The first step in the journey of increasing revenue from your partner org, is making sure you are generating solid leads from your partners. Here are the top five reasons you’re not getting the leads you need.
- Inadequate Partner Lead Management: Effective partner lead management is crucial. Common pitfalls include not accurately tracking partner contributions to deal registrations, failing to automate the lead funnel to partners, not providing sufficient support for demand generation and lead nurturing, and not keeping track of partner lead management metrics. Ensuring clear communication, automating processes, and providing adequate resources and support are essential steps to avoid these pitfalls (Impartner).
- Misalignment of Goals and Expectations: Often, alliance partners may work towards complementary but not identical goals. Understanding and respecting these differences, and planning accordingly, is crucial. Furthermore, not assessing differences in customer journeys can lead to ineffective joint marketing and selling efforts. It’s important to understand and focus on mutual benefits and to have a detailed plan for the co-management of leads to avoid conflicts and overlaps in the lead nurturing process (mreach.com).
- Focusing Solely on Self-Benefit: Entering partnerships solely with an eye on what your organization stands to gain can be a major risk. Partnerships should be about mutual growth and benefit. This involves understanding each other’s strategies, capabilities, and needs, and building a joint go-to-market strategy that aligns with both partners’ objectives. Diversifying your partner portfolio can also mitigate the risk of dependency on a single partner (inTandem).
- Neglecting Relationship and Trust Building: Even solid business relationships can erode without proper nurturing. Measures like connecting socially, keeping everyone in the loop, recognizing each other’s capabilities, cultures, and motivations, and investing in tools, processes, and personnel are vital. Ensuring that both partners actively participate in governance and defining clear metrics for success is also crucial (McKinsey).
- Lead Generation Pitfalls: Common issues in lead generation include poor alignment between sales and marketing, slow follow-up processes, neglecting to qualify and score leads, failing to nurture leads adequately, and the inability to attribute lead generation activities to revenue accurately. Addressing these issues by fostering a partnership between sales and marketing, ensuring timely follow-ups, and implementing a consistent lead nurturing and scoring process can significantly improve lead generation outcomes (Mezzanine Growth).
Each of these aspects plays a crucial role in building a successful and productive partnership that drives effective lead generation.