I’m always surprised when I hear the words “Partner” and “Quota” in the same sentence. It just seems wrong to juxtaposition the concept of quota with a mutually beneficial business partnership. Unfortunately, the practice is not uncommon – which might explain why so many vendors feel their partners aren’t performing to their expectations.
Driving revenue and revenue growth through a partner channel isn’t about “assigning quota”, it’s about defining, building, and maintaining PARTNERSHIP motivation to achieve mutual objectives. Motivating a partner has little to do with the margins or referral fees you pay. Of course, you have to offer a reasonable, competitive economic model, but ultimately that’s just the “price of entry”. Partners aren’t deciding to introduce your solution to their customers based on margins or referral fees; they are deciding where and how to spend their marketing resources and how to incent their sales resources based on which vendor solutions will help them achieve their strategic business objectives.
If they’re a consulting house, every decision they make is based on how to increase their overall consulting revenue and profit through more deals, better utilization of existing resources, and higher rates. If they’re a solution provider, every decision they make is based on how to maximize their subscription or license revenue through more users, more product, and fewer discounts. At best, your solution is a means to an end – and frankly, not always a required means.
Motivating partners starts at the strategic level. We must fundamentally define and agree together on why we are in business together, what we hope to accomplish together, and how we best work together towards our common long-term goals. When we collaborate with our partners on a mutual long-term, strategic vision and goal “quota” becomes irrelevant.
Instead, our mutual long-term, strategic vision implies or even requires a specific level of short-term performance from both of us to take an interim step towards achievement. Of course, that means setting short-term goals together, but that’s a lot different than assigning a quota! When we do the hard work of creating this kind of strategic alignment with our partners, the short-term goal setting and day-to-day tactical execution becomes much easier.
What are you doing to create better strategic alignment with your partners?