The famous adage of 'If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together', has never rung more true than in the channel. Working together and having the right partnerships is important in all walks of life, especially in our world. The challenges faced by businesses are clearer than ever, but so are the opportunities.
Our recent research in partnership with Cisco found that 84 per cent of channel respondents agreed that partners provided additional support above and beyond expectations. It showed that moving forward, greater technical and commercial support will be key.
The recent launch of our brand new partner programme, Partner Plus, is part of our business transformation as we ensure our partners have the right support to collaborate and integrate with our suite of experts and partners.
We have designed the programme to empower our partners, to grow and better serve customers with technical, marketing and commercial support.
We want to share what we see as the top five benefits of participating in a partner programme, and how joining programmes such as this, including ours, could help partners across all areas of their business.
Merits of simplification
A partnership should be simple and streamlined, so businesses can focus on connecting their customers. Our programme structure is straightforward, geared to helping partners build a strong business by delivering leading services, and taking them to market with impactful sales and marketing support. Simplicity and flexibility are key.
More than a customer
Being a partner is more than being a customer. Partner programmes should enable businesses to grow and unlock their full potential. We understand our partners want to build their business in their own way, and working in partnership means collaborating as we develop businesses together.
Deepening relationships
By investing heavily in online tools and training, we’re giving our partner teams with access to what they need to become experts in the market. We want to deepen our relationships so that we can share expertise, pool resources and ultimately support in the best way we can. Businesses thrive on people, and we want to enable our partners and customers to have the best in the business.
Sharing resources
Sharing resources means that all parties have advantages in understanding tech and the best ways to realise customers’ needs. Access to specific resources means teams can build knowledge and expertise, enabling a thriving, sustainable business. It’s increasingly important that partnerships are delivering real, tangible benefits and making a business impact.
Placing partners at the heart
Partner programmes should put their partners at the heart of the business by delivering fast and seamless access to sales, marketing and enablement resources – to ultimately ensure full potential is realised. As we develop, in time, with Partner Plus we aim to reduce administration time and cost meaning that partners spend more time focusing on what truly matters: their customers.