5 Stages Partner Journey

5 Stages
Partner
of the
J o u r n e y
5 Stages of the Partner Journey | Partner-Path.com 1

A whole new
(digital) world
The old way of selling stuff isn’t
working anymore. The digital age has
changed the way businesses interact
with prospects in three ways. For
one, everyone has more access to
more choices and more data about
those choices. We are all a Google
search away from finding options,
opinions and recommendations on
well, everything. When it comes to
purchasing decisions, Gartner cites
57% of all buying decisions are made
before anyone connects with a sales
representative. Consumers (or users)
rather than the manufacturer (or
vendor) drive the buying journey.
Case in point – in my recent new car
purchase I collected in-depth research,
reviews and opinions and had decided
Inside:
on the make, model, premium options
and color choices before I ever
stepped foot on the dealer’s lot.
A whole new (digital) world.............. 2
Introducing the partner journey....... 4
Even in technology, where business-
to-business transactions used
Stage One: Awareness....................... 6
to be the sole purview of the IT
Stage Two: Consideration................. 9
department, more and more of
Stage Three: Decision..................... 12
the evaluation and decisions are
Stage Four: Experience................... 15
being driven by individual line-of-
Stage Five: Growth.......................... 20
business professionals. For example,
Engage partners in the
customer journey ....................... 23 the Chief Marketing Officer might
Next generation solution evaluate and decide on a marketing
providers on the horizon............ 25 automation solution and the head of
About the survey............................. 26

sales might determine the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) options
while the channel chief determines the partner portal technology. Forrester
cites that these line-of-business professionals are significantly influencing
65% of technology decisions. Partner business models built around traditional
hardware, software and services sales are having difficulty engaging with these
buyers, giving rise to specialized channels to help with technology decisions.
64%

Many companies are struggling with how to find these partners then engage,
enable and manage them.

In the new digital age, the old customer acquisition funnel is dead. No longer
is the engagement process done once a customer buys your product. The
customer journey is now considered an ongoing lifecycle of awareness,
consideration, acquisition, usage and loyalty. This change is especially
significant with a cloud consumption or subscription model where the customer
can switch products and providers at any time. As consumers rent technology
solutions on a monthly basis – think of DocuSign or Dropbox – canceling the
service or switching to another product is a few clicks away.
These three shifts have led an entire industry to map the customer journey –
which involves enhancing customer experience (CX) and elevating customer
success. Instead of looking at the transaction, take the long-view of the entire
customer relationship. The customer journey is the complete sum of experi-
ences customers go through when interacting with a company.
What to Do:
Help partners adopt digital marketing for their
prospects and customers
ྲྲConduct a digital assessment of your partners’ outbound marketing and sales
processes. How knowledgeable and aligned with the digital age are they?
ྲྲCreate digital marketing workshops to help partners adopt these

techniques. The better your partners are at positioning their (and your)
solutions through digital means, the more successful they (and you) will be.
ྲྲTie Market Development Fund (MDF) access to usage of digital assets and
activities. The more the partners adopt digital marketing, the more funds
they receive from you to continue to invest in campaigns.
ྲྲChange your partner deal management systems from measuring prospect

acquisition in a funnel format to measuring a prospect journey that
continues through the loyalty stage.

2
Consideration
1

Awareness

3
Decision

5
Growth

4 Experience

Introducing the partner journey

Why am I talking about the customer journey in a partnering report? For the same reason people talk
about the customer journey, the partner journey is important for success in the new digital age. Our
data shows that, like a customer’s buying-decision, about 60% of a solution provider’s decision on what
products to market, sell and support is completed before they engage in a vendor’s enrollment process.
Mimicking the customer journey, the partner journey is defined as the complete sum of experiences
partners go through when interacting with a vendor. Vendors need to adopt a lifecycle approach to
better engage the next generation of solution providers to create a good experience leading to ongo-
ing engagement and success.
Since every one of the vendors I’ve talked with over the past year is looking to grow their partner
base, I’ve focused this report around facilitating the partner journey. Vendors are looking to recruit,
engage, empower, motivate, manage and support a bevy of solution provider partners to grow sales.
So, put up the ‘help wanted’ sign and good partners will flock to sell your solutions, right? Wrong.

Customers are increasingly demanding full-solutions to their business needs,
not just point products or specific technologies. Partners are the folks who
design, develop and deliver solutions for customers, created from a variety of
vendor technologies. As the entity delivering these full solutions, partners are
often accountable for the expected business outcome. The partner owns the
relationship with the customer who in turn considers the channel partner a
trusted advisor. Partners have the power in their dynamic with vendors because
they own the customer relationship. So, vendors need to work hard to attract
good partners. Partners are in the driver’s seat – deciding to add a new product
or technology from an existing vendor relationship or to work with a
new vendor to meet the technology needs of their customers. Engaging
a solution provider partner is an ongoing journey – like the customer
journey – to enroll them with your company, products and solutions.
In December of 2017, we surveyed 104 vendors and 220 solution

providers on the people involved, priorities and expected outcomes of
the partners’ journey.
The partner journey has five stages and loops back on itself as part-
ners re-evaluate which vendors to engage. The partners report their
businesses are growing at an average of 11-15% year over year and
they continually decide whether to grow with their current vendors or Read the benchmark data from the
engage new ones. The solution provider respondents also indicated they have 2018 State of Partnering study. This
five primary vendors and fifteen secondary vendors (on average). To remain or data complements the partnering
become one of the 20 focus vendors, you should adopt this lifecycle approach picture drawn in this Partner Journey
with your solution provider ecosystem. report. Partner-Path.com.
What to Do:
Adopt a partner journey process
ྲྲCreate fields in your partner database to track each partner at each stage in
the journey.
ྲྲAlign your communications and materials to the partner journey stages

