Happy Wednesday!
In 5 minutes MAX you’ll get:
→ Advice on how to get visibility into partnerships
→ Why sellers don't use partner leads
→ How you can get paid for your recommendations
Get some visibility
“If you're a BDR or an AE who wants visibility into partnerships, and you have Salesforce or HubSpot, ask an admin for a partner view. That way you can at least have some visibility into what partners are doing and how they're engaging.
- Aaron Howerton, Senior Channel Business Operations Architect at Atlassian
Why partner leads don't get used
People tell me that partner leads come in, and they just sit there as if sellers are afraid to pick them up.
I couldn't understand why, so I asked my good friend, Aaron Howerton.
Aaron shared why he thinks this happens, and busted some myths along the way.
If this is happening in your organization, it could be...
- An operational hurdle
How are your leads getting to the partner manager? What does that process look like?
Make sure everyone knows who’s going to work the deals, and that each deal is being operationally funneled where those teams work.
- The “unqualified leads” myth
It could be that your team doesn't trust those leads will help them hit their numbers.
Some people think channel leads are unqualified but in our experience, partner deals close higher, faster, and more often.
IF your partner leads are showing up unqualified (which isn’t likely given what we've seen), then that’s an ops problem that needs to be addressed.
- Fear of perceived competition
Your sellers could be focusing on what partners take away instead of what they bring in.
Salespeople want to know, "How are we getting paid?"
But attribution can get complicated when you bring in partners and channel sources. Instead of collaborating, some salespeople would rather do it on their own.
(If you're dealing with something like this, reach out to me or Aaron on LinkedIn!)
Watch the episode
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Get paid for your recommendations
This week an article in Martech Zone caught my eye: Why Affiliate Marketing Is The Most Failsafe Market Channel In This Economy.
Traditional marketing channels are struggling, and in a tightening economy, pay-to-play doesn't have the same returns it used to.
In this climate, partner marketing and its subset, affiliate marketing, have a cost-per-acquisition model that allows them to have a guaranteed ROI (return on investment).
Affiliate marketing is also highly diverse which means companies aren't beholden to a single channel or ecosystem.
My favorite thing about referral or affiliate marketing is that when it's done right, it leverages the trust between two people to help each other solve problems.
I find myself in networking conversations all the time where somebody will mention a problem, I'll share a software solution that I find really compelling, and later I'll find out they actually purchased that software.
In that case, I'm actually acting as an affiliate marketer. And those companies would be happy to pay me for that.
If you're a sales professional, I'd really recommend building up your referral networks (especially if you're already partnered with those companies).
Do it right, and you could see a huge payoff.
Until next time!
-Jessie Shipman
And a HUGE thank you to RevGenius for helping to amplify this podcast and continue the conversations. If you haven’t joined yet, join the free community.
