Presentation developed for marketers involved in partner marketing programs. Please share if you find this interesting.

1. 10 elements for a successful go
to market strategy with partners
Bastiaan PreseunResources for this presentation can be found at http://j.mp/channelmarketingresources

2. Direct vs. Indirect sales
 In current economy deal sizes are
smaller
 Smaller deal size leads to higher cost per
sale
 Global reach with direct sales requires
high investment in sales and marketing
 Large technology companies have been
investing more in indirect sales and have
had succes with it. Microsoft in
particular, but also IBM, HP and even
Dell
53%
47%
Sales tech companies in 2000
Indirect Direct
67%
33%
Sales tech companies in 2010
Indirect Direct

3. Direct vendor sales
Technology companies start as a partner of vendors
Vendors
Tech company
Customers
Focus on direct sales

4. Reasons to move from partner to vendor
 To maintain high growth numbers
 For global reach
 To respond to new markets
 To acquire access to new industries

5. Direct vendor sales
Vendor partner model
Customers
Tech company
PartnersVendors

6. Becoming a vendor is a different ball game
≠
≠
Every customer is
different
Every partner is
different
Direct sales force
competes with partner
Tech company
…and the competition is
not a sitting duck

7. How to have success in this ball game
1. Translate your why, what and how of your offering to partners
2. Define your roadmap to enter the new markets
3. Can companies in these markets relate to your current customers
4. Define your potential partners
5. Construct you channel business plan and 100 day action plan
6. Test your partner model with selected partners
7. Be ready to introduce partner model
8. Roll out content strategy
9. Automate you marketing
10.Hire the right people to manage

8. Why, what and how for your partners
The Microsoft Partner Network gives you everything your business needs
That means more money, happier customers and unlimited opportunity
What
What products and the services do you have on offer for your partners? Define the levels in your
partner program and the rewards partners receive.
How
How will you support you partners? A partner program contains education, support,
marketing development funds and coop marketing and sales programs.
Why
Why wants a do business with you, why does he need to enter
your partner company program? It is not about making money.
That’s a result. It’s a purpose, cause or belief.

9. Roadmap to enter the market
Research:
 Assess offering roadmap
 Which markets, regions and organisations fit your offering
 Define key players and their influence in these markets
Create:
 Map the channel structure (systems integrators, resellers, independent
software vendors, direct market resellers, distributors)
 Support for multiple partnering models
 Recognize, measure and reward the specific contributions made by partners
to growing the partner ecosystem

10. Can companies in these markets relate
to your current customers?
Define the best practises you would like to have with new partners
Develop relations with influencers in the market you would like to enter
Develop strong reference cases of customers that are an example of for
potential customers in the new markets

11. Define your potential partners
Identify partner selection criteria per segment and type of
partnership (partner evaluation framework)
Create long list of prospective partners
Conduct 1:1 interviews with prospects
Complete required due diligence and finalize shortlist

12. Channel business plan
100 day action plan
Two key type of activities are enablement and education
Plan what activities will be executed in the next 100
days
Develop tools, systems and training/certification to enable
partners to identify/close opportunities, sell and deploy solutions

13. Test your partner model with selected partners
Develop a joint solution catalog
Focus on profitable, easy-to-execute transactions and fulfillment
Make joint sales calls
Align you best people for pre-sales activities
Evaluate and adjust

14. Be ready to introduce partner model
You only have one chance to introduce a partner programme
Let the initial partners showcase their successes
Have a clear onboarding roadmap for partners
Provide the first new partners with excellent
rewards and leads
Provide excellent service and support

15. Roll out your content strategy
In this day and age marketing is about delivering content that
creates value for your customers and partners
Provide content in different ways and formats based on
customer buying journey which included partners
Define call to actions and keep track how and when people
react to your content

16. Automate your marketing
Optimize your efficiency, use marketing automation to clone whole programs (email,
landing pages, etc.) so your team is not setting up programs from scratch each time
Care about return on marketing investment, evaluate marketing programs and their
performance
Improve the likelihood of providing qualified leads at the right time to partners
Communicate in a more personal way
Have the ability to run a multi-channel campaign measure each
channel and also measure the entire effort
Manage through-partner, to-partner and to-customer marketing
campaigns successfully.

17. Hire the right people to manage
Thank you for
time
Bastiaan Preseun
http://www.preseun.nl/
Resources for this presentation can be found in http://j.mp/channelmarketingresources