Howdy Partners

Certifications can carry a lot of weight, but they can also take time and plenty of strategic planning to develop. From what certifications you should consider, to phasing out your approach and launch -- join the fellas to get a sense for how building certifications can help your programs scale.

Solutions, channel, agency...so many terms to describe working with digital agencies. These partnerships can produce, but how you activate and unlock your agency partners can be a maze. We're joined by Kyle Kramer, Director of Channel Partnerships at SaaS Labs, to discuss some of the critical ways to drive agency referral success and how to think in ways agencies do.

A quick, but great chat on hiring. We pose some great questions on hiring internally vs. externally and specific roles that lead to success in partnerships.

You're going to hear ecosystem a lot in 2023. As strategic partnership professionals continue to drive buzz around living in the ecosystem, what does it mean? The guys dig into exactly that and shed some light on the communities that are building momentum around ecosystems and partnerships.

Partner professionals are jack of all trades. Their skill sets are some of the most broad, because they need to be. But soft skills are another story. We dig into the soft skills we believe are most relevant to partner professionals and why they are critical. 

Technology is everywhere; heck, you may even be on a partner team that SELLS TECHNOLOGY!! But as you may know the tech world, you may not know what technologies you need in your stack to scale partnerships. From PRM's to CRM's and everything in between, join the fellas as they discuss tech pieces that are critical to your success, a phased approach to utilizing and implementing, and how to know what you need and when.

If you're expecting a free and easy ride to success, then stop assuming. Strategic partnerships is now and always about proving your worth, value, and future success to the entire organization. In this episode, we discuss the internal teams you need to have a solid relationship with always, and paths for you to build strong alignment. We also riff on friction we've felt in times past and how you may be able to recognize when it's not a "win-win" relationship and foundational ways to fix it.

***SPOILER ALERT: ALWAYS BE A CHEERLEADER***

The team digs into building those "win-win" partnerships through co-success. Ideally, this will help you understand how to define what co-success means to you and your org, and the paths you can take to start achieving those wins as soon as possible.

We chat with Aleksi Mattlar from Vena Solutions about his journey from sales to partnerships. We discuss the challenges associated with his role transition, as well as the step-by-step process for getting co-sell motions up and running.

Let's talk $$$...

A broad strokes view on building your partner programs has been our focus, but now let's dive into the actual levers that make the money flow. We cover a wide array of activities you can focus on for driving revenue with your partners, and some of the finer details of how to win often, win early, and win with confidence with partner rev gen tactics.

This episode primes everyone for the PLX Summit which explores how every department needs to take on a partnerships mindset - and the results they'll see when they do.

So you've got your programs launched and they are performing. What do you do when you recognize all partnerships are not built the same? From buy-in, partner performance, company potential...all of these are aspects to consider if you think tiering your programs may help. Learn about what you need to keeping an eye out for, why considering tiering is important from the start, and how you can begin to frame a model to help you tier effectively.

This week, the gentlemen talk about setting your partnerships up to achieve success through early activation and proper enablement. The first days, weeks, and months are hyper-critical for strategic partnerships. Get a glimpse of how you build the enablement journey from the ground up while avoiding common pits where stall happens. The path to enabling partners successfully can be daunting, but you can level your game up with pinpointed structure, relationship awareness, and setting expectations.

The gentlemen picked up our first guest! Justin Zimmerman from PartnerPlaybooks.com, joins to shed light on how you should approach and build your partnerships outreach strategy. Justin has a melting pot of experience, and he walks through 3 key principles for gaining partner acquisition traction: fire, aim, ready.

Partner qualification is something that gets overlooked a lot. You're in acquisition mode - the more partners the better, right? Nope! We dive into why qualification is important, common criteria to utilize, and our collective experience to avoid the traps you may encounter.

Partner recruitment is like picking up friends as you head west. You need to have solid outreach, a trust based approach, and a steady plan to recruit partners that will help you grow. Ben & Will talk strategies and pitfalls to how and why your recruiting game needs to be excellent.

You've heard of ICP, but for partner professionals the name of the game is IPP. We discuss its importance, tactics to build your profile out, and why it's important to consider upon program conception. 

In Episode 2, we get right to the penultimate question -- should you, or should you not have a Strategic Partnerships Program? Ben digs into 6 critical questions that allow you to understand if the timing, alignment, and company paradigms are right to start your partnership journey.

This podcast covers the world of Strategic Alliances & Partnerships in tech. Join Will Taylor, Ben Wright, and Tom Burgess on the trail to green pastures and unchartered territory through raw stories and dialogue, allowing our listeners to learn and decide how strategic partnerships can drive success...whether you are a VP or a professional looking to break into the space, join us on the Howdy Partners journey.