(not just the sales cycle stages).
ྲྲMeasure your Partner Account Managers (PAMs) on partner success

(growth with you) not just sales volume.
ྲྲIn your Partner Advisory Council meetings, ask your partners about their
barriers to growth with you. Why do they consider growing (or not) with you?

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Stage One: Awareness

In the Awareness stage of the part-
ner journey, solution providers are
exploring new products, technol-
ogies or vendors. How do vendors
wanting to recruit and engage new
solution providers let them know their
company, products and services exist
and are relevant? The first step is to
find a receptive audience. Don’t waste
efforts on people who aren’t interested.
Customer need or
next cool thing?
The good news is 90% of the solution
provider respondents indicated they
are likely or very likely to add a new
technology from a new vendor in 2018. They report a tendency to bring on two
to four new vendors per year, typically driven by looking for options to fill a
customer need. About a third of the respondents indicated they venture out to
engage a new vendor because they are “looking for the next great thing.” This is
good news for vendors with cutting-edge technologies. Vendors may reach new
partners using a “next great technology” message creating
What is the primary reason you look for a new vendor?
market awareness and customer demand. This is one way
cutting-edge technologies and solutions come to market.

We saw this happen in security with Denial-of-Service solu-

tions becoming available before many companies even

knew there was a problem in need of solving. Is necessity

the mother of invention – or does invention drive neces-

sity? Did I really need a smart phone before the iPhone, or

did Apple’s invention create something that is as much a

part of my being as the hand that constantly holds it?
Only 2.5% of the solution providers said they start looking for a new vendor
because they are dissatisfied with a current vendor. Don’t mistake this for data
that the partners don’t cut vendors! You’ll see later in the Growth section solu-
tion providers are trimming their vendor ranks at an average of 10% a year.
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Vendor events or industry events?

Almost twice as many solution providers report they learn about new technol-
ogies at vendor events (70%) than at industry events (40%) such as RSA. That
was a bit surprising to me, so I asked a bunch of solution providers to clarify.
It seems vendor events give part-
ners’ solutions architects more time How do you learn about new technologies?
to delve into technologies, whereas
industry events are busy with custom-

ers and sales activities. Many vendor

events include a host of comple-

mentary product presentations and
exhibitors. For example, Dreamforce

(Salesforce.com’s yearly conference)

features over 400 exhibitors that are

complementary (and some compet-
itive) to Salesforce.com products.
Microsoft Inspire, a conference for partners, showcases over 200 exhibitors and
sponsors. Even though these are vendor events, they still provide a wide range
of technology awareness for solution providers.
But the most important way solution providers find out about new technologies
is through conversations with their customers. Although this was reported as
a little less popular than vendor events, these one-on-one conversations with
customers are more significant in creating awareness of potential gaps to fill.
The solution provider sales teams frequently meet with their customers, iden-
tifying opportunities to solve business challenges. Technology needs are often
highlighted in these conversations which send the solution provider sales repre-
sentative off to find options to solve customer problems.
In our survey, the solution providers could choose multiple methods for learning
about new technologies – choosing 3.7 responses on average. Meaning there
are several effective ways vendors can and should reach potential partners.
The third way solution providers become aware of new technologies is through
conversations with other solution providers and distributors. They often talk
with their solution provider colleagues at events and through one-on-one rela-
tionships they’ve developed over decades. They sometimes collaborate, often
compete, and yet regularly share information about technologies and vendors
helping them succeed with customers. In the Partner Advisory Council meet-
ings I facilitate, I’ve heard solution providers competing in the same geographic

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markets openly share stories about Where do you recruit new partners?
great vendors to work with and those

to avoid. The more vendors focus on

solution provider satisfaction, the

more likely those solution provid-

ers are to adopt new technologies

released from those vendors and

make positive recommendations their

colleagues.

In comparison, the vendor respon-
dents indicated they tend to recruit
new partners foremost at industry trade shows (ranked at
#6 in the solution provider responses). Maybe the vendor
respondents like traveling to Las Vegas? A close second The more vendors focus
for the vendors was ‘recommendations from other solu-
tion providers and distribution partners.’ The number one
on solution provider
answer for solution providers, vendor events, was only satisfaction, the more likely
the fourth most popular response from the vendor partic- those solution providers are
ipants. So, the vendors like events but aren’t prioritizing
the right events. Vendors could also pick more than one to adopt new technologies
method for recruiting new partners and they did – choosing released from those vendors.
3.1 responses on average.
What to Do:
Continuously recruit partners
ྲྲEnter prospective partners into your partner database so you can keep
track of those that have connected with you, including through informal
methods.
ྲྲAttend other vendor events to identify and introduce yourself to prospective

partners. Even if they don’t sign up for your partner program at the event
they are worth keeping in touch with.
ྲྲNurture solution providers with relevant content and communications

similar to how you nurture a customer prospect.
ྲྲLeverage your current partner success/satisfaction and ask for referrals to

other solution providers.

