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The following is an excerpt from our 2016 State of Partnering report: 10 Trends for a 2020 Vision, using survey responses from over 100 vendors, 200 solution providers and years of industry data. 

Partners engage with more partners, and with more vendors.

As the transaction model shifts to the cloud and channel partners become more ingrained in developing full solutions for customers, they will develop more partnerships as well. We’ve been talking about peer-to-peer or partner-to-partner relationships for almost a decade. In the age of reselling in 2006, the thought was almost unimaginable. VARs only partnered with other VARs under duress – in cases when they needed to partner for the bench strength to service customers with dispersed regional offices. This year, nearly 40% of solution provider respondents reported regularly partnering with an average of three to five other solution providers. And 30% of respondents regularly partner with six to eight other solution providers. This is a 10% increase over just last year. And less than 10% reported they didn’t partner at all with other solution providers. In ten years, we’ve had a complete reversal of these metrics.

Awesome Partner Account Managers are critical to channel success.

By Diane Krakora, CEO

I was a Channel Account Manager two, maybe three, decades ago. Way back then, the role was primarily reactive and somewhat administrative. I recruited new partners into my territory, harangued them to a sales goal, ate a ton of bad pizza during “lunch and learns,” and chased stocking orders through distribution. Although the role of the Partner Account Manager has changed to a more pro-active business adviser to your set of partners, the underlying traits of a successful PAM haven’t changed much.

The partner account manager is your primary connection point to partners.

It is always sad when a relationship doesn’t work out. Both sides have put time and effort into the partnership, and at least one side didn't get the results they wanted.

You may think this is harsh, but we consider the partner account manager (PAM) at fault for every solution provider relationship gone awry. Don’t scream. We know they can’t control every factor of the vendor/solution provider relationship. However, as the designated primary point of connection between the two organizations, they are responsible for communication and collaboration.

... And Why Should You Care?

By Diane Krakora, CEO

In our most recent webcast, “From Programs to Initiatives: Trends in Partner Enablement,” Michelle Hodges, VP Global Strategy and Programs at Riverbed, and I discussed what it takes today to enable partners across types and program tracks. Among many other topics we tackled the core question: “What is enablement, anyway?”

By Diane Krakora, CEO

As a company focused on perfecting partnering between organizations, we’ve been reflecting on our recent partnership with Averetek. In a new partnership, sometimes everything falls into place quickly and other times you must be diligent with checklists, meetings and emails to get everything in order. In fact, we believe there are six key steps to launching a lasting partnership. We've made smooth, steady progress in our new venture with Averetek, and here's a self-check in the mirror to see how it's going.