When I discuss partner recruitment as a service, my clients expect high quality results: Partners who sustain engagement levels and deliver brand results.
But here comes my question: if we deliver good quality results, are we also to expect that these partners will be integrated into a well-oiled marketing and sales process?
Because we know that the real return on investment can be booked only after partner onboarding.
Unfortunately, very often sellers don’t designate a person to follow up, until the actual prospects make their way down the priority list. This is how marketing effort is wasted.
If real goals or a value proposition are not clear in the beginning, there occurs lack of engagement during the process and the partners don’t really know what and when to do with potential prospect lists. They have no idea who meets what requirements and what are the diverse actions along the line.
So when you have good partners and a promising prospect list, why can it go wrong?
It’s frustrating to dispose of the right people, resources and processes and see that partner recruitment doesn’t have the buy in to make it central to the success of the channel plan, as opposed to standalone project. It’s an error that comes from the assumption that handing over a prospect is the end goal. Failing to think about who else should be included in handling this prospect is not going to grant a successful follow-up.
You see how all the good work of recruiting partners and passing information to them can halt in a dead end if the process is not thought out till the end. This is the truth about partner recruitment.
Some clients don’t like to hear it this way. Yet, I feel they should know the truth about partner recruitment, because it’s something that has a life after we deliver the results. If it doesn’t yield results, there’s a very real possibility that it’s due to the lack of proper follow up. I often tell my clients that I’d rather save their money than risk a good relationship.
I advice anyone who starts a recruitment process to get buy in from all involved parties up front, because high quality results evolve with high quality follow up. Successful recruitment is before all about owning your project and being responsible towards your partners.
