One of the most common mistakes made in the recruitment process is not asking your partner prospects the questions that are most important for your path to channel success. Assuming you have already identified your ideal channel partner (ICP) and have a good understanding of the characteristics you are looking for - these three tips will go a long way towards helping you improve your profiling.
1) Who are their customers? If your offering caters to SMBs but a partner prospects clients are all non-profit associations does that look like a fit? How about if the prospects target is enterprise accounts - probably the same again – it isn’t going to be a fit. This may seem obvious – but you would be surprised how many partner recruitment practices don’t include profiling the prospects own client base. Fortunately it’s one of the easiest characteristics to profile for. The more you know about their clients, the better you can evaluate their fit for your program.
2) Do they do their own lead gen? Channel partners that are actively growing their businesses can be a great fit for growing your program. It’s a key driver for their success as it is yours – so treat it similarly. Some partners are not interested in growing their business beyond their existing clients and are happy with the status quo (which is fine - I’m not judging). However in your profiling efforts you should be drilling down to better understand the prospects own growth goals. If they are not doing lead gen then they are not actively growing and that may not align with your success goals.
3) Do they have meaningful influence over their clients purchasing decisions? At the end of the day the channel partner either has influence or doesn’t. There is no middle ground (viewed as a verb). If they tell you they have influence than ask them this. “When you are talking to your client and you believe they should purchase X, do you tell them to purchase X and they do, or do you suggest it and sometimes they do?” The prospects answer will tell you everything you need to know about how meaningful their influence really is over their clients.
If you can profile your prospects as they enter your funnel I recommend you do so because it’s easier to automate much of that process. If you can’t, then you should be sure to include these tips in your recruiters playbook to ensure consistency and thoroughness in your partner recruitment journey. For those already profiling their partner prospects with these questions – congrats to you – you are on a path to channel excellence!
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