Why Deal Reg incentives don’t motivate us (or partners).
Most vendors have two goals when offering a deal registration incentive to their solution provider partners. The more holistic goal is increased visibility into who is working on which prospects to help minimize channel conflict. The more self-serving goal is to motivate partners to influence a prospect to choose your brand. But it’s a fallacy to think you can sway a partner to do something they didn’t plan to do anyway.
As a consulting partner for many PRM companies, I’m going to shoot you straight. Like many of your solution provider partners, we are looking out for our clients’ best interests. We don’t really care which partner management technology our clients buy. To optimize our program framework recommendations, we only care that our clients effectively implement a solution that enhances partner experience. Our clients pay us to provide consulting and advice, to align their needs to the best technology solutions available.
Do we care about your partner program or deal registration incentives? Nope. We don’t even want your referral rewards. Those feel icky. Our clients engage us to give them the best solution for their business need, not the one that pays us the most. Like your partnering ecosystem, we want to understand the features and benefits of your technology solution and your ideal customer profiles. But regardless of your incentive structure, we will make a recommendation based on our clients’ needs. Sorry not sorry.
That said, will we register the deal with you? Probably. Will we register it with the three other solutions on our client’s short list? Likely. Are your partner program policies and incentives providing a leg up in our eyes? Nope.
Let me reiterate. We are looking for, and living off, consulting, advice, product evaluation, and business process change services. Your referral fees wouldn’t cover my wine bill let alone payroll. Partners who not only consult, but also implement your technology, also engage with 3 or 4 of your closest competitors. They’re covering their bets by registering the deal with multiple vendors. Are those other vendors influencing the customer? Still no. Partners want their customers to buy SOMETHING, so they can sell more services, and the solution they recommend is based on more influential factors than referral fees.
What will we, and your other consulting or services partners, do for you (our vendor partners)? What are those “more influential factors?” We will get you a seat at the table if your solution is a good fit. We will share with you what we know about the prospect’s pain points and needs. We will work with our client on the business case of buying a solution (buy something!). What can you do to influence us? Or other influencers? Focus on communicating the functionality and benefits of your products. Convey how to differentiate your product from your competition. Educate and enable your partners on the technology, your target customers, and how best to engage you in the customer sales and success lifecycle. Don’t get distracted that your deal registration incentives will change your partners’ behaviors. Those are a nice “thank you” but aren’t enough to motivate.
Do you have questions about how this applies to your partner program—or want help rethinking your incentives? Reach out to Diane for straight talk and smart strategies to better engage your partners.
Diane Krakora is CEO of PartnerPath with over two decades of experience defining the best practices and frameworks around how to develop and manage partnerships.
