What makes Archer different?
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We work with vendors and distributors who are really invested in partner success. We’re an agency who cares as much about your success as you do.
We believe in the fundamentals of partnership. To us, this is all about people, relationships and shared goals.
Sure, technology has a place, but too often we see the focus (and budget!) go on technology first, and the people and communication get missed. We believe this is what's fundamentally wrong with the way that many people in the channel approach partnerships. Vendors have to bend their people and processes out of shape to fit a platform or set of metrics they're looking to deliver - and the relationship gets lost.
This is why, when we're working with vendors and disties on their go-to-market with partners we can often succeed where internal methods fail - because we put people, not processes, at the centre of what we do.
Our approach
We believe in making partner marketing simple, not difficult. Simple doesn't mean easy either, although we work hard to make better partnerships as simple as possible. As Steve Jobs said, 'Simple can be harder than complex'.
We’ve got a 3-step process that we recommend. There's no obligation - you can stop after Step 1, take the findings and do the rest of the work yourself. Or with another agency. It’s a low-risk way to get started.
Step 1:
Enquire
'Look before you leap' is something that we don't see enough of in the channel. Instead, we see people leaping madly at new shiny initiatives all the time. And that's part of the problem. At the beginning of working with you, we ask a lot of questions. And we ask your partners a lot of questions, too.
The best relationships are built on shared goals and understanding. So, we find out from your partners why they started working with you, what they like, what could be better and what their future plans are. We find out if there are opportunities you haven't come across yet, or that could help them maximise.
We ask your internal teams questions, too. We don't just talk to your partner marketing team. We talk to corporate marketing, your channel leaders, your PAMs, CAMs, SEs and sales teams. We look at the breakdown of your channel partners - the type, number, revenue, profitability and long tail. What shape is your channel now, and where do you want it to be in the future?
This discovery process is our stage 1. We formalise this into our Partner Readiness Diagnostic
Partners are not interested in what you have to say about yourself. They are interested in your value to THEM. Over and over, we see this is the missing link in creating clear, fruitful partner communications and campaigns and why we hear a lot that 'partners don't listen to us' or 'partners don't engage'. You can learn more about our Partner Value Proposition here.
The second part is deciding where to put your partner marketing focus. This could be with your top tier partners, in providing highly tailored, ABM type marketing either to them, or with them into end customers. It could be a campaign into your whole partner base, built on your Partner Value Proposition to really start to engage with partners in a new way. It could be about deepening relationships, activating more of your existing partner base, recruiting new partners, or something else!
We can provide this as a fully outsourced service or delivered alongside your internal teams. We can design, write and deliver campaigns and collateral for you, with you or with your partners. Whatever works best for you and your partners.
Step 2:
Engage
The second step in the process is about how you engage with your partners. We split this into two key areas.
The first part is understanding, and formalising, your Partner Value Proposition. This is your unique positioning and value to your partners. It's different for every vendor, even if you're in a similar field. It's not just messaging, and especially not just your corporate messaging which has been developed with end customers in mind, not partners.
Your Partner Value Proposition will be made up of your philosophy, approach, skill set, organisational structure, capabilities, messaging and enablement. This is a crucial step that we often see get missed when vendors and disties are working with partners. It's assumed that the corporate messaging is sufficient. But it isn't.
Measurement consists of 3 elements, some of which may be more important to your business than others, some of which are easier to track than others, but all of which are important.
These are:
A) Marketing metrics
Sometimes called 'soft' metrics because for years we've all been told that they 'don't really count'. But marketing metrics are still a useful tool to demonstrate that your marketing initiatives are landing, and who they are landing with, and for. This will include clicks, opens, page visits, downloads and feedback. They are important and should be tracked, but they are only the first part of what a good partner marketing leader will measure.
B) Sales metrics
We hear partner marketing leaders bemoan the difficulty of tracking sales metrics through partners. It can be difficult to track the process of a click on a marketing campaign through to a sale and we've seen organisations tie themselves into knots trying to do this. But the metrics you need to track are your partner revenue, profitability and engagement. Working alongside your partner sales teams, PAMs and CAMs, and by developing joint go-to-market plans with your partners, you can track your joint success. Revenue, deal numbers, deal sizes, velocity, lost:won ratios and profitability are all important metrics.
A disconnect between partner marketing and channel sales is still one of the biggest problems we see. With commitment, openness and trust on both sides, it's possible to track these and for partner sales and marketing to build on their joint success.
C) Sentiment
Some might say there's no place for sentiment in channel sales and marketing, but at Archer, we disagree! Going back to the first stages of what we do, sentiment is exceptionally important. If your partners feel under-valued and unloved no amount of marketing budget is going to change that! Whether you measure partner sentiment through formal surveys, a partner advisory council, or regular QBRs, tracking how your partners feel about you is key. It can be hard to hear negative feedback, but unless problems are resolved, they will continue to impact your partner success.
Whatever it looks like will be unique to your business and your partners and Archer can help you to create and deliver the tools you need to enable your partnership and deliver success for you both.
Step 3:
Enable
Once you really understand your partners, what they want from you, and what you want from them in return, it's about enabling them to go out and do what they do best - selling your products and services with their own unique value.
Enablement could be as simple as communicating what your Partner Value Proposition is and providing tools for your partners to go out and sell on your behalf. This might be in the shape of an adaptable Partner Marketing Kit or a Partner Playbook. Or it might be putting in place tools, systems and processes that came out of your Partner Readiness Diagnostic.
The final element of enablement is measurement. Partner marketing success is notoriously hard to measure according to many.
But at Archer, we disagree. It's not difficult. It's simple.