Successful channels operate from a detailed plan that incorporates GTM strategy, product alignment, team design, functional support, dependencies, and detailed financials. Here are a few of the key elements we consider and incorporate:

Vision and Data Foundation: Establish a clear vision supported by robust data.

Market Strategy: Develop compelling, data-driven routes to market by region(s) that unlock customer acquisition and buyer personas through vertically focused routes and partners.

Product/Solution Alignment: Tightly incorporate business product strategy by region(s).

Targets and Scalability: Set defined partner targets and scalable go-to-market strategies.

Organizational Design & Staffing: Determine optimal team design and staging across non-quota foundational roles and quota bearing heads.

Sales and Financials: Integrate sales projections with detailed financial plans.

Cross-Functional: Consider all necessary functions for success and investments required both within the channel team and across the business. Often times critical dependencies reside in other teams but are not adequately addressed in the strategy or investments.

Scalability and Adaptability: Ensure the plan can scale up or down and has realistic goals. Treat the plan as a living document that guides all activities and is updated regularly.

This may sound elementary but it's the trap-door where many channels fail to launch or come under immense pressure.

Alignment across your business is crucial for success. Ensure the business plan is coordinated cross-functionally with key stakeholders and executive leadership. Effective communication, regular updates, and data-driven decisions are vital. Successful channels thrive on transparency, and for business leaders it's an absolute requirement.

We start by designing (or refining) three key areas of a scalable channel business foundation:

1. Strategy & Programs:

• Design a unified program with clear naming conventions, tiers, benefits, and requirements.

• Establish compelling routes to market that can scale.

• A partner portal featuring onboarding workflows, deal registration, MDF management, a content library, sales tools, marketing assets, partner commission tracking, and training/LMS.

• Revenue generation for partners: Ensure partners clearly understand how they make money in a profitable relationship which will drive their motivation to invest. This could include a mix of margin on resell, commissions for referrals, revenue from services, drag on other products/solutions, consulting, and more.

2. Partner Enablement:

• Develop customized learning paths to enhance partner engagement and build competencies across sales, product knowledge, and implementation/services. Certification or accreditation is the key.

• Emphasize value-added services and practice-building for partners that deliver services, integrate, and consult.

3. Partner Marketing:

• Execute joint partner go-to-market strategies to drive top-of-funnel creation through sell-with and sell-through campaigns.

• Build this function as a core competency to ensure repeatable campaign execution that will drive your top-of-funnel by leveraging product-aligned assets, "partnerized" messaging, and subject-matter experts.

Scaling execution starts with optimizing resources in the channel and then cross-functionally. This involves:

• Organizational design

• Attracting and retaining top talent

• Comprehensive role training and on-boarding

• Compensation plans that incentivize desired behaviors

• Leadership

• Well-defined partner territories

• Partner business plans with targets, alignment, cadence, and executive support

For most businesses employing a multi-sales route strategy where direct sales plays a dominant role, it is crucial to align GTM efforts to:

• Minimize field conflicts

• Optimize marketing campaigns and costs

• Strategically attribute and distribute leads

• Monitor sales costs to support gross margins

• Implement effective arbitrage strategies

This alignment ensures seamless execution, maximizes efficiency, and drives business growth.

By leveraging the strategy, foundation, and an aligned team, empower sales with a set of coordinated channel GTM initiatives (plays) that will lead to achieving and exceeding indirect targets. These include calibrated activities and aligned resources across programs, product/services, partners, and marketing to drive repeatable results. In some cases this includes channel incentives & promotions. Targets are established and resources prioritized around focused execution within a defined time-frame and tight KPI measurements.

No matter your channel size (or ambition), the 80/20 rule likely applies in that 80% of your revenue comes (or will come) from the top 20% of your partners. While a healthy channel has partners contributing and growing in many different ways, scaling high-potential strategic alliances can lead to transformational growth and exponentially accelerate your indirect sales. It's vital to get this right by utilizing a proven channel sales methodology to manage and grow your top partners.

Establishing KPIs and integrating them into your CRM, reporting dashboards, and financials is the best-practice for visibility and performance management. Key KPI categories include:

• Partner Originated Sales

  • Pipelines

  • Closed/won rates

  • Cross-sell/upsell

  • Sales stage conversion

• Marketing

  • MDF

  • # of leads

  • Lead to opportunity conversion ratios

  • Sales funnel conversion rates

  • Campaigns

  • Top of funnel creation

• Organization

  • Partner manager pipeline coverage

  • Quota bearing heads achieving 80% of quota

  • Quota / OTE ratio

  • Tracking time spent by quota roles on non-selling administrative tasks

• Program/Portal/Training

  • Portal log-in and engagement rates

  • Content views and assets consumed

  • Standardized contracting

  • Partner Business Plans

  • Deal Registration metrics

  • Average partner revenue and growth ratios

  • Onboarded partners meeting training requirements

• Recruitment & Enablement

  • # partners signed and active

  • New partner on-boarding metrics and time to revenue