Follow these 12 rules

Building a partner program for consultants/SIs? Here are 12 rules from a consultant’s perspective:

#1 Before we can talk about partnering, I need to know if your product will deliver value for my customers. That is the foundation for the relationship.

#2 I am solving problems for customers in the context of their specific industries, so please serve up industry-specific use cases to best understand how your product fits.

#3 I will be asked about the competitive pros & cons of your product by my customers; giving me trusted perspectives on this will help me best understand how to position your product in a competitive landscape.

#4 I will need the most help around your products early on in our relationship. Act accordingly.

#5 I might be interested in revenue share, if I see it as a way to build value for my team or business. I also might want nothing to do with revenue share. Be prepared and respectful of both perspectives.

#6 I don’t need to know every in & out of your pricing, but I just need to know pricing is aligned to customer value.

#7 I will try to give you advanced heads up of relevant customer projects, but I also just might recommend you in the moment when approached with a specific customer scenario. Be prepared for both scenarios.

#8 If I open a support ticket, I’ve already researched what I’m trying to solve for on your help site, so I want to get to resources who can help immediately.

#9 I have new team members joining my team all the time who will need enablement.

#10 I need easy ways to access multiple customer accounts.

#11 If you send me an automated email message after downloading a product, I’ll only look at it if you give me resources that will help me.

#12 If your product is strong & fits my customers, and you help me when I need it, I’ll be a great source of repeat business

How’d I do? What did I miss? Leave a comment on LinkedIn.

Thanks for contributing to this section of the PhD, Zak Pines!

What does Nearbound mean to you?

Last week, our Head of Production, Ademola asked:

What does Nearbound mean to you?

Olayiwola Ogungbemile responded with a real-world example of how Nearbound works. Ola’s friend Sep recently moved to NY.

Instead of doing tons of research about where to live, he just reached out to friends he could trust. It led to Sep finding a roommate and a nice place – without all the hassle.

Nearbound is about using our nodes of trust to accomplish more together. 

Thanks for the video, Ola!

ChatGPT – there’s a Zap for that

Zapier extended the use of ChatGPT to over 5,000 apps in its ecosystem with the launch of Zapier’s ChatGPT plugin.

Use it to:

• Draft slack messages to your team
• Write and send an email to your prospects
• Update your notion database for any item

Check out the full story here.

Happenings

• CHANNEXT - The Partner Recruitment Trap, Balancing Quantity vs. Quality - Today! 9:00 PST, 11:00 EST, 17:00 CEST - We’ve gathered industry experts to join us for a discussion regarding everything partner recruitment. Register here.
• Magentrix - The State of Partner Engagement and Partner Portals in 2023 & Beyond - April 12, 1-2 PM ET - Hear from Aaron Howerton, Rob Rebholz, and Paul Bird about the root causes behind a lack of partner engagement with your portal and what you can do about it. Register here.
• Firneo - Now - April 14th - Applications are being accepted for Certified Partnerships Professional Spring 2023 cohort. Learn the frameworks and tactics to excel in every facet of your partnerships role. Apply now.

Quote of the Day

Being able to relate to and understand our end user is job number one. Not only does that in turn inform our product development, it informs how we speak to them and how we get them fired up so that they want to go tell their boss about us. – Jen Allen-Knuth on the Market[ing] Together Podcast