Golden Rules to Successfully Onboard Your Channel Partners

How to define an education plan to optimize partner-to-partner collaboration — with insights from CodeScience and SpringCM

If you have been part of the Salesforce ecosystem, you have experienced the Ohana at some point in your Salesforce journey. If you have not, this short background might be helpful.

After many years of working in the industry, our CEO Marc Benioff took a sabbatical and rented a beach hut in Hawaii. During this time, he was able to connect with the local people and customs, and discovered the concept of Ohana. As Jody Kohner, SVP of Employee Engagement at Salesforce, summarizes:“In Hawaiian culture, Ohana represents the idea that families — blood-related, adopted, or intentional — are bound together, and that family members are responsible for one another.”

Ohana is what we refer to when we talk about culture at Salesforce, and it doesn’t end with employees — it extends to our customers, partners, and the community. The Partner ecosystem is a perfect example of where we live out our Ohana, from supporting our partners’ success across business and technology growth to coming together and rolling up our sleeves to support the members of our community. I have worked alongside many different people who have made our partners’ success their main goal, and have taken problems into their own hands.

Key Salesforce Resources for Partners

To enable our partners throughout their partnership journey, we provide access to a number of resources, including educational content, news, events, and access to User Groups via the Partner Community. Partners and customers can take advantage of Trailhead modules to seek further training based on a particular subject. The Partner Community is a place where we encourage partners to meet other partners in the ecosystem to network, mindshare, and collaborate. This is a great way for partners to keep up with any changes, learn about products, and innovation.

One of the best ways for partners to learn the ropes is to hear directly from other partners about their experiences—which is why I reached out to two amazing AppExchange partners, CodeScience and SpringCM, for their tips on this topic. The following is an excerpt written by Molly Walsh, Director of Marketing at CodeScience, on forming an effective onboarding plan:

Defining Your Education Process for Best Results

The most fruitful partnerships are fueled by defined objectives and clear communication. Both teams need to be well-versed on the value prop of the combined solution. Why? There is a direct correlation between the level of knowledge on both sides of the partnership and the number of closed deals.

1. Think about how to educate your partner. Develop a program to provide step-by-step training that evolves as your partnerships evolve. From basic training videos and one-sheets to a comprehensive partner certification program, find the path that works for you.
2. Create a project plan on how to onboard your partners that includes an alignment meeting where you do a deep dive into positioning and go-to-market strategy. The training content will depend on whether it’s an SI partner or a product partner.
3. Set your partners up for success. Be ready to share manuals, APIs, and technical documentation. Even better, as you grow your partner ecosystem, consider creating communities for both developers and partners to foster collaboration; communicate things like product roadmaps, upcoming events and co-selling objectives; and uncover potential issues as they arise. Look at the engagement generated from Salesforce’s Partner and Developer Communities as great benchmarks.

How SpringCM is Successfully Nurturing Their Partner Program

If you are thinking about managing your own channel partners and how to onboard them, SpringCM is a great example of an AppExchange Partner who has done just this and done it very successfully. So let’s hear them share some of their proven best practices here. The following is an excerpt from Kristi Cox, Customer and Partner Marketing Manager at SpringCM:

“At SpringCM, we take our partnerships as seriously as we take our product, customers, and culture, so we have built our network of partners strategically. We primarily work with two types of partners: ISV partners that we go to market with, and system integrator partners that help with implementations of SpringCM. Regardless of the type, we work with our partners on a very strategic, individual level, and approach the long-term partnership in a way that works best for both of us. No two partners are alike, so there is always room for a little customization in the onboarding process.

Here are a few tips that we’ve learned along the way:

1. Be strategic in choosing partners based on your own business goals. At SpringCM, we always start with a discovery call where we can identify similar market positioning, target industry and accounts, or shared customers. We’ve found the most success with partners that have a lot of what we want, and vice versa — e.g., if you specialize in the enterprise market but want to break into mid-market, find partners that specialize in the mid-market and want to break into enterprise.
2. Establish a project leader and agreed upon success metrics, deliverables, and responsibilities as soon as possible — especially when working in groups of three or more partners. With so many people going in so many directions, it’s easy for partner activities to get put on the back-burner. Make sure that someone agrees to manage the relationship so that you are all successful.
3. Be consistent in your communication and hold each other accountable to the partnership. Bi-monthly enablement and cadence calls work for us, so that our teams are always aligned on goals and deliverables for each team. When you work across the country or the world, communication is key.
4. Say yes and give as much as you can. From a partner marketing perspective, we have found that as many events, co-marketing campaigns, and collaboration opportunities that we can say yes to (as long as they align with our goals) — the better. Our network and brand continues to expand as we work together successfully with partners, and we are able to do the same for our partners. Treat partners the same way you treat your customers, and you will reap the benefits.”

CodeScience helps SaaS companies thrive on the AppExchange. Learn more at codescience.com.

SpringCM accelerates productivity and revenue across the enterprise by automating contracts and other mission-critical documents. Learn more at www.springcm.com.