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Stage Two: Consideration

In this second stage of the partner journey,
solution providers evaluate the products, tech-
nologies, brands and/or companies to meet their
needs. The solution providers report they are
considering 2.3 vendors (on average) against
each other. That doesn’t seem like a lot! But
remember, they’ve already reduced the number
in consideration during the Awareness stage.
Who evaluates?
As discussed, the impetus for evaluation often
comes from the partner sales teams’ discus-
sions with customers. Their sales teams are
also the first to connect with a specific vendor
in the Consideration stage. In some instances,
depending on the size and focus of the solution
provider, the solution architect (or practice
manager) might start the dialogue with a
specific vendor. This is interesting because most vendors expect a prospec- How many vendors are typically in
consideration against each other?
tive solution provider to complete an online partner application to kick off
the engagement process. However, if the partner sales representative starts
the discussion inside the solution provider and begins talks to evaluate new
vendors, these sales folks are not going to take the time to complete a vendor’s
partner program application. I’ve rarely met a sales rep that is patient enough
to enter details on a form and wait for a returned response. They usually either
pick up the phone to get the information they want or click the button on the
website that says, “call me.”
On the vendor side, the VP of Channels identifies the need to recruit new or
different partners. But the Channel Development Manager (or Partner Manager)

is responsible for evaluating potential partners’ alignment to the target profile.
(This could also be the Director of Channel Sales depending on the size of
the vendor organization.) This early engagement between the vendor part-
ner manager and the solution provider sales rep will determine if a vendor is
included as part of the solution providers’ consideration set.

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What do vendors evaluate?

As discussed in our 2018 State of Partnering report, the vendors’ top five Rank the criteria on which you
evaluate potential partners:
recruitment priorities are (in order): systems integrators (regional or global),

managed service providers, born-in-the-cloud solution providers, traditional

resellers and services partners. They ranked Business Model as their primary
criteria to evaluate partners against these recruitment priorities. Since the

Partner Manager – or what I call the Channel Development Manager – handles
the evaluation, he/she needs to align the company growth expectations with

recruitment priorities and the value exchange with each type of solution

provider. This isn’t always a given. Often vendors don’t take the time to train

channel managers on the different partner business models and how their

programs bring value to those partner models.

The vendors ranked these criteria after Business Model:
1. Complementary products or solutions is the most important criteria for

a vendor to evaluate, considering the importance the partner assigns to
compatibility with other solutions in their evaluation of vendors.
2. A solution providers’ mix of product sales and services revenue identifies
potential partners with a successful services practice.
3. To be able to fill coverage gaps, vendors also want to know the partners’
geographic coverage. For example, does the partner cover Southern
California or a small patch of Northern California?
4. Knowing the partners’ typical point of contact in a customer helps
identify if they will be selling to line-of-business decision makers or to IT
departments.
5. Both revenue size and company size metrics determine the partner’s
capacity for growth with vendor solutions. It isn’t a predictor of success.
Bigger isn’t always better. But if the solution provider is a $200m company
they have more capacity for growth with a specific technology or product
than a partner with only $5m in yearly revenues.
6. Lastly, the metric of competitive products/solutions identifies if the partner
is already knowledgeable/successful in a specific technology or market. Quite
frankly, I was surprised the vendors didn’t rate this criterion much higher, as
it shortens the onboarding time and indicates likely success. Plus, it’s high on
the solution provider evaluation criteria.
Each of these individual metrics provides relevant data about a partner’s busi-
ness and potential success within your ecosystem. When compiled together
they create a powerhouse evaluation. It’s easiest to collect these metrics in a
phone call with the solution provider sales representative, likely the person who

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reached out for some initial information about
your products and pricing. Often these requests
come through your website to the inside sales team
and should be quickly and efficiently routed to the
channel management team to develop and nurture
a relationship with the solution provider rep.
What’s important to partners?

At this stage of their journey, partners are
prioritizing availability of support and pricing in
their consideration of potential technologies or
vendors. I was not surprised to see the solution
providers rank access to support as their top factor
in the evaluation. In last year’s study 6 Pillars of Partner Experience, ‘access to
support teams’ topped the elements that affected a partner’s experience with a
vendor. This continues to emphasize a trend I’ve been pointing out for several
years – the primary pain point for solution providers has shifted from ‘access to
product’ to ‘effectively designed and delivered services.’
The solution providers also ranked product functionality and compatibility with
existing solutions as very important to their evaluation processes. Solution
architects get involved in the evaluation of technologies and vendors during this
Consideration stage for this very reason. It is highly unlikely solution providers
would expect their sales teams to evaluate the product functionality, which is
needed to move into the next stage: Decision.
What to Do:
Connect at the sales level to be considered an option
ྲྲEducate and train your Partner Managers to engage with a solution partner sales person and/or
solutions architect – the first folks who evaluate the technologies and vendors.
ྲྲDon’t make the solution provider partner submit a formal partnership application on your portal
at the consideration stage. Make it easy for them to gather information to bring back to their
organization as they move into the Decision stage.
ྲྲCreate communications and materials that speak to the evaluation points of: easy access to
support, your great pricing, your products’ robust functionality and compatibility with other
products/solutions.

