping them overcome specific challenges and capitalize on opportunities. Consider engagement intelligence when developing coverage or aligning incremental resources with partners.

7. Develop Ongoing Communication and Feedback Loops

Open lines of communication and robust feedback mechanisms are vital for building trust and maintaining long-term relationships with partners. These systems help organizations adjust their strategies and operations in response to direct input from their partners.

Best Practices:

• Voice of Partner Surveys: Implement well-structured “Voice of Partner” surveys that regularly collect comprehensive feedback from partners on various aspects of the program, products, services, and overall experience.
• Only Track What You Intend to Act On: It is crucial to collect feedback and act on it. Show partners that their input is valued by making visible changes based on their suggestions and concerns.

Embrace a Holistic Approach to Channel Partner Enablement

In our experience, partner organizations often become hyper-focused on one or two dimensions of enablement while overlooking how these elements work together holistically. In such instances, it’s crucial to remember that effective enablement transcends individual initiatives; it’s about developing a well-defined, cohesive ecosystem of collaboration and mutual understanding. For organizations aiming to fully leverage their partner networks, embracing a comprehensive approach to enablement is a strategic necessity and a transformative opportunity. This journey towards refined enablement empowers partners, enhances collaborative efforts, and drives substantial business growth and success.