The idea of partnering with third parties to enhance a business’s reach and expand the sales network is not new! Implementing a channel partner program ensures that a business can take advantage of indirect selling channels. Channel partnerships are becoming increasingly popular among the fastest-growing Tech companies seeking out ways to attain more revenue and reach a larger customer base. Channel Partners are the real driving forces of the indirect channels that help in maximizing the ROI. You can always scale up your go-to-market team strategies to reach out to a broader audience while working with the channel partners that facilitate maximizing the budgets. Does it sound great? But choosing to work with the channel partnerships might raise a few questions: What exactly is required to get started? How do I know what type of partner program is right for our specific business types? And many more! Looking for answers to these questions? Read on to learn more about it!
Types of Channel Partnership Programs!
1. Affiliate Program
Affiliate partner programs drive traffic through tracked links placed on the partner's website. They earn revenue based on the traffic they drive back to the vendor. It’s one of the easiest channel partner program types in which you provide an affiliate link to the channel partners; they share the link further on varied channels. When the customers who share the links make a purchase, they earn a percentage of the revenue. This can generally be started on a small scale, like a traceable link where the channel partners are paid for conversions.For whom the affiliate partner program is good?
Businesses who want to experiment with the channel partner programs devoid of any bit upfront investments.How to begin with such programs?
Start with defining a partner persona type you might be looking for. This generally comes from the group of people who are already connected with the website. You can usually begin by managing it through spreadsheets, which can be the manual way of handling it all, but then it can be complicated enough to manage manually. However, to manage it all automatically, you must choose a channel partner program that provides an interface between you and partners to sign in, track sales, communicate, and collect rewards. And to set the channel partners up for success, you must create a centralized resource hub. Since the channel affiliate partners are responsible for driving top-of-the-funnel development, they do not require in-depth knowledge or training but still must be equipped with the basics.What type of resources would help such partner programs?
- Channel Partner Program FAQs
- Brand logos and colors
- A welcome flow for new channel partners
- Brand-related social images
- One pager of sales
- Any other marketing material that will be helpful
2. Referral Partner Program
Referral partner programs are the type of programs in which referral channel partners send qualified leads for the teams to close and earn some percentage revenue when the deal gets through. It’s a perfect partner program to start with if one already has happy customers referring their connections to the business. So basically, in a referral partner program, a channel partner qualifies leads on the company’s behalf, sends them to the company, and earns a piece of revenue from each referral once the sales team closes it. This can be done by choosing one referral link or lead submissions that generally share the details of the prospects directly with the sales team.How to begin with such programs?
To begin with, the referral partner programs require more effort in terms of resources and time to get off the ground as compared to the affiliate partner program. Vet the channel partners thoroughly as they represent the company in front of the prospects. And to make such channel partnership programs a success, educate the channel partners with in-depth resources.For whom the referral partner program is good?
Referral partner programs are suitable for companies with a network of customer advocates acting as informal partners in sending the leads.What type of resources would help such partner programs?
Along with the basic resources mentioned in the affiliate channel partner program, the addition of the following would be helpful:- Detailed product guides
- Datasheets
- White papers
- Technical specifications
- Competitive sales sheet
- Products demo details
- Email templates that can be shared with prospects
- Sales scripts
3. Reseller Partner Program
Reseller partner programs include the channel reseller partners selling directly on the company’s behalf and earning a commission for the same. This type of partner program is considered an involved one in terms of financial and time investments. And this partner program indicates that the company is outsourcing the complete sales process to the reseller and trusting them to bet the account executives.How to begin with such programs?
When choosing the reseller partner programs, it is essential to have an established relationship with the channel partners so you can trust them to sell on the company’s behalf. Therefore, ample companies already have an existing channel partner program, so they have a well-established network of informal channel partners whom you trust. In order to make the reseller partner program to be successful, the company needs to invest in significant internal resources like designing training and certifications, building the resources, and creating fascinating reward structures.For whom the referral partner program is good?
Companies must choose reseller partner programs if they already have the channel partners you already work closely with and you are already ready to invest your time in training them as the certified reselling partners of the services.What type of resources would help such partner programs?
Along with the resources of referral and affiliate channel partner programs, the addition of the following would be helpful:- Sales decks
- Pre-built social media campaigns
- Co-marketing materials.