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Stage Three: Decision

It’s the third stage of the partner
journey and solution providers have
narrowed down their options in prod-
ucts, technologies and/or vendors.
Now it’s time to decide.
Who makes the decision?

The solution provider respondents
report the sales team and the CEO
have the most influence in this phase,
with the CEO making the final deci-
sion. In larger solution providers, the
VP of the tech sector (the individual
running the business unit around the
set of technologies) makes the final
decision. From the very beginning,
the sales team has been instrumental.
The tech team (systems engineers
and solution architects) wields the
next highest level of influence in the
decision-making process. This isn’t
What level of influence do the following have in the decision-making process?
surprising considering the importance
of a technical evaluation.

On the vendor side, while the Partner

Manager is engaged in the evaluation
of prospective partners in the previous

phase, the VP of Channels or Director

of Channel Sales now makes the

final decision to bring on a prospec-

tive partner. I encourage vendors to

design and document a smooth tran-

sition process between the primary
responsibilities in the Consideration
and Decision stages. This ensures

the opportunity with the prospective
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partner is clearly communicated to the executive making Rank the importance of
the final decision. Many vendors rely on their Partner these elements in your decision to
bring on a new vendor:
Relationship Management (PRM) system to process the

transition between stages. This works well if the PRM solu-

tion is robust enough to capture and display the evaluation

metrics and insights in a scorecard or dashboard format.

What makes a partner pick you?
With decision-makers identified, it’s time to make the call.
At this point, the solution provider criteria have morphed a

bit. Technical capabilities now outpace all other elements

in the decision to bring on a new vendor. The solution
provider sales rep might have liked the response from the
vendor channel manager, but if the vendor can’t pass the
technical standards, no dice. The technical evaluation includes functionality
review, performance assessment and compatibility with other products the
partner has adopted. Most solution providers have a rigorous and well-docu-
mented process for a vendor technical evaluation. Just ask.
Vendor stability ranked as the

second highest priority for the
solution providers in the Decision
phase. Stability can mean many Stability can mean many things,
things, including low channel exec-
utive turnover, consistent behavior including low channel executive turnover,
in support and service situations and consistent behavior in support and
dependable and predictable commu-
service situations and dependable and
nications and actions. This doesn’t
include installed-base demand or predictable communications and actions.
even brand recognition, both of which
are farther down on the solution provider priority list. Partners are looking for a
feeling of steadiness. Unfortunately, there isn’t a checklist I can offer vendors to
ensure success with this subjective assessment.
An estimate of their profitability with a vendor’s products ranked third.

Profitability covers a lot. It can be everything from enablement and sales cycle
expectations to financial elements to the ability to access support and provide
value-added services. About three years ago, the solution provider respondents
shifted from a general understanding or feeling about their profitability with a
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vendor to systematically calculating When you consider participating in a vendor’s partner program, besides margin
what program features and benefits are most important?
profitability per vendor line. Product
margins is an element we pulled
out and measured (it ranked #5 in

importance) and it is also part of this

profitability calculation.

When we asked the partners what

program elements (other than
margin!) are important to their deci-

sion to work with a vendor, I could
have predicted the results. Think back

to the emphasis on support high-

lighted in the Consideration phase
and check out our 6 Pillars of Partner

Experience report. Technical support,

pre-sales support and technical

training were the top three program
elements the partners cared about
(again, other than margin) with sales training and customer
service rounding out the top five. These program benefits
point to the partners’ priorities of training and support,
enabling them to be successful selling, implementing and
maintaining a solution for their customers.
What to Do:
Lay the foundation to be selected by top solution providers
ྲྲAsk your prospective partner for their technical evaluation process and expectations. They’re
likely to have this documented and might even share it with you.
ྲྲConnect at a senior level with the CEO of the solution provider. This is the ultimate decision maker.
It wouldn’t hurt to have your Channel Chief reach out and connect directly, or possibly even break
bread if you can manage an in-person visit.
ྲྲBe consistent and proactive with the partner as they go through the evaluation and decision.
Ensure clear and timely communications both internally as you consider the partner’s fit in your
ecosystem and externally with the partner as they’re evaluating you.
ྲྲInvest in enhancing training and support elements of your program. Remove as many financial
and process hurdles as possible to provide access to these priority elements.

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Stage Four: Experience

At this stage, the partner is now engaging in a relationship with the vendor. The
on-boarding begins with initial communications, training and introductions
to field sales teams. But the experience doesn’t stop after the first 30-, 60- or
90-day steps. It encompasses all the interactions a solution provider has with
a vendor, including people, communications, infrastructure systems, program
elements and business planning and review meetings.
The solution provider respondents rated the experience between ‘extremely

important’ and ‘critical’ to their ongoing relationship and success with a vendor.
I preach how partner experience drives partner engagement. (Amen.) The better
the experience, the better the engagement. And partner engagement drives
sales, market reach and customer success. Vendors need to give their part-
ners the best possible experience with their company to ensure a position as a
primary vendor, their preferred vendor.
#1 People
We asked the solution provider respondents to rank six areas on the extent to Rank these elements in how they affect
which they affect their experience with vendors. The results were enlightening. your overall experience with a vendor:
We’ve all heard and said that our best assets are our people. The respondents

adamantly agreed. People ranked as the most important element in their expe-

rience with a vendor.

