Channel partnerships have come a long way in recent years and continue to set new milestones with time. Channel partners have now become an integral part of many businesses and have contributed immensely to their growth.
Initially, partner programs focused on resales and upfront revenue models, but as the technology sector breaks new paradigms, they have also improved on the benefits they give to their partners.
Today, channel partners are more than just an extended team of sales reps and provide responsive, flexible, and strategic assistance to the parties involved.
Is it necessary to onboard Channel Partners?
This is the most commonly asked question when a business plans to bring a new channel partner on board.
Yes, there is no denying that partner programs can be extremely beneficial for a business. When done right, strategic partnerships use cohesive knowledge to leverage sales expertise, improve distribution channels, and create lasting customer relationships.
Some of the most prominent benefits of having channel partners include:
- Higher profitability
- Higher customer engagement and loyalty
- Brand advocacy
- Consistent sales
- More productivity
Setting Personalized Goals for Channel Partners
Effective collaboration indeed means a more substantial level of engagement between partners and the company. You can create effective partner programs by implementing the following points:
- Allow a free-flow of information
- Maintain a trustworthy environment in the company
- Align all parties involved in the mutual goal of success
Which brings us to the argument if these goals can be personalized based on your business or not?
They certainly can be, but only if you take the right steps. Listed below are some of the points you can follow to set personalized goals for your channel partners on both individual and team levels.
It might look like a daunting task, but once implemented correctly, you will see a new surge of energy in your salespeople as they spearhead revenue goals in the right direction.
Create monthly sales goals:
When you talk about your annual goals, they need to be backed up with monthly plans. Once you settle on an amount, find out how much each team needs to contribute towards it.
Waterfall approach for targets:
When implementing new strategies to onboard new team members or increasing weekly targets, do not increase the workflow dramatically too soon.
Let them work around improving their efficiency steadily. If they send 50 emails a week, encourage them to try 60 the following week instead of ordering them to do 100 straight away.
Create a sequence for goals:
Prioritize well and put the goals with the highest value on top. Once you sort the priority list, ask your reps to meet their targets in the same order.
Additionally, you can also have sequences for the team’s development. Encourage them to improve their efficiency by 5% every week and witness professional growth like never before.
Incentivize the goals:
In a game, as your progress through the levels, the difficulty increases, but so do the rewards. Incentivize your partners’ efforts and compensate them for achieving their objectives.
Keep them motivated and offer cash bonuses, non-monetary perks, and more in exchange for achieving their weekly goals.
Monitor the progress regularly:
Your strategy will fail if you don’t monitor it regularly. Use an engagement tool to track the progress from a centralized dashboard.
Gamify each member’s targets and track their progress using an automated tool. A little time spent on monitoring the progress pays more dividends in the future.
How to Track the Progress of Partner Programs?
Yes, the goals you set need to be realistic and quantifiable. However, as mentioned above, there is a chance that your entire partner program might fall flat in the absence of a systematic tracking mechanism.
Having a clear understanding of the numbers will help your teams set better future goals and leverage the metrics to create specific action plans in the future.
So, how do we track the progress? Here’s how.
Use an automated engagement platform to integrate with your CRM, marketing automation tool, and other software in your technology stack.
Make funds available for the co-marketing efforts of both the partners. Use tracking tools to see how both businesses are implementing the funds to keep everyone on the same page at all times.
Showcase the progress on a common platform. Let the partners see how well they are doing and motivate them with numbers that coincide with their efforts.
Create a platform to receive feedback from your partners, sales reps, marketing teams, and other departments involved. Regular feedback highlights any loopholes and gives you a chance to improve your processes further.
Find synergy by aligning channel partners’ goals with your network goals.
Bonus Tip:
Integrate an AI-powered engagement tool into your marketing efforts. Artificial intelligence gives you an edge as it evolves based on the data and inputs you receive regularly.
Not only does it improve the customer service side of things, but it also assists your sales and marketing reps.
It suggests new solutions based on evidence-based data gathering across different platforms like your CRM, marketing automation tool, POS system, and more.
It allows you to track what’s going on across different departments and deliver detailed reports thanks to its robust analytical capabilities.
Choosing the Right Platform
It is okay to seek help when you are feeling under the weather, right? Then why not enlist an expert’s assistance when optimizing your partner programs’ tracking mechanisms.
NextBee offers a wide range of AI-powered engagement solutions that help you create, track, and analyze data by seamlessly integrating with different tools in your technology stack.
To know more about NextBee’s robust engagement platforms, get in touch with our team today. They will give you a complete walkthrough of how you can track a partner program effectively.
Let’s get started with a free consultation today.
