Nearbound Weekend 01/20: How to Apply "Atomic Habits" to Your Partner Strategy
To achieve success in 2024 partner pros need more than a great strategy. As James Clear puts it, partner pros need a great set of systems.
Recap of the nearbound daily this week
- Avoid 2 Common Buy-In Pitfalls
- Use These Questions To Uncover Nearbound Marketing Opportunities
- Simon Bouchez’s Open Letter to Partnerships from Sales
- Takeover with Nelson Wang from Partner Principles
- How to Avoid Legal Hold-ups With Partner Contracts
Apply "Atomic Habits" To Your Partner Strategy
We’re one month into 2024, and by now your leaders have communicated their expectations: these are your objectives and KPIs.
They’ve outlined the results they desire but have left you to figure out the route to success.
Your story might sound something like this—My CRO expects partners to deliver 20% of our revenue this year. I don’t have the resources I need. I’m struggling to get departmental buy-in. I feel like I’m alone, trying to make this work.
So how do partner pros make success in 2024 (almost) inevitable?
Partner pros don’t just need a great strategy. In the words of James Clear, partner pros need a great set of systems.
Keep reading if you want to construct the best possible 2024 strategy.
OKRs set the direction.
KPIs indicate whether you’re on track.
Systems determine your route to success.
Systems are a set of processes or routines designed to achieve a specific outcome or result.
— James Clear
Unfortunately, many partner pros choose the wrong set of systems leading to misalignment, insufficient partner-driven revenue, and burnout. Consider, for instance, those systems that cultivate miscommunication, disregard valuable feedback, or perpetuate the notorious "partner island."
Here’s how you can choose your systems in 2024 to achieve success.
- Reflect on your objectives.
How do your objectives tie back to revenue? What’s your impact on the broader company goals?
Are there any key pillars required to hit these objectives? - Reflect on your KPIs.
How do your KPIs fit into the company’s goals? Are these the best indicators of your success?
Which ICs and/or stakeholders will you work with to achieve these KPIs? - Work backwards.
Ask yourself: What, if repeated consistently, would positively impact my KPIs and objectives?
If I had to choose, which would be my top priorities? Why?
Consider the following examples
Example one:
Your objective: Increase partner revenue contribution
Your key result: Achieve a 15% increase in revenue generated through partner channels within the quarter.
Systems to achieve this:
- Establish a strategic account mapping framework and cadence
- Establish a structured framework for identifying and managing strategic accounts. Set a cadence for assessments, joint planning, and collaborative execution.
- Set week-over-week actions
- Introduce a systematic process for reviewing and setting week-over-week actions with key partners. Define the activities that need to be completed each week for continued success.
Example two:
Your objective: Improve customer retention through partnerships
Your key result: Collaborate with partners to achieve a 20% higher customer retention rate.
Systems to achieve this:
- Joint support and escalation procedures
- Implement collaborative support and escalation procedures with partners to ensure timely resolution of customer issues and minimize churn.
- Partner feedback loops
- Create a feedback system that involves partners in the feedback process, allowing them to contribute insights and solutions to enhance customer satisfaction and retention.
Leadership sets the direction and destination, but you determine the path.
Today’s tactical takeaway: Reflect on your OKRs and work backward to build a set of systems that’ll lead you to partnerships success.
— Ella
Simon Bouchez’s open letter to Partnerships from Sales
Partner managers are at a crossroads. They hold the keys to unlocking revenue growth in 2024, but face challenges.
Simon Bouchez addresses these challenges in his open letter.
Read what the year 2024 holds for partner leaders, what’s at stake, and how partner professionals can maximize the opportunity ahead.
Meet your new partnerships mentor
We’re teaming up with Nelson Wang to share everything he’s learned after +17 years of experience in partnerships at companies like Airtable, Miro, Box, VMware, Optimizely and Cisco in both leadership and IC roles.
Nelson answers the #1 question he’s been asked over the last 17 years of his career in partnerships:
"What value will the partner add?"
And get a slide deck illustrating the value of partners.
Relationship-building system
Here’s an idea: send one new person the value in this newsletter every day. They’ll be flattered you’re thinking of them, and it’s a great excuse to start a conversation!
