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June 6, 2019
Partner Enablement – the Key to a Successful Indirect Go-to-Market Strategy
By: Patrick Hulse
Selling through the channel can be the most rewarding or painful aspect of your GTM strategy. When a partner takes on the promise of representing your products and brands, it is your responsibility to ensure that they are thoroughly trained and enabled to be successful in the marketplace. Partner enablement is the key to understanding your partners business and how your products integrate into their offering. No matter if you have selected your partners to help open new verticals, geographies or to fulfill in smaller markets – they all need to be properly enabled.
Download the Channel Enablement Scorecard to assess the ways you are enabling your partners to sell your product.
For those of you who sell through channel partners, the key to a successful go-to-market strategy comes via partner enablement. Your partners need the right support, tools, and processes to best express your product’s value proposition and sell to the right customers. In order to provide this enablement to your partners, you must understand your product’s maturity and the goals of your partner program.
For those using partner programs to reach new markets with new products, it’s important to provide necessary pre-sales enablement to ensure your partners know the products unique selling proposition. Essential steps in the pre-sales enablement process will include product training, lead generation, and your unique selling proposition.
If your partners sell a mature product and act as fulfillment, providing post-sales enablement will also be necessary to ensure they are successfully providing for your customers. This enablement aspect will focus more on installation, product training, and customer success.
Pre-Sales Enablement – help your partners get your products in the customer’s hands.
Post-Sales Enablement – make sure your partners can fulfill orders and ensure customer success:
Providing revenue enablement for your partners throughout the sales process will help them make their number, and in turn, will keep your products at the top of their mindshare. Ensure you’re providing the right resources for the right lifecycle stage of your product to guarantee a successful indirect Go To Market strategy.
Download this tool, to ensure you don’t make common mistakes when selecting partners.
Need insights on how to successfully enable your partners? Schedule a working session at SBI’s Studio.
Located in Dallas, TX, our facility offers state-of-the-art meeting rooms, lounge, full-service bar, and a studio used to tape our TV shows. SBI provides the location and facilitators, all at a compelling price point.
As a guest of The Studio, you’ll get unlimited access to SBI’s CEO, Partners, and a handpicked team of experts.
Prior to joining SBI, Patrick worked in the media and advertising worlds at Maple Media where he was involved with a variety of functions including financial valuation, marketing, and product development. Patrick brings these experiences coupled with an ability to transform data into valuable, actionable insights to the consulting team at SBI. Patrick has extensive experience working with executives to drive meaningful solutions and outcomes from complex problems using his analytical skillset.
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