As more members of the organization collaborate across multiple channels for purchase decisions, B2B marketers are focused on delivering cohesive, consistent, and integrated brand experiences across buying journey stages, channels, and personas.
Channel partners – critical links in the enterprise B2B value chain – play an important role in the creation and delivery of these seamless, differentiated brand experiences. Enterprise channel marketers have to find new ways to develop, diversify, and grow their channel network, running programs that deliver optimal value to all the stakeholders (i.e., end-customers, channel partners, the brand itself).
So, what do channel partners need, want, and expect from enterprise vendors? At the core, they expect simplified and efficient systems that help them sell to and manage end-customers smoothly; demand closer alignment with the brands they represent; and need support to respond to dynamic market forces and shifting opportunities with speed and agility.
Weaving these five best practices into your channel marketing efforts can help you stay competitive in a rapidly changing environment and deliver sustained value to stakeholders over time.
1. Differentiate with Partner Experience (PX)
Just like customer experience and employee experience, standout channel partner experiences can help build strong and differentiated relationships with your partners and create preference and prioritization for your brand. On the strategy side, comprehensive PX starts with a partner-centric mindset, streamlining and simplifying the partner recruitment and onboarding experience; guiding their training, knowledge, and certification needs; being proactive with sharing brand information and ensuring meaningful ongoing engagement with product development and customer success.
On the operational side, simplified user-centric processes with easy access to execution-related data and tools, robust resolution processes that identify and nip emerging roadblocks in the bud, and responsive partner support resources are key. In essence, PX is about making it as easy and effortless as possible for partners to sell your product and succeed in every way. This approach also broadens the scope from offering purely financial incentives to building relationships with non-financial value including industry-beating training programs, access to exclusive events and gatherings, and privileged access to new brand initiatives.
For maximum impact, PX should be a measurable initiative. Key metrics can include the number of partners onboarded, average revenue per partner, and of course, partner satisfaction scores (much like NPS in the CX context). In a market where the best channel partners have multi-brand portfolios, a PX-first approach can ensure preference and priority for your solutions.
2. Enable and Empower with Tools and Tech
Optimal performance and productivity are key to the channel marketer and partner. Not only does the right channel tech stack enable automation and scale for core processes in your programs, it also helps channel partners run their business more efficiently and effectively. Empower partners with tools that help automate workflows, easily access, and activate data for better decision making, and improve outcomes and agility for marketing operations such as display, SEO, PPC, and content for lead generation. With SaaS and subscription models becoming the norm, partners also expect help to manage renewals, retention, and revenue growth initiatives – enterprises can provide access to tools and skills that can help with account and opportunity planning to build value-based customer relationships. Helping partners gradually scale proven processes and create economies and efficiencies is important, especially when vendors themselves may have invested in comprehensive, end-to-end channel tech stacks that need active partner efforts towards adoption for optimal ROI.
3. Engage With Robust Partner Ecosystems:
Progressive vendors are rethinking the role of channel partners beyond the traditional role of reseller. They are thinking about other complementary roles that different kinds of partners can play in the ecosystem to create value. For example, aside from reselling, partners can also be influencers, gate keepers, ambassadors, and reverse educators (exposing vendors to market nuances they may have missed). Some partners can specialize in acquisition and others in retention and renewals. Many resellers, analysts, and consultants on the front lines with end-customers also make great product evolution consultants and add immense value to the product development roadmap.
This approach elevates the one-dimensional channel to a thriving multi-dimensional ecosystem where different types of partners play different – but equally important and complementary – roles in the buying journey. Supporting the ecosystem with a tiered-loyalty program helps the vendor recognize and serve the needs of each kind of partner and deliver a more customized PX.
4. Retain and Sustain with Value Co-creation
The modern channel marketers’ challenge is to be of value and service to the channel partner beyond just allocating the MDF and checking back for financial performance against targets. Vendors want to get embedded as deeply as possible with end-users — creating stronger associations with channel partners is an effective way to do so, especially where customers have a long history with a particular vendor. Not only will this minimize the vendors’ vulnerability to partner-customer proximity, it will help better understand customer needs, proactively identify, and uncover new opportunities, and co-create differentiated and customized solutions.
The events of 2020 have made everyone see the importance of agility and the ability to respond to market changes and disruptions efficiently. With a solution co-creation mindset, especially for the most important customers, both speed and agility are greatly enhanced as vendors and partners work together to develop complex solutions and deployments in a dynamic landscape. Ultimately, it’s for a better outcome and a better experience for the customer.
5. Streamline CX by Aligning Channel Marketing to Mainstream Sales and Marketing
traditionally, channel partners have been managed in distinct operational and revenue silos from the direct or mainstream sales and marketing organization, but this approach is clearly at cross purposes to successful buyer engagement today. Buyers expect a seamless brand experience even as their journey becomes more complex, non-linear, and less predictable. It’s critical that they hear consistent messages from the brand and any representatives of the brand.
Another important aspect is that buyers expect their data to be used responsibly, and any incoherence in the CX will cast doubts on that, often with very serious privacy-related consequences. The only way to achieve this consistency is to ensure channel partners are closely aligned to the latest marketing and sales strategies and tactics; have access to the latest content and brand messages and collateral; and are working with secure and current data that keeps them abreast of buyer engagement and opportunities.
While alignment with sales will optimize lead generation and immediate revenue goals, alignment with marketing focuses on nurturing customer relationships and retention. While ensuring efficiency and avoiding duplication of efforts, aligning sales, marketing, and channel helps the brand build centralized knowledge about customer needs, which can be a huge competitive advantage.
There are many ways to improve channel marketing outcomes for immediate and long-term impact. But at the core lie these best practices, all interconnected with no element entirely possible without the others. Together, they can deliver business outcomes greater than the sum of the parts, elevating channel ROI but also elevating the experience for key stakeholders — the channel partner and end-customer. In an experience-led economy, that is a goal no enterprise can afford to ignore.
Access more insights on the trends impacting channel partner marketing, or deep dive into how to start with streamlining and expanding your channel partner program with this article on creating automation and scale for your channel program execution.