So how do vendors foster the people involved in the partner relationship?

Although the partner manager plays the point person in the relationship, most

of the engagement between a solution provider and their vendor is at the field

sales level. Several of the vendor respondents did not compensate the field
rep for partner-closed deals, setting up a competitive instead of a collabora-

tive model. Of the vendors that did compensate the field team, half indicated

partner-closed deals retire a field rep’s quota based on partner cost (what the
partner pays for the product). This generated three times more responses than
any other type of compensation model for the vendor field team. And unfortu-
nately, also generates a bias in the field team against the channel. In this model,
a field rep loses compensation on the difference between what the customer
pays for the product and what the channel partner paid the vendor.
Most of the vendors indicated they provided partners access to support people
through the general support portal/line as if they were a customer or through
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their main channel manager contact. This is ineffective and frustrating for the
solution provider because a trained (and likely certified) partner must wade
through the first- and second-line support questions to get to the third-line
person who can answer the question. A certified partner knows as much if not
more than a vendor’s first- and second-line support personnel. Only about a
third of vendors had the more streamlined models of either a dedicated support
resource assigned to the partner or a dedicated partner support line.
#2 Infrastructure
It’s no surprise infrastructure systems ranked second in affecting experience, as
our data shows that with the proliferation of portals, deal registration tools and
Take a deep dive on the six pillars
Partner Relationship Management systems, 80% of partner engagement with a
supporting partner experience
vendor is through electronic means. And the partners like it that way. Nearly half of
in our comprehensive report at
the vendor respondents indicated they spend less than 2% of their channel budget
Partner-Path.com.
on partner management systems. Partners are happy getting what they need
through online systems – most of the time. But when they need to talk to a person,
they need prompt access to experienced, knowledgeable and professional people.
We can all relate. I prefer to book, change, select seats, even cancel my flights
online versus calling an agent. But when things go sideways and I’m stranded in
Houston in a hurricane, I want to talk to someone who can immediately help me.
#3 Enablement
In the past couple of years, enablement has slipped into the third priority for
partners – overtaken by the online, self-service systems we all prefer. But how
vendors enable partners still has a huge effect on their experience, engagement
and ultimate success. Enablement is the transfer of knowledge and skills and it
includes many points of connection. While enablement can include everything
from business model transformation to marketing support, here we focused on
the classic definition: competency to sell and support the product.
Most of the vendors believe partners should start selling the products after all
training has been completed (typically 60-90 days). However, 20% indicated
they expected the partner to start selling immediately upon signing the partner-
ship agreement while another 20% would only wait until after the first 30-days
of on-boarding. Whoa. Would you want partners to start selling your stuff before
they even know what it does? I recommend the partners develop a full solution
and create differentiated messaging and marketing campaigns before trial sell-
ing. However, many of our vendor clients scoff at waiting that long.
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Other than product discounts, Where do you feel your partners have the greatest need for enablement?
vendors spend most of their budgets

on solution provider enablement.

So we asked where they thought

their partners had the greatest need

for enablement. Over two-thirds of

the vendors indicated their partners
needed more enablement on selling

the value and differentiation of their

products. The vendor respondents

have chosen this as the greatest need
for partner enablement for the past

six years (since we started including it

as an option) and it is hooey. Solution
providers are already engaged in sales
akin to the vendor’s products – either complementary or competitive – and have
more experience than vendors acknowledge.
The next highest ranked enablement priority is effective pre-sales discovery,

with less than half of the responses of #1 (selling value and differentiation).
With the technical nature of these products and solutions, this is not surprising.
However, it is surprising that enablement for partners to develop a vertical solu-
tion and selling to a broader set of customers is on the bottom of the vendors’
priority list. That’s too bad as these two things would help vendors expand their
sales in a differentiated way and with higher value (prices).
#4 Engagement Model
The partners ranked the engagement model options fourth in importance as it
relates to their overall experience with a vendor. Partners may resell, refer, act
as an agent, develop technologies, embed products in their solution/services
or consult on policies – or any combination of these models. This element of
experience will be even more important to solution providers as their business
models evolve with cloud consumption. As the current financial rewards of
discounts/margin on product sales evaporate in a cloud model, other engage-
ment options become more important. Since most solution providers will, or
already do, have some portion of their revenues and profit coming from at least
two different engagement models, partners will continue to prioritize vendors
with flexible models and options.

