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With all the focus on building partner ecosystems, we can’t forget about driving partner performance. This interview was recorded four years ago when Josh Lewis was the Vice President of Global Channels at Alteryx, an analytics firm on hyper-growth. The lessons learned are just as relevant and impactful today.
The channel strategy that got Alteryx to a $50M company wasn’t going to scale and continue fueling hyper-growth. The channel program reached a plateau. As a result, Josh needed to take a different approach to accelerate channel performance.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Here are five tips I learned from Josh on how to accelerate partner performance:
- Cull non-productive partners who aren’t willing or able to re-engage and commit.
- Take a data-driven, targeted approach to recruit new partners who have vertical industry or functional area expertise.
- Having a channel-friendly culture makes it easier to accelerate growth. Likewise, so does recruiting partners with cultures that match your company culture. Seek ways to fuse your brand experience into your partner program.
- Align your channel teams and partners to the sales teams to gain sales relevancy. Coach your channel managers to develop trust internally with your sales team and externally with your partners.
- When you’re looking to double the business you need to hire partner managers who have intellectual curiosity, are interested in the big picture, and have both a direct and indirect sales background. Then empower and enable them to think as general managers running a franchise.
LINKS & RESOURCES
- Connect with Josh on LinkedIn
- Learn about the Murph Challenge
- Don’t forget your KPIs for the Modern Partner Ecosystem
