11.19.24
For thirty years we’ve been helping technology vendors foster alliances with other hardware and software companies. I have to say, most of those technology alliances produced very little value in comparison to the effort involved in building the integration or extension.
Topics: Industry Perspective
We had a fantastic summer series with three partnering leaders sharing their background and experience [find the links to watch the recordings at the bottom of this blog or view in the Resource Center]. From these sessions, we learned that VPs wear a lot of hats, and they need the entire organization to support partnering efforts. If you want to be a VP of Partnering, these are 10 talents you need to master:
Topics: Industry Perspective
10.16.24
In our August webinar, John Schwan, Head of Partner Sales, North America, at Synopsys, was on fire with great quotes about being successful in partnering. In no particular order, are his pearls of wisdom.
Topics: Industry Perspective
09.04.24
I believe in karma. What you put out into the world comes back to you. ‘Do unto others’ and all that. However, I’ve become concerned about a general trend towards ‘taking’ versus ‘giving’ in our global economic, political and social environments. We’re hearing fewer stories about unqualified generosity and more about wars, dictators, and selfishness.
Topics: Industry Perspective
05.14.24
Change management is leading to sleepless nights. More than 80% of the attendees at our last partner programs roundtable indicated it’s keeping them up at night (yowza). After two decades of partnership model and program consulting experience, we’ve seen all the warning signs of failure. Without organizational change management, your new program, compensation plan, or portal initiative is pretty much worth the paper it’s printed on.
Topics: Partnering Tips, Industry Perspective
A participant in our recent partnering executive roundtable asked the group: “Are you in favor of or opposed to creating compensation neutrality for your direct field team?” Without missing a beat (and to my surprise), almost half of the roundtable participants said they were against ‘comp’ neutrality. How could anyone be against something with the word “neutral” in it? If you’re not familiar with the term, compensation neutrality means a salesperson gets paid, or their sales quota is retired, at the same rate if the product is sold by a partner or themselves. How compensation is defined for your direct sales force can help or hinder your partnering efforts and there’s no clear consensus on the right answer.
Topics: Partnering Tips, Industry Perspective
The promise, hope and resolutions of a new year are starting to fade. The global economic situation is dubious with some businesses recovering from recession woes while others try to scrape by. One thing remains true: companies both large and small are looking anywhere and everywhere for more leads and deals in the pipeline. We are all looking for partners to contribute more to the sales processes but not in the methods of yesterday. “Partner contribution” is what vendors are starting to value in partner ecosystem management but what exactly is partner contribution and how do you measure it? How will it affect partners and vendor partner teams?
Topics: Industry Perspective
In our annual webinar on channel predictions featuring Jay McBain, Chief Analyst – Channels, Partnerships & Ecosystems at Canalys, we discussed four trends impacting how we engage, empower and evolve partner ecosystems. Consider how these trends may impact or improve your partner program.
Topics: Industry Perspective
02.08.24
Traveling in from both sides of the pond, the PartnerPath team ventured to Miami for the Impartner Customer Conference, Multiply, this week. As Partner of the Year, we know a lot about Impartner, but there’s always a surprise or three at these conferences. Here are three takeaways that stood out to me and had me staring out to sea contemplating how we can better engage partners.
Topics: News and Programs, Industry Perspective
09.06.23
Webinars are not just a great chance for us to provide our audience with great content, but they can be a chance for me to catch up with channel friends. Recently, I had an insightful conversation with Dominic Grillo, President of Atrion Communications (now part of Aurora) about how his organization decides to bring on a new vendor and the rough patches of getting started. He brought 30 years of experience to our chat and I found much of the conversation helpful for vendors looking to successfully launch a new solution provider. Three things really stood out:
Topics: Partnering Tips, Industry Perspective
