Any channel partner or partner success team fails when it focuses solely on onboarding new partners and not focus on retention.
Any partner may part ways when it thinks the partnership is not profitable enough or doesn’t provide the expected value. With this article, we will be discussing the top tips for partner retention.
What is partner retention?
Simply put, partner retention means keeping the partners engaged to maintain the effectiveness of the partnership.
You can maintain continuous success without onboarding new partners if you have effective partnership and partner retention. This will lower your onboarding costs and help you be more effective. Let’s look at some ways to retain your partners effectively.
Top 7 ways to retain partners
1. Managing the initial expectations
Your to-be partners should be aware of the business opportunities or benefits you will provide to them. They should have an elaborate map of the sale process, capabilities of the product or services, and a plan.
The transparency will help you onboard more partners, as everyone wants fair practices in the business. When you have definite practices for onboarding your partners, you can filter out people who do not fit your requirements or values.
2. Make the ideal resources
Your partners will only invest in your business when they find it beneficial and can derive some value from it. The best way to make your partners believe in your potential is through the resources you produce.
The more knowledge they have about your product, the more likely they are to choose you over your competitors. Some of the resources that you can provide to your partners include:
- ROI calculator for reselling purposes
- Product roadmaps for better understanding
- Case studies to determine the impact of your services
- White papers to build credibility
- Testimonials to improve the credibility of your brand
Creating content will only be effective when you know how to serve your audience. To build content according to the requirements of your audience, you must study the different parameters. It may include what type of content your audience is engaging with or what type of content your competitors are posting.
You must analyze all the metrics that you can gather to build engaging programs.
3. Use technology to save time
When you are distributing content, make sure you choose the most time-efficient method. You can utilize LMS platforms that will help you distribute the content and automate various tasks.
You can automate your emails to save time, and the platform can automatically make content suggestions. Automating processes will improve the partner experience and not pose any obstructions to it.
4. Analyzing your partner program
When you analyze the analogy of your partner program, you can see what the problematic areas or setbacks of your program are, allowing you to quickly address them.
Identify the point where the partners often fall off and you can make improvements. You must analyze this with the two primary questions:
- Do the partners make any progress after the onboarding or fail to do so?
You must analyze this through the ability of your partners to understand the product. It is important to give valuable insights to them to understand the product better.
- Do your partners disengage in the middle of the onboarding?
If your onboarding or training program is long, tiring, or irrelevant, there is a high probability that your customers will disengage. To interest them, you must understand their content requirements and provide the same accordingly.
- Do your partners fail to convert after the training?
Not converting partners can happen for many reasons, like the competitiveness of your product. One of the reasons might be that your content is not resonating with your audience.
5. Staying competitive
If you are unable to provide your audience with any unique services, they will most likely choose someone else over you. You must find ways to make your service unique and stay competitive. You can do it by the following methods:
- The pricing value is better than the rest
- Incorporating new services or features that are different from the rest of the competitors
- Counterpoints for investing in your competitors and providing better services than them.
For instance, Acadle has stayed competitive in the market by providing the best integrations to the audience and also keeping the price competitive for the audience.
6. Make your seasoned partners happy
Make your partners happy with your season offerings. Invite them to events, and tell them about your season’s sales and offers.
This will help you build better connections with your customers and also keep your audience engaged. Give your audience fresh materials that will resonate with current business trends and help them achieve success.
Happy partners will promote your brand in many ways, like by word of mouth. If you are starting your business, word of mouth will be the most important asset you will earn from your partners or audience. It will help you reach your target audience and make your business a success.
7. Focus on your strategy for the highest ROI
You may have endless opportunities to upgrade your partner program but your budget might restrict it. While building the strategy that will mutually benefit you can include the following factors:
- Marketing development funds
- Website baits or spotlights
- Co-marketing opportunities
- Content restricted to certain markets
Let’s wrap it up!
With the ideal partner retention program, there are immense opportunities to grow. Understanding your customers is the first step to retaining them in the long run. Whenever you are making a partner strategy plan, make sure you work through it and collect the feedback of your existing partners. Also, consider how you can improve your onboarding process.
You can send forms to your audience so they can anonymously fill in their feedback and tell you why they have chosen you. With feedback, you can prepare content and repurpose it in many ways; for instance, you can make social media posts with the feedback, prepare a blog, or use it as testimonials on your website.
