Case Study
Scaling Does Not Mean Adding More
Organizations do not need to add more partners to scale, grow market share, or increase revenue. There may be a small bump from increased partner fees, but the downside costs more in reputation and long-tail overhead.
Situation
A global training company had a 450+ partner ecosystem: broad, globally diverse, and with an extremely long tail. Some partners in that long tail were a poor match to the program: they delivered poor customer experiences, put downward pressure on pricing and competition, damaged the brand, and ultimately hurt the entire partner program.
Beyond the operating cost of onboarding (legal agreements, portal and data access), the discontent within the ecosystem drove NPS down to −40.
Approach
I analyzed the entire partner ecosystem to inform a new tiering and investment strategy, determining which partners would receive dedicated reps and marketing spend. The analysis looked beyond pure size and revenue to include geographical coverage, growth in both volume and velocity, year-over-year investment, and average deal and customer profile.
The analysis led to a revamp of the entire partner strategy, including operations and enablement. The reshuffle surfaced some surprises: partners smaller in size, but not in revenue or market importance, rose to the top.
Result
- •Reversed the downward NPS trend, increasing from −40 to +33
- •Stabilized partner fee revenue and churn numbers
- •Newly identified priority partners re-engaged, actively working with Partner Account Managers
- •Improved support for the new training product
Lessons Learned
Change management
Never underestimate the change management work and investment required to get cross-functional teams onboard. It took time, but through intentional internal enablement we earned full executive and geographical support.
Systems thinking
Any change you make to a system may create upstream or downstream unintended consequences, from the dashboards executives share with the board to the filters on a web tool.
Enablement needs
Effective enablement includes training, marketing materials, and engagement tracking, but it also extends to the relationship between the account manager and the partner. Both need clear rules of engagement and shared definitions of success.
Tracking
Define the key metrics, both leading and lagging, and build a dashboard to track them on a regular cadence. Be prepared to read out on partner adoption into the new program.