FAQs from Sales teams about Partnerships

I’m sure we’ve all planned our dream house in our head, but if we were given a pile of bricks and mortar, would many of us know what we were doing?

This is how your teams might feel if you tell them you’ll be pursuing partnerships. After all, it’s them who have to roll it out, and unless you enroll them in bricklaying classes, they’ll have questions.

That’s why we’ve put together this Q&A addressing the main concerns of Sales teams when tasked with moving into partnerships. We’ll also be creating the same for other teams such as Marketing, Customer Success, and Product, so keep your eyes peeled!

For this, we asked direct sellers from companies shifting to this new go-to-market strategy what they were most concerned about and what they wished they’d known ahead of time. 

We’ve compiled the top questions and provided the answers to help you figure out how to start laying those solid partner foundations.

‍

1. Who ultimately owns the relationship with the partner?

‍

Question: 

Who ultimately owns the relationship with the partner? E.g if someone in Sales builds a stronger relationship than the partner team, what's the best way to delegate the relationship management?

‍

Answer: 

One of the greatest things for a partner team to see is their sellers really leaning into partner-assisted selling. 

It’s great to see sellers building strong relationships with partners. However, sellers have to understand the strategy behind partnerships. This means that the partner team ultimately owns the partner relationship and the partner program. Therefore, it’s important that sellers still abide by the guardrails that the partner team has put in place and don't go rogue, as this can lead to issues further down the line.

If sellers are building great relationships with partners and think these partners need some additional TLC from the partner team, they should bring this up to their colleagues and explain why they think this is the case.

There’s typically a larger strategic reason why the partner team may prioritize some partnerships over others, and sellers should be mindful not to go “off script” or promise partners certain things without getting a green light from the partner team.

In addition, if a particular seller has discovered techniques and strategies that make certain partners tick this should be voiced and put before the partner team as it may help your entire partner ecosystem.

‍

Tactical tip:

The partner team owns the partner relationship. If you are a seller who has developed a stronger relationship with a partner, then while that’s great (no sarcasm!), you need to realize that there are usually strategic considerations at play that might make your partner team prioritize certain partners over others. So, be sure to work hand-in-hand with your partner team, and don't “go rogue” as this could jeopardize your wider partner program.

‍

2. How well is the business set up to support a partnership program?

‍

Question: 

How well is the business set up to support a partnership program? Do we have the right tools and processes in place to make sure the partner is motivated to bring us leads and get the aftercare (i.e. referral revenue) they need? This is important as it should not be the salesperson's role to chase contracts/fees etc internally.

‍

Answer: 

If your company has decided to build out a partner program, it should also set up the right tools and processes to make sure your partner program has the highest chance of success.

A partner program is only a proper program if there are clear processes in place – otherwise, it’s just chaos. Everything from how partners are motivated (partner enablement and communications) to account renewal guidelines (i.e. Is the partner involved at renewal, and if so to what extent?) needs to be thought about and addressed.

Without the programmatic elements of a partner program that dictate what happens and when, no one will know what they’re doing or when, and things won’t function. So, if you find yourself down the river without a paddle, you need to escalate your concerns as it’s not your fault you don’t have the right tools. 

Finally, the statement in the question about it not being a salesperson's role to chase revenue is not entirely correct… As a direct seller, if you’re working with partners to close net new revenue, you’re going to have to put in a similar effort as if you were selling to a customer directly.

Working with a partner does not mean that the partner is wholly beholden to doing everything to ensure that the mutual customer signs. In terms of figuring out how much the partners cut is and how they get paid (in a referral relationship) this is the responsibility of the partner team and should be hands-off from a seller's perspective.

‍

Tactical tip:

If you are a seller being told to work more closely with partners, you should be given a clear playbook or set of rules that govern your partnership program. These rules should detail the various ways that partners should be involved in deals in addition to detailing commercial matters.

When rolled out to sellers, a good partner program should also detail the elements of the program such as tooling, that will make it clear to sellers what the partner's journey is.

‍

3. How do you split your time between direct outbound and partner relationships?

‍

Question:

What are some of the best ways to split time between direct outbound and nurturing partner relationships? Should these two be part of the same role or separated?

‍

Answer: 

This depends entirely on the organization you work for and how far they are leaning into partnerships.

Some organizations use their SDRs and account data from platforms from Reveal to run fully “partner-led” outbound. In these teams, your outbound might be 90% nurturing partner relationships and using shared account data and 10% doing your own outbound.

But this can also work the other way around.

As a seller, you are given clear metrics that you need to hit. For SDRs, this might be qualified booked meetings, and for account executives, this will be closed revenue.

Therefore, to get a feel for how much time you should spend between partner nurturing and direct outbound, you should lean into the strategies that will get you closer to achieving your goals.

So should the two be separated? IN terms of nurturing partner-level relationships, the partner team should be the ones who own the relationship all up. However, where account executives are working with their counterparts at other organizations to co-sell, there should be equal effort established to build these relationships, as all the data points to partner-led deals closing faster for more.

‍

Tactical tip:

If you are a seller unsure of what percentage of your time should be spent nurturing partner relationships compared to traditional outbound, ask your revenue leaders to create a clear set of guidelines.

Every organization values partners differently. For those moving to a full partner-first GTM, there may be more emphasis on building sustainable relationships with partners than traditional outbound. The organization needs to clearly direct how it best views a seller's time.

Ultimately, you should prioritize activity that helps you hit your end goal as a seller.

