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PRINCIPLES

Give more to get more with partner implementation

Strategic partnerships with Systems Integrators (SIs) to handle your implementation can be a game-changer for SaaS revenue growth.

SIs have relationships with markets, networks, and customers that they can better identify and sell your product to, as well as a high-level view of how many business solutions work together for maximum value to customers.

The challenge: A lot of enterprise software companies have internal professional services teams that charge for implementation, and sales reps can earn extra commission for selling these services.

Why would you want to give up that revenue to an external company?

The answer: Because the reach of many SIs and the trust that customers place in them to build customized solutions can bring you much bigger deals when your tool is part of those solutions.

If you think of SIs as an extension of your team’s knowledge and capabilities rather than as implementation competitors, and you structure incentives accordingly, those direct service contracts may end up a drop in the bucket compared to your expanded new deals.

TACTICS

10 lessons for SaaS orgs transitioning to partner implementations

Rachel Fefer leads channel sales at Bloomreach, an e-commerce experience platform that unifies real-time customer and product data.

As SaaS companies weigh the costs and benefits of providing direct implementation services versus working closely with SI partners to deliver software, Rachel’s organization has invested in channel partner relationships to double partner-sourced revenue in two years. 

Rachel’s experience in building SI partnerships has given her a deep understanding of how these relationships work, and when they don’t. 

Here are three of her top tips for how to drive revenue with SI partner implementation:

Tip #1: Start small before scaling

“At Bloomreach, we initially tried to scale our implementation efforts too quickly,” says Rachel. “We underestimated the effort required in training new partners, delivering support, aligning partners to sales and solutions consultants (SCs), exposing our scoping process, and more. The challenge was we were building the plane while flying it, and it was only in flight that we realized all the varieties of planes available!”  

Ultimately, Rachel’s team stopped and took the time to really look at the different options for partner implementation, and chose the approaches they knew would give them and their partners the greatest opportunity for success. 

“Now that we’ve identified the commercial model, have a clear sales process, have a solution design document, and the teams are aligned on how we sell with partners, we’re able to scale up our chosen process,” she says. “And we now also know who to invest time with, as we build deeper relationships, trust, and ultimately stronger sales and delivery competency together.” 

#2: Enable partners and internal teams 

Rachel recommends prioritizing four audiences who require initial and then ongoing enablement: Partners, Account Executives, Account Managers and Services teams. 

Partners: Train them on the product, how to scope, how to implement, and how to align and communicate with field teams and services teams. Provide access to free sandbox accounts so that they can get hands-on experience. 

AEs: Teach them who the partners are, how to bring them into the sales cycle, and what to say or not say to prospects about partners. I’ve found the hardest part of AE enablement is showing why to bring in partners early on to help sell the value of your solution and not just when they are ready to discuss implementation. 

Tip: If you are selling against a competitor, bring in a delivery partner who knows that competitor well. They know “where the bodies are buried” and can effectively help the AEs position landmines. 

If an incumbent agency is already working with your prospect, they may also have a higher access to power than the AE does. 

AMs & Services teams: Avoid landmines between SIs and AMs/Services teams when implementation goes sideways. Often there’s an assumption that because X agency was supporting a client and they messed up using our tech, that they stink and therefore all partners must be inferior to using internal services.

“The true reason these SIs ‘stink’ is because they were never treated as partners, onboarded properly, or enabled properly on the tech,” says Rachel. “Once the switch happens, those incumbent SIs go from foes to friends, and collaborate with SaaS teams to drive customer success. Show AMs and Services teams what successful implementation stories look like, and even better, how a strong partner can turn an account from Red status to Green.”

#3. Remove services quota for AEs 

“Sales teams are coin-operated and if they earn dollars off selling services, they will!,” says Rachel. If AEs earn commissions on services, they will prioritize selling them. Removing these incentives is crucial to align the sales team's efforts with a partner-first strategy.

“I’ve often heard, ‘the compensation plan of 2% commission on Professional Services won’t impact the AE’s desire to bring in a partner.’ I beg to differ!” she says. “On a $10k implementation this is $200 — certainly enough for dinner for two. Who wouldn’t want this check? Further, the pro serv commission is a company statement to the sales reps that to me says, ‘we are not partner-first.’ If anything, the AE’s need incentives to face the headwinds and sell with partners and not the reverse.”

Read Rachel's other 7 insights on successful partner implementation.

MEME OF THE DAY

Partnership teams only want to help you close more deals 

If you’re in Sales, this scenario has likely happened to you at least once: 

It’s the final week of the quarter, and you’re just one deal away from hitting your quota. You’ve been working on a deal for 3 months now, and you’re just missing the final signature when, out of nowhere the buyer ghosts you. And the worst part? You don’t know why. 

Yes, partnerships is a long-term strategy, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t leverage some low-hanging fruit. And no, this doesn’t mean your Partner team will steal your deal.

It’s still your deal, you just have a bit of partner influence to close it faster. 

Stuff you don't want to miss!

• July 31st — Partner Sourced Summit ’24: Bob Moore (Crossbeam), Justin Zimmerman (PartnerWebinar), Rob Rebholz (Superglue), Greg Portnoy (Eulerapp), Cody Sunkel (PartnerFleet), Asher Mathew (Partnership Leaders), Katie Landaal (ZoomInfo), Lizzie Chapman (Nextroll), Alexis Bonavota (G2), and many more, will share tactical ways they use to drive partner-sourced revenue. Register here.
• August 1st — Designing the Right Incentives for Partners: Karlyn Bentley (Senior Vice President, Client Partnership at Ansira), Kathleen Meeza (Senior Director, Global Partner Program at Dell), and Tai Rattigan (Co-Founder and COO of Partnership Leaders) will share key tactics for designing incentives which accelerate partner value and impact. Register here.
• August 14th — From Data to Dollars: Strategies for Nurturing Event Leads to Drive Success: Benito Aguila (Events Marketing Manager from Google) and Airmeet’s CEO, Lalit Mangal will share how to capture valuable data at events to implement targeted follow-up strategies. Register here. 
• August 20th — Exploring the Power of the Benefits Broker Channel: Leveraging HR’s Most Trusted Consultants: Ryan Taguding (Founder and Principal at Temio Consulting) will share where to begin, how to identify your ICP and distinguish sales blockers from champions. Register here.

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