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#5 Program Policies
Program policies have less effect on partner experience than most channel
people think. As a channel enthusiast, I get very excited about the details of
partner programs. (I’m sure you do too.) These elements are not unimportant,
but they’re transparent to partners. For example, 63% of the vendor respon-
dents indicated they provide co-marketing funds to qualifying partners based on
initiatives and 37% provide funds based on the partner’s sales volume. Partners
want to know how much money they can access, the expectation for pre-ap-
proval and the claiming processes. They don’t care how the funds accrue.
But since access to support was one Which elements are included in your professional services and support programs?
of the key criteria solution providers

evaluated in the earlier Consideration

phase, I thought I’d look at what
the vendors offered (or required) for

services and support. Most of the

vendors reported partners sell their

own support offerings and/or resell

vendor-branded support. Then it was

a virtual tie between partners leading
the professional services engagements
or sub-contracting to vendors (many vendors have both options for their partner
ecosystem). The challenge is, many of the vendors expect partners to be certi-
fied to offer even their own professional services around the vendor’s product.
What right do vendors have in dictating what qualifications a partner must have
for offering their own services and support to their end customers?
#6 Performance Metrics
Although performance metrics ranked lowest of the partner experience
elements, it’s still vital. I record (and chart) my workout scores to gauge my
month-over-month improvements. (Doesn’t everyone?) Both vendors and
solution providers need metrics to measure improvement. 63% of the vendor
respondents indicated they measure the success of their partners on year-over-
year sales growth and 43% measure net new customers. Both of those are fine
metrics to have on individual partners and the ecosystem. However, only 18%
of vendors indicated they measure the satisfaction of their partners’ customers
and only 7% measured partner satisfaction. In an industry where we obsessively
measure the customer experience, journey and satisfaction, having less than
4
10% of the vendors measure partner Why have you regretted joining a vendor’s program?
satisfaction is disheartening.

Lastly, for this in-depth examination

of the Experience stage of the partner

journey, we asked the solution provid-

ers why they’ve regretted joining a

partner program. The results were

encouraging – not because there

weren’t regrets – but because the top

two are fixable! Back in the top spot

after a one-year hiatus, ‘Vendor failed

to deliver on promises’ continues its
7-year-reign (out of 8!) as the number
one regret partners have for joining a vendor’s channel program. There is no
excuse for this being anywhere near the top of the list. The problem boils down
to the simple act of communicating expectations and commitments with part-
ners – followed by doing what you say you’re going to do.
The second reason partners regret joining a vendor’s channel program, direct
channel conflict, can also be minimized with clear expectations and commu-
nications. Vendors should first state where they will focus their efforts and
where the solution provider will have a green field of ‘clear run’ to minimize the
times you bump into each other. There are items on this list of regrets that are
challenging to address – like profitability being too low or the technology not
performing well – but these first two items can (and should) be tackled by the
vendors’ channel team. Pick off this low hanging fruit!
What to Do:
Prioritize the partner experience
ྲྲCreate a yearly study where you measure the partner experience across these six elements. The first year will give you a
baseline and then you can put initiatives in place and plot your improvements.
ྲྲCompensate your teams to drive desired behaviors. If your field sales team should be working with partners on
opportunities, their compensation needs to be adjusted accordingly. Retiring quota on partner cost, versus sales price,
penalizes the sales rep each time a partner sells a deal the field rep could have sold direct. Fix your comp neutrality.
ྲྲDo what you say you will. Consistent follow-through builds loyalty.
ྲྲSet up a “pitch and catch” scenario with solution providers where each of you are playing a unique role in the sales and
services cycle instead of in redundant and conflicting activities.

5
Stage Five: Growth

Both the vendors and the solution
provider respondents indicated their
relationships last eight years (on
average). That’s longer than some
marriages! If a vendor makes it to the
Growth stage (partners drop vendors
and vendors drop partners – both at
an average of 10% per year) it’s time
for the partner to evaluate the rela-
tionship for future potential. They
want to determine whether they’re
getting the technology, experience,
success and growth expected from
their investment in a vendor. The
hope is, as the partnership matures
and mutual success is achieved, solid
growth will start the partner journey
over again at the Awareness stage.
When measuring growth, there first

needs to be profit. A few might argue
this isn’t the case if the technology
vendor is a Unicorn. I’ve seen a lot of
investment in growth before profit in
Silicon Valley silliness but typically
profit precedes growth investment. The
solution provider respondents are split
on their expectations of how long it
should take to turn a profit with a new
vendor. Half expect profitability within
the first six months and half expect profitability within the second six months. The
vendor respondents expect the partner profitability to be a bit slower. The over-
whelming majority indicated a new partner should turn a profit in 6-12 months.
I side with the partners since they understand their businesses and the expecta-
tions on an investment in a new vendor. Regardless, expect at least six months of
investment on both sides before the new partnership is profitable.

5
What stymies partner growth? How do you decide which of your

current vendors to further invest in?
At this stage, the criteria for continued investment in the relationship changes
again. The solution provider respondents prioritized ease-of-doing-business

as the key criteria in deciding which vendors to further invest in. They indicate

process complexity distracts from revenue-producing activities, slows their
customer responsiveness and demands too much staff and support, subtracting

from their overall profitability.

The solution providers ranked the unquantifiable metric of relationships as

second in determining those vendors in which they should continue to invest.