‍

4. Will partners take away potential opportunities from the direct sales teams?

‍

Question:

Will partners take away potential opportunities from the direct sales teams? (Resellers in particular)

‍

Answer:

This is one of the sellers' most often asked questions when working with partners.

Especially on the reseller side, where partners are basically selling your solution to customers, there might be some overlap or channel conflict that may occur.

To prevent partners and direct sales teams from going head-to-head on deals, your partner team should establish rules of engagement that dictate when a partner can sell to a specific customer.

These rules of engagement could be based on territories, i.e. resellers might only be allowed to operate in regions where you don't have a direct sales team, or there might be rules around partners only being able to “work” deals that don't have active opportunities inside your CRM.

Establishing clear guidelines should help to avoid issues between direct sellers and partners.

On the other hand, when co-selling with partners (ie two sellers working together to close a deal), there should be no issues.

In co-sell relationships, you should be both working together to achieve the same overarching end goal, and therefore there should be no “stealing” of opportunities.

To ensure that both partners are on the same page when co-selling, direct sellers should endeavor to meet before jumping on a sales call so both understand their place and the order of the meeting.

‍

Tactical tip:

If you are a direct seller worried about partners “stealing” opportunities, your partnership team probably has not told you the rules of engagement that govern your overarching partner strategy.

By establishing clear rules of engagement, there should be a clear understanding of which opportunities your partners can work vs which accounts/territories are for your direct sellers.

If these don't exist, this should be something which is quickly developed to avoid channel conflict.

‍

5. Will I be expected to help enable partners to sell on the company's behalf without seeing the commission from closed deals?

‍

Question:

Will I be expected to help enable partners to sell on the company's behalf without seeing the commission from closed deals? (Resellers in particular)

‍

Answer:

This is another one that depends on how large and developed your partner program is.

In an established partner program with a reseller partner program, your partner team should have training that guides them on how to sell your product.

This isn’t something that should fall on the direct sales team. Using a tool such as a PRM which houses relevant training content should be enough for resellers to understand the product and know how to sell.

On rare occasions, and especially with new resellers, there may be a request for a direct seller to help them sell their first deal, this should be the extent of the training that direct sellers give partners.

‍

Tactical tip:

If you are a seller, who is fielding requests from resellers or other partner types around how to sell your product, you should raise this with your partner team. This likely means that the training and enablement program that has been pulled together is inadequate and should be redesigned to stop these inbound requests.

‍

6. Will partners know the right type of opportunities to refer?

‍

Question:

Will partners know the right type of opportunities to refer? (Referral partners)

‍

Answer:

The partner team will initially scope out and develop an ideal partner profile with any partner program. This profile is used to determine “good fit” partners that are likely to be productive members of your partner program.

As part of this profiling and further along the recruitment of that partner, it will involve checking with the partner whether they want to be part of the program, and agree that they will be able to reach the right opportunities for you.

Furthermore, as part of new partner onboarding, you will typically explain to the new partner who your ICP is, and therefore clarify what types of opportunities they should refer.

‍

Tactical tip:

If you are getting opportunities from partners that are not right, you should raise this with your partner team. They should take this as an indication that this partner should be retrained or onboarded to recognize the right opps.

‍

7. What is the average reduced sales cycle time working with partners?

‍

Answer:

There is no definitive stat for this as every company, partner, and sales cycle is different. 

There is a lot of data out there to suggest that sales cycles greatly reduce as a result of working with partners. However, the only way to work this out for your own sales organization is to track partner-influenced deals over a period of time and compare this with your traditional sales cycle.

‍

Tactical tip:

If you are a seller looking to be convinced about the “power of partnerships,” you should ask your partner team for evidence of deals that have closed with partners. Additionally, ask your colleagues on the sales team to understand deals they have closed with the help of partners and how much easier these deals were to close.

‍

8. Do we lose out on money because we have to pay partners out?

‍

Answer:

This also differs depending on how your organization has structured commissions of partner-assisted deals.

In some organizations, they “double comp” on deals meaning that they pay out both partners and internal sellers.

In others, there may be a split commission structure which might mean that deals that come in where the deal is “partner assisted” the commission for the deal will be split equally between the partner and the seller.

Although sellers may feel annoyed or frustrated and feel like they are “losing out on money” in a split commission structure, typically, these deals require less effort and take less time to close, making it fair.

‍

Tactical tip:

As with many of the tactical tips, your partner program should come with rules and guidelines that dictate commission payouts. However, in some cases, working deals with partners might result in sellers earning less commission. The deals will take less effort, so they should be attractive to sellers.

‍

9. Does working with partners complicate the sales cycle?

‍

Answer:

No, as long as there is a structure and process around how you sell with partners.

Partners make sales cycles easier 90% of the time. Let's take a referral partner as an example. In this scenario, they know the customer, the issues or pain points the customer is dealing with, and are able to give you insight you would not have had to help close the deal.

Partners simplify the sales process by providing support and insights to help you close deals. The only time this will not be the case is when there is no process for working with partners.

Where no process exists this can sometimes complicate the process as you aren't sure how partners should be involved in deals, ie are they supposed to join you on sales calls, or are they only required to give you context pre-call, etc.

‍

Tactical tip:

Partners should only make the sales cycle easier and have you closing deals faster.

If this is not the case, it typically means that your internal process for working with partners is failing. You should ask your partner team to clearly define the process for working with partners.