Now that you are sold on the benefits of Partner Performance Dashboards, what’s holding you back? You know it can help win mindshare among partners, improve business planning and save you a huge amount of time, money, and hassle. So, what’s next? Where do you start? To make things easier for you, we’ve compiled our top three takeaways to consider when implementing a Partner Performance Dashboard, based on our webinar “Partner Performance Dashboards for Tomorrow’s Channel Ecosystem”,
Our panel of channel leaders discussed the first steps vendors should take with Channel Mechanics’ VP of Sales John McArdle. So hear what advice Jeremy Butt, SVP International & Strategic Alliance Partners at RingCentral, Balaji Subramanian, Global Channel Chief, SVP of Channel Sales at IGEL, and Channel Mechanics’ CEO Kenneth Fox have to offer.
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Top 3 Takeaways for Implementing a Partner Performance Dashboard
1. Crawl, Walk, Run
One of the most important things to remember is that implementing a Partner Performance Dashboard isn’t as daunting as you might think. The best advice? ‘Crawl, walk, run’. You don’t have to do everything all at once. There are tools and systems at your fingertips that streamline the generation of data from multiple different systems.
You also need to think about your key performance indicators (KPIs). You may need fewer than you think. Balaji Subramanian shared his experience around setting KPIs and the importance of keeping KPIs relevant. As a channel-forward organization, one of the key things IGEL cares about is driving pipeline.
“What are the two key things around pipeline? asked Subramanian. “One is deal registration – it’s a leading indicator of what pipeline could be coming in. Another is setting a goal that at least one third of the pipeline comes from the channel. Another important KPI is new seats. Where are new seats coming from if it’s sourced from partners?”.
Don’t forget to bring your partners, as well as internal key stakeholders into the design process too. They can advise you on what they want to see from the dashboard.
2. Slowly Build Loyalty
“Don’t boil the ocean; you don’t have to do everything in one day.” stated Fox, “You could simply start with revenue and training, two very important facets of most programs”. Further down the line, you can add on pipeline for deal registration or incentives. This will result in it being easier for partners to work with you. This in turn will help you to win partner mindshare, increase engagement and build loyalty in your partner ecosystem.
Butt also shared his advice for implementing a Partner Performance Dashboard: “Start off with a couple of key things, because not only do you actually get it implemented, but you also get to see people using it. And as the usage comes up, then you can step out to other features and functionality”.
Because it can be difficult for people to adapt to such a change and absorb new information, it’s critical to start off slow.
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3. A No-Brainer
Vendors that have made a Partner Performance Dashboard central to their engagement with partners are seeing massive benefits. These include improving ease of doing business with their partner community, winning partner mindshare, enabling account managers to become sales-focused, and having more productive QBRs where everybody’s on the same page – with no nasty surprises!
“Without a shadow of a doubt, the vendors we’ve worked with are winning partner mindshare, and ultimately gaining edge in the market for not a lot of investment,” said Fox. “It’s a no brainer”.
So, what are you waiting for?
Want to learn more on Partner Performance Dashboards? Contact our team today and implement your Dashboard tomorrow.
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