Issues like channel conflict (with other solution providers and/or the vendor’s

internal teams), effective account managers, trust and executive-level support

all affect the partner’s time, effort and energy and thus the cost of working with
a vendor.
Holy smokes! Financial reward and market demand were only ranked #3 and
#4? I expected these revenue-producing elements to be stronger driving factors
of continued investment in the vendor relationship. Upon clarification, the
solution provider respondents explained they wouldn’t have made it past the
Awareness stage with vendors who didn’t provide significant financial reward or
have a strong product. Pricing and product functionality were two critical crite-
ria in the early stages of the partner journey and so play a less crucial role here.
And if the relationship is bad, and you can’t get the business done – it doesn’t
matter how big the financial carrot is.
A similar explanation accounts for human resources ranking last. People affect
the partner experience most, in turn affecting engagement and success. Without
those people being highly skilled, proactive and professional the partnership
wouldn’t even make it to the Growth stage.
How aggressive is the growth potential?

There is a slight disconnect between the vendor and solution provider respon-
dents on the expected rate of growth. As I mentioned [way back on page 5],
the solution providers expect their businesses to grow at around 15% in 2018.
On average, they expect to grow at this rate with their top vendors while a bit
slower with their secondary vendors.
The vendor responses skewed toward more aggressive growth. They expected to
grow with their top-tier partners at an average of 21-50% and with both mid-tier

5
and entry-tier partners at 11-20%. It’s a bit overreaching to What is your expected rate of growth with your
partners/vendors at different levels?
expect entry-level partners to invest enough to grow the
business upwards of 10%. Usually, partners are in the lower Rate of Growth 6-10% 11-20% 21-50%
program levels because they are unwilling, for one reason Top Vendors X
or another, to make the investments to grow with that Secondary Vendors X
specific vendor.
Top-tier Partners X
A caveat: we asked for these predictions at the end of 2017. Mid-tier Partners X
Everything could change with the shifting economic and Entry-tier Partners X
political climate. The U.S. House of Representatives and
Senate passed sweeping tax-change regulations that could
alter the economic growth in the United States and with our global trading part-
ners. With record-low approval ratings for the President of the United States,
who knows what could happen in the 2018 election season. 2018 could be a year
of even more economic, legal and political maneuvering.
Economic threat? What is the biggest threat to your business?

It’s no surprise economic uncertainty ranked as the
second-biggest threat to the solution providers’ businesses,
only topped by the ever-present competition with vendor

direct field-sales teams. Rounding out the top five biggest

threats were: rapid technology disruption, peer competi-

tion and lack of available talent. I was relieved to see the

solution provider respondents don’t view cloud self-service
as a big threat to their business. They’ve discovered ways
to engage in the cloud subscription model and differentiate
their service offerings.
What to Do:
Remove barriers to growth
ྲྲStreamline your processes, invest in automation and
become easy to work with. You think you’re easy –
you’re not.
ྲྲRemove conflict – particularly with your direct teams.
ྲྲPlan for realistic growth targets and expectations of

profitability. No one likes to miss the goal.

Engage partners in the
customer journey
The solution provider respondents indicated they have five primary vendors and
fifteen secondary vendors on average. Over the last 22 pages we’ve discussed
how to become one of these twenty focus vendors. In addition to being mind-
ful of the partner journey, vendors should engage the partner in support of the
customer journey. Ensuring both your team and you partners’ team are commit-
ted to the customer journey is a win for customers but also for engendering
success and loyalty with your partners. A better understanding (and embrace) of
the customer journey is good for their business.
Solution providers can increase subscription revenues and renewals along with
upsell and cross-sell profitability by adopting a customer journey and customer
success model. This shift to a lifecycle selling approach ensures customers real-
ize the value of the product/technology, which leads them to renew more, buy
more and become more loyal customers.

��

��

For decades, vendors have only enabled, recognized and rewarded partners
for landing a customer – acknowledging net new logos or overall revenue/sales
numbers. Most solution providers have mastered the old customer-acquisi-
tion funnel. The next frontier, particularly for technology solutions consumed
in a cloud, on-demand, or subscription model is for vendors to help partners
implement a customer lifecycle model that incorporates activation, adoption,
expansion and renewal of the solution. In fact, Cisco is proving a customer
success focus increases partner profitability. They built an online tool where
partners enter their business factors and are presented a potential growth rate
achievable by adopting a customer lifecycle motion. One example shared at
their 2017 partner conference showed how a partner with a $100m business
could grow to $683m in five years based on customer renewal and expansion.
In a SaaS or subscription model, minimizing customer churn is key to operating

profitably and thus the industry has birthed a new cadre of Customer Success
Managers along with tools to assist in driving adoption, usage and expan-
sion throughout the customer lifecycle. Several vendors (Cisco included) are
incentivizing partners to invest in customer success managers to ensure the
technology solutions are adopted and consumed. With enablement, incentives
and management activities, you can create “partners for life.” Enroll partners in
the customer success journey.
Next generation solution
providers on the horizon
As Ralph Waldo Emerson says, life
is a journey, not a destination. The
concept of a customer journey has
quickly taken root in the business
process lexicon, so much so that
there are over 27 books published
the development, management and
measurement of it. Curating the
lifecycle of a solution providers inter-
actions with your company will also
be a transformational process. Your
processes, people, and systems will
change as you progress through the
journey of developing a partner jour-
ney mindset.
And, the types of partners you work

