Our blog last week discussed the one thing affecting bottom lines across industries–the new buyer’s journey and why it matters to vendors. We also discussed how vendors can empower their channel partners in this new buyer’s journey by aligning content to match the buyer’s position sales cycle. This week we talk about how you can make your partner marketing content more effective based on partner profiling.
With the new buyer’s journey the role of partner marketing has changed drastically. A one-size-fits-all approach to partner marketing will not work anymore because the buyer’s journey varies depending on partner type and organizations must align content, strategy and tactics with the buyer’s journey for each partner type, sales model and persona.
Here’s a look at the different partner sales models and how they impact the vendor’s role and partner marketing strategies.
Traditional deal registration model
In this sales model, the partners leads are registered/reserved in the pre-lead stage for some designated time period, usually, around 3 to 6 months. In the traditional deal registration based model, it is mostly the partner who is responsible for getting the lead and its closure. The vendor needs good visibility to partner’s book of business to be able to make an impact in this kind of a sales model.
Lead Registration/ Co-sell Model
This sales model is what we call, low-to-medium-touch. In this case, the partner is responsible for bringing in the lead. They register it on the vendor’s PRM system or CRM for approval. Once the lead is approved by the vendor, the onus is on the vendor to convert it into an opportunity and close it. Partners that fall into the co-sell model need end-to-end lead visibility and this is often provided them via a partner portal.
High touch partner model
In the high-touch model, where the partners are responsible for the sales through-and through–right from getting a lead, to registering to converting them into an opportunity and closing them. Vendors need to provide high-touch partners with all kinds of marketing and sales support such as co-branded marketing and sales materials, proposals, quotes, etc.,.
Referral based partner model
This is a very low-touch partner sales model with the partner generating and passing referral leads to vendors with proper lead attribution. The leads could be generated via Social Media, PPC or banner ads, email marketing, etc., and vendors 100% responsible for closing and providing referral commission to partners.
Collaborative selling with alliance and strategic partners:
In the collaborative selling model, opportunities are shared among vendor-partners who can complement each other’s solutions. This involves forming strategic alliances with channel partners. For example, an automotive vendor and a tyre dealership or an automotive servicing brand.
In order to make an impact in the B2B environment today, vendors need to create custom partner marketing strategies to suit different partner sales models. The content, tools and resources offered to partners should vary based on their sales models. Join us next week, as we explore another element impacting partner marketing in this new buyer’s journey–partner personas.
