Today, solution providers need to be agile and evolve their business models quickly in this new and hybrid work environment. However, there may be discrepancies between sales and revenue, leaving partners scratching their heads regarding profit margins.

Disappointing results that cannot be blamed on disappointing revenue most likely stem from inefficient business and technical processes that can drag down an organization and thwart profitability, says Carolyn April, senior director of industry analysis at CompTIA. It’s a problem that dogs many companies today, one that will only grow more pronounced as firms move into new business models. And considering that the number of firms undergoing a high degree of business transformation has nearly doubled in recent years, it’s time to take a hard look at operational efficiency to maximize profits and take full advantage of the emerging digital economy.

Chapters in this Ebook

Suppose automation is done correctly and all your systems are talking to each other. In that case, you effectively take all the low-level tasks “away” from your employees so that they can focus on tasks that provide more value to the business.

Automation also allows companies to scale, doing more with the same amount of resources.

So, if you can expand the purview of your employee’s job description, you’re still just employing one person, but their capabilities and bandwidth have broadened. In many organizations, processes are still not automated. Employees’ swivel chair’ between applications or computers, manually extracting information from one application and then validating and applying it to another. One thing that partners want from vendors is increased API integrations to automate those functions, eliminating the need for the swivel.

Participants also cited that marketing tools and data analytics are vital due to changing behaviors and addressed that they had to get leaner in terms of automation and remote work tools during the pandemic.

Partners need training to be thorough but convenient. There are two sides to this.

There should be separate sales and technical training on the solution. While both funnel into growth objectives and ultimately revenue, the tempo, processes, and end goals vary greatly. To move up the tiers of a partner program, service providers should be required to take additional training, particularly in professional services opportunities where they can make real margins. After all, if they’re receiving more programmatic benefits in terms of MDF, discounts, and marketing enablement, they should have a more in-depth product or service knowledge so they can stand on their own two feet and drive revenue for the vendor. In this sense, vendors should make this as easy as possible.

The vendor’s job is to get a team up to speed on their solutions so that the partner can relay that information up and down the chain. The problem is that no one has a ton of extra time to dedicate to that kind of process. Every vendor and distributor is constantly flooding partner inboxes with new products and training they want them to execute. While it is vitally important to stay on the pulse of technology, cybersecurity, and the latest products, services, or enhancements are out there, most of them fail to be worth partners’ time.

Vendors need to be mindful of the fact that their product isn’t the only product that partners have to learn. It’s the vendor’s job to make that training and knowledge transfer process as seamless as possible. Put out digestible information documented in an easy-to-read way that partners can access and engage within a self-directed manner. In this instance, an idea for vendors is implementing more “at your own pace” training modules.

“From what I’ve noticed with various partners, there’s either too much information, and you get that overwhelmed feeling, or too little and you feel lost,” says Eric Sanchez, founder and president of partner shop Parried.

Sanchez emphasizes the importance of having specific goals to hit together. The vendor needs to show the partner how they can expand their businesses by adding the vendor’s product/service to the offering. Something as simple as providing a roadmap to success with an onboarding strategy and weekly call would go a long way.

Marketing enablement is one of the most significant benefits of a solid partner program. But there is often a gap between what vendors think their partners need and what partners want.

Vendors tend to want to market to their customers, which are the partners. What do partners really need? Marketing support to help them with their customers, the end-user. By and large, end-users don’t care about all of the detailed features, benefits, and spec sheets that partners want to see. Instead, they want to drill down into the pertinent information on how the solution can help them with their business.