with will also change along this jour-
ney as IT departments aren’t the
only buyers of technology anymore.
Line-of-business heads, such as
marketing officers, sales leaders, and
HR professionals are identifying needs,
developing requirements, influencing the evaluation and selecting technologies
that accelerate their business goals. These new buyers of technology solutions
are using their own budgets and often make the decision completely without the
IT department’s involvement. They have their own trusted advisors who are often
not the VARs and Solution Providers that currently comprise the channels we have
all spent years fostering. These new influencers are marketing agencies, account-
ing firms, legal offices, consultants and born-in-the-cloud services companies.
Your ability to adapt your strategies, engagement models, program frameworks,

reward systems and management expectations to engage and empower these
new influencers will predict your success and growth in the coming decade. Keep
looking to the horizon to prepare a journey for your next generation of partners.

About the survey
Survey Respondents

14% 36%

19%

3%
7%
21%
7%
50%
25%

18%
The survey was open for one month from mid-November

to mid-December of 2017 on Partner-Path.com. We had
220 solution provider responses and 114 vendor responses
to dozens of online questions. Author Diane Krakora is CEO of
PartnerPath and has two decades of
PHOTO CREDITS: experience defining the best practices
All photos from Unsplash.com
Cover......... by Garrett Sears and frameworks around how to
Page 2 ....... by Franck Veschi
Page 4 ....... by rawpixel.com develop and manage partnerships.
Page 6 ....... by Erik Odiin
Page 9 ....... by Anete Lūsiņa PartnerPath is wholly dedicated to
Page 12 ..... by Kelsey Knight
Page 15 ..... by Leio McLaren helping companies elevate the impact
Page 20 ..... by Austin Ban
Page 23 ..... by Dmytro Matsiuk of partnering at any stage of their
Page 25 ..... by Leio McLaren
Page 26 ..... by Alex Perez partner and channel development cycle.

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5 Stages

5 Stages of the Partner Journey | Partner-Path.com 1

5 Stages of the Partner Journey | Partner-Path.com 2

ྲྲCreate digital marketing workshops to help partners adopt these

ྲྲChange your partner deal management systems from measuring prospect

5 Stages of the Partner Journey | Partner-Path.com 3

Introducing the partner journey

5 Stages of the Partner Journey | Partner-Path.com 4

In December of 2017, we surveyed 104 vendors and 220 solution

ྲྲAlign your communications and materials to the partner journey stages

ྲྲMeasure your Partner Account Managers (PAMs) on partner success

5 Stages of the Partner Journey | Partner-Path.com 5

Stage One: Awareness

Vendor events or industry events?

industry events are busy with custom- 

ers and sales activities. Many vendor ­

events include a host of comple-   

mentary product presentations and 

exhibitors. For example, Dreamforce 

(Salesforce.com’s yearly conference)   

5 Stages of the Partner Journey | Partner-Path.com 7

ྲྲAttend other vendor events to identify and introduce yourself to prospective

ྲྲNurture solution providers with relevant content and communications

ྲྲLeverage your current partner success/satisfaction and ask for referrals to

5 Stages of the Partner Journey | Partner-Path.com 8

Stage Two: Consideration

5 Stages of the Partner Journey | Partner-Path.com 9

What do vendors evaluate?

1. Complementary products or solutions is the most important criteria for

5 Stages of the Partner Journey | Partner-Path.com 10

What’s important to partners?

5 Stages of the Partner Journey | Partner-Path.com 11

Stage Three: Decision

Who makes the decision?

phase, the VP of Channels or Director   

responsibilities in the Consideration      

and Decision stages. This ensures

Vendor stability ranked as the

An estimate of their profitability with a vendor’s products ranked third.

have predicted the results. Think back   

5 Stages of the Partner Journey | Partner-Path.com 14

Stage Four: Experience

The solution provider respondents rated the experience between ‘extremely

products. The vendor respondents  

The next highest ranked enablement priority is effective pre-sales discovery,

5 Stages of the Partner Journey | Partner-Path.com 17

services and support. Most of the    

encouraging – not because there  

5 Stages of the Partner Journey | Partner-Path.com 19

Stage Five: Growth

When measuring growth, there first

5 Stages of the Partner Journey | Partner-Path.com 20

What stymies partner growth? How do you decide which of your

How aggressive is the growth potential?

5 Stages of the Partner Journey | Partner-Path.com 21

Economic threat? What is the biggest threat to your business?

ྲྲRemove conflict – particularly with your direct teams.

ྲྲPlan for realistic growth targets and expectations of

5 Stages of the Partner Journey | Partner-Path.com 22

In a SaaS or subscription model, minimizing customer churn is key to operating

And, the types of partners you work

Your ability to adapt your strategies, engagement models, program frameworks,

5 Stages of the Partner Journey | Partner-Path.com 25

industry events are busy with custom-

ers and sales activities. Many vendor

events include a host of comple-

mentary product presentations and

exhibitors. For example, Dreamforce

(Salesforce.com’s yearly conference)

phase, the VP of Channels or Director

responsibilities in the Consideration

have predicted the results. Think back

products. The vendor respondents

services and support. Most of the

encouraging – not because there