Partnering with companies who have products and services that have synergy with yours provides an additional revenue channel. It provides targeted source of leads and sales for many companies. Many companies form these partnerships, rightfully so, as part of a channel strategy. These are in addition to direct or inside sales channels to fill their sales pipeline.
This is a great strategy! But is your company getting the leads and sales you were expecting when you formed this partnership? If you are, we’d love to hear how you are working with your partners to produce the results you both seek.
If not, have you thought about extending the best practices of your sales and inside sales lead generation group to your partners? Help them manage their lead generation efforts for you. What do I mean?
Best Lead Generation Practices Shared for Best Results: A Case in Point
A while back I assisted a US-based company that worked exclusively with partners internationally, to market and sell their products. The company wanted to share their company’s best sales and inside sales lead generation practices with their international partners.
This took place in a general training/workshop environment, with individual follow-up sessions and on-site implementation. These sessions went beyond the usual crash training course many companies usually provide for their partners. This went beyond the typical sessions covering the company, products and services, with partners then expected to deliver leads.
These partners had an opportunity to understand the US-based company’s ideal customer profile. They learned their qualification criteria, lead definitions, scale, sales stages and processes. The partners were also educated on the messaging and engagement guides which the company’s sales and inside sales-lead generation group developed. This helped both companies to develop similar processes to better manage the lead and sales flow. The follow-up individual sessions and implementation helped to improve and refine lead delivery.
The partners became more knowledgeable and informed about the company they were passing leads to. They had a stronger support system, and they were able to pass better qualified opportunities. Improved processes and reporting allowed management to understand the financial ROI from leads passed. Management could refine the objectives and results of their partnership.
Informed partnerships may prove to be a helpful strategy to generate a more qualified lead flow from your partners.