Karyn MacKie, Partner Operations Director


Those of us who have been developing and managing partner programs for many years are all too familiar with the problem – some of your best partners don’t qualify for the top tier in your partner program. These partners are typically smaller, regionally or locally-based solution providers that focus their business exclusively on your target market. They may also be companies that have no desire to resell your products. Their business is likely to be completely focused on consulting and other professional services. These solution providers like your product, regularly refer business to you, and want to partner closely with you. Partners that fit this profile tend to want a partner manager to contact within your organization, to receive training on and technical support for your products, and to have access to technical documentation and tools. It seems like a win-win relationship, but your partner program only rewards partners for their revenue performance, and possibly for having staff members that have achieved your technical certification requirements.

There are several other activities that you would like partners to focus on, but you don’t reward them for their efforts in these areas. Partners that do execute on these initiatives feel they don’t receive appropriate recognition and respect from you. However you have no way of quantifying the value these partners bring to your company. Subsequently, within your organization you would have difficulty justifying the expense of providing high value benefits to partners that don’t represent substantial revenue to the company. You suspect there is a solution to this problem, but you aren’t sure what it would be. The answer you’re looking for is a value-based partner program.

Value-based partner programs recognize partners for the full value they bring to the relationship. A partner’s revenue performance is an important metric in a value-based model, but it isn’t the only metric in determining a partner’s place in your program. Ideally, a value program recognizes partners not only for resale revenue, but also for influencing revenue. The trick to accomplishing this is creating a viable process for measuring influence revenue within your company. Some companies accomplish this by tying their deal registration system to their partner revenue tracking system for deals that close. The channel that fulfills the order - the partner, direct sales representative, or fulfillment partner - isn’t the only party that receives credit for the order. The partner that provides significant influence in the deal is also recognized for their efforts. Read More.

Network Appliance (NetApp) engaged Amazon Consulting because they needed help analyzing and measuring the effectiveness of their North American partner programs and wanted to better understand their partners’ “total partner experience” or “TPE”. Amazon Consulting worked with NetApp to first establish objective metrics with which to measure successful partner programs. Then they surveyed NetApp’s partners to determine just how their partner programs measured up. Equipped with this information, NetApp was able to identify which programs and tools were most beneficial to their partners and also where they could stand to improve. To read the complete client spotlight click here.

Partner Staff Augmentation Solutions

Resources can make the difference between the success and failure of any partner program. Having the right team with the right skills to execute on your important partnering initiatives is crucial. You may find yourself short of experienced resources during a critical period – end of quarter, due to a resource-intensive project or because of an employee’s personal leave or resignation. Amazon Consulting can offer you the interim solution you need by providing experienced partner professionals to augment your staff. With access to a network of experienced channel operations, partner management, partner marketing or channel recruitment needs. Our range of available channel consultants can assist with everything from day-to-day partner management functions to project execution and the creation of co-marketing tools. To schedule a discussion of your resource needs, please send an email to Karyn MacKie, Director of Partner Operations. To provide your feedback on outsourcing, complete our 2005 Outsourcing Trends Survey online & get a $25 gas card.