How to evaluate and iterate your partner program

Whether you’re generating millions of dollars in revenue or nothing at all, there’s room for improvement. Yes, the improvements will look different, but the intention behind your actions is the same: small, incremental steps toward a better experience for your partners.

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After all, partner experience is the crucial aspect of any partner program. Enabling partners to easily access high-quality resources, intuitively register deals, and automate anything that could even think about being hard work will make them naturally work closer with you. 

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You do this by looking at your partner data and making tactical decisions, as these will always get you further than massive broad strokes that leave your partners and vendors discombobulated. 

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So, let’s explore the best way to continually evaluate your program, as well as the strategies you can implement to assess your success. 

Align your goals with wider business objectives

Starting at a high level, it’s imperative that your partner program goals align with the wider business objectives. You’ll find it easier to get buy-in from senior management if you can demonstrate that partnerships are positively impacting the top and bottom-line revenue in a measurable and relevant way.

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Iterating and evaluating your partner program is important because, as we all know, business objectives change, meaning your partner program aims might need to pivot too. Therefore, having a clear connection to your executive team will help you figure out the track and how to stay on it.

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Also, bear in mind that your partners will also have a leadership team dictating outcomes. Choosing what type of business you partner with is a crucial stage of your partner journey. If you partner with someone whose goals don't align with yours, you don’t need a crystal ball to see things aren’t going to work out. 

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Walk purposefully, don’t sprint aimlessly

Remember that you don’t need to try and move mountains in the first six months. (Or ever – don't bite off more than you can chew!) Starting small and actionable will get you a lot further than grand plans that go nowhere. Once you’ve got a strong foundation, there will be time to develop your partnership plans later down the line. 

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Any iterations you make to your partner program should keep one eye on your north star. 

At the partner level, you should evaluate and iterate based on a few factors. Before we go into what they are, let’s remind ourselves why partner experience should be your primary focus.

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In a nutshell, it’s because without partners, you don’t have a partner program. And a partner program without engaged partners also means you don’t have a partner program. So keeping your partners incentivized and happy should be top-of-mind. 

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Partner engagement

Firstly, look at your engagement metrics. It’s important that you’re tracking the right partner metrics and using them to guide your decision-making. How engaged are your partners? If your partner portal looks like a barren wasteland of activity, and there are more tumbleweeds than engaged partners, you need to get a broom and start sweeping. There are loads of changes you can make to an underperforming partner program to drive engagement – if you’re looking for inspo, here’s the perfect article for you. 

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Partner satisfaction

Another factor is partner satisfaction. When was the last time you surveyed your partners asking them for feedback? This can be a goldmine of iteration inspiration, and there’s no one better to take direction from than those actively in your partner program. 

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Ultimately, if you need to change up your program, your metrics should be telling you where to start. It’s also worth considering implementing mutual partner KPIs to keep your partner agreements on track.

When we talk about evaluating performance, that doesn’t just mean externally. As your partner program grows, you’ll want to take a look at how your internal team is handling the work. If your team is overworked and stressed out, that not only sets you up for burnout but also translates into your partner relationships.

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It’s important to dedicate the right amount of resources towards ensuring your partnerships team are supported. For example, if they’re living in spreadsheets doing manual work, you need a PRM. If you’re wondering when the best time to invest in your tech stack is, take a look here.

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You also need to hire according to your growth – growing your partnerships team at a steady rate will allow you to evaluate and adjust workloads. Often partnerships are at risk of being understaffed because the potential isn’t realized business-wide, but if you’ve got the reporting numbers to back up what you’re saying, you’ll find it much easier to get sign-off on hiring new team members.

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Working in the relationships industry means focusing on all relationships, not just those that drive revenue. Your team needs to be working in sync, not pulling in different directions. So, keep one eye on your team’s morale, capacity, and budgets to ensure you’re set up for future success.