Partner Marketing Can Be Very Challenging for Vendors

Selling via a network of channel partners is especially hard because partners don’t report to vendors, and most partners don’t have processes and people in place to have truly effective marketing capabilities. However, an organization with the proper structure, programs, and processes can build a decent run-rate business via the channel. In this article, we will explore briefly a couple of the most fundamental challenges specific to partner marketing and what an organization can do about them.

Let’s focus on two core problems: when partners don’t have marketing processes and when they don’t have the resources to build a sustainable marketing motion. But before we jump into solutions, we may ask, “Is it crucial to have marketing processes and resources to build a partner marketing motion?” The short answer: very likely yes. If you are relying on your partners to provide services and pure fulfillment, then their marketing abilities may be less of an issue. This scenario typically applies to consumer insurance and a few other segments. In the case of insurance, the provider drives all of the marketing, while the insurance agents handle fulfillment and customer service. However, in most other segments like retail, real estate, financial sectors, technology, and manufacturing, partner marketing motion is necessary to build demand.

Now, let’s explore how an organization can bridge these fundamental gaps-i.e., lack of partner resources and lack of marketing processes.

• Lack of resources: You can only implement a process with resources, so the fundamental challenge in partner marketing is enabling partners to do their marketing. There is only one answer — provide partner marketing concierge services to partners who can sell but cannot generate demand independently. The key here is to focus your efforts and resources only on those partners who have demonstrated they can close a transaction when a proper lead is given to them to pursue but do not have the internal resources to drive marketing and generate leads on their own.
• Lack of processes: Once you have provided a partner with marketing concierge support with specific goals and objectives, the next step is to provide marketing capabilities via a partner marketing automation platform. This automation platform must come with all the pre-built campaigns, assets, and tactics partners need and can easily be used by leveraging their existing administrative and sales resources. Incremental support should also be focused on making the most of the platform from partner marketing concierge services.

These two solutions may sound simple, but seeing how many vendors selling through the channel must align their existing budgets to make these essential things happen is surprising. The great news is that once a vendor selling through the channel addresses these two core gaps on the partner organization side by providing partner marketing concierge services and a partner marketing automation platform, a significant portion of the partner marketing challenges get solved — locally and globally.

With that said, other dimensions, such as campaign types, training, incentives, etc., also need to be addressed to build a fine-tuned partner marketing machine, but we will address those in other articles and discussions. However, none of those additional measures will matter if the two foundational criteria, partner marketing concierge support and partner marketing automation, have yet to be addressed in a structured way.

Originally published at https://www.zinfi.com on May 26, 2017.