How do we Move into a Partner Ladder??

When expanding a  business in the IT field, it is very common to enter into the new market through a partner strategy. However, this requires a deep knowledge of the local market, a first-hand experience on the purchasing and procurement habits of the main target customers, and finally an access to these relevant organizations known as "partners" that may make the difference positioning, proposing and alerting about sales opportunities.

However, the partner companies that could be of our interest probably have their own business alliances and trusted vendors as well as their own business model.  What can make a company become a significant element in the sales chain? How, we as a vendor, can get its commitment and build together a market?

We could summarize this in  three simple steps:

1. Relationship and trust building
2. Motivate
3. Incentivate

If you consider the traditional partner strategy model, the entry point is usually the conversation on margins or referrals. However, building a trusted relationship that could end in a business alliance is a first and essential step;  sales, as we have said other times is the most "human" activity we may find in an organization  whose origin comes from the very origins of the human being. This requires time and sharing of information in several ways, from informal meetings to formal presentations, training and, of course, the permanent presence in the latest communication means as could be the social networks nowdays.

When building this relationship we have to take into account that the vendor enters into a new market through companies that have their own business in place, and trusted alliances. How can we  motivate  the partner to take into consideration our product? Of course, the horizon of an incremental revenue or the reduction of an operational cost can and must push for this relation. However, this could not be enough since considering a new product may mean to train  or recruit new staff.  Among the most motivating factors in building the alliance are:

• Creating a difference among competitors
• Show innovation in the solutions proposed

This is something that the vendor must take into account to develop all the resouces needed to help the partner in building these elements. This requires the development of research material such as white papers, the contribution with press releases, the joint participation in events as well as special activities such as sponsored surveys or book presentations, industry benchmarks, etc.

Once we get at this stage, we may start talking about incentivating the sales since the objective of this type of relationship is increasing the sales through third-party relations.  This requires a closer look to the exising ways of partner sales incentives but we will take into consideration:

1. Sales referral fee or discount, based on the global activities.
2. Marketing Development Funds (MDF) that may support the development of joint campaigns
3. In-depth training on a single topic.

We will analyze this step in depth since it has gone through a deep transformation caused by the emerging of compliance cases. However, at this point, the message is very clear. Partnership is a way of doing business and the benefits must be assessed right at the beginning of the alliance. This has a clear correspondence on the way that we as human beings work, and isn't this the reason for us to work together?