Day 51 in MIT Sloan Fellows Class 2023, Entrepreneurial Sales 3, Partnership
Facts about sales through partnership
- ~80% of B2B companies leverage partnerships
- Partners can boost your entire GTM engines
- Partners really cares about technical support and reliability of product
- Many good partnerships have 30,60,90 days plan
What kind of partnerships exist?
Influencer(Lead Gen)
- Affinity/Affiliate partners
- Referral
- Advocates/Influencers
- Agencies
- Marketplaces
Sell-through
Retain/Grow
- Tech Integrations
- Consultants
- Agencies
- Integrators
- Managed Service Providers
And potential conflicts are as follows.
- Discount/Pricing
- Territory
- Direct vs Channel
Also, software companies have another type of partnership. Strategic alliance.
For example, Uber and spotify. Also, software integration is another way to empower your platform business.
When we should get a partnership?
If you have too many customers to scale and your resource is still small, then you need to consider the partnership model.
You don't need to talk to 10000+ customers directly. Instead of that, you can talk to your top 5 or 10 agencies.
What kind of action we should take for a partnership?
- Build a program with clear gives and gets
- Have a recruiting strategy
- Invest in enabling partners with training and information sharing
- Monitor performance and adjust
Pros and cons of partnerships
Pros
- Expand markets with lower risk
- Retention and growth partners generate new business and upsell
- Great feedback for R&D
- Quick access to unfamiliar markets(geographic, vertical)
Cons
- Potential conflicts
- Loss of control
- Require care and feeding of partners.
Final Tips
- Define short and long term goals of both sides.(Clear gives and takes)
- Define your roles explicitly. Documantation is a key.
- Put everything in wiriting -be specific. Don't do hand-shaking contract.
- Communicate regularly and